training a horse to come to you when called any ideas?

fletcher1985

well i have had my horse for 5 years now and where i keep him the field is 10 acres and hes always right over the other end, i call him and he looks at me and then carrys on eating anyone got any ideas on how to get him to come when called.

Mrs_pbradley936

You could try letting him associate a sound (like a whistle) with food. Before you feed him or give him a treat always blow the whistle. You will have to do it for quite a while before the association is formed.

orlao

I keep both of my horses out 24/7 in a herd of 20 and in the winter just calling them brings them flying to gate! Might have something to do with being fed :rolleyes:

Usually always giving them a treat when you catch them is enough to start working towards coming to call......but if you have a nippy horse this can encourage biting and when (if?) there are other horses in the field they tend to come too leaving you in the middle of a fight for food:eek: .

TBH 10 acres isn't that far to walk ( mine are on 48 acres in the summer, 1/2 mile walk uphill if they're the back field which they ALWAYS are first thing in the morning:D ) and they only come to call once they can see you at that time of year.

MrsTinks

Don't laugh but have you tried clicker training? Do a search on google for it

whatatwit

What do you do with him when you catch/fetch him.
Have you tried just calling and going to him, then giving him a treat and then leaving again.
Mine used to ignore me, but when my mum arrived at the gate, he'd come running.

SDH

Hi
Have owned my horse 3 years, I have only just trained him to do this!!

I started by having a bucket of feed which i would rattle as I called his name as I walked down the field to catch him. Initially he would start walking towards me when I got about 10 paces away.
He got the idea pretty quick, after 3 days he would starting walking towards field gate as soon as I started calling his name/shaking bucket.

Then he started galloping over to the gate. Bit more than what I wanted. LOL. Have now reduced bucket to a carrot and I just have to call him once. Brilliant :j

BTW don't try this when there are other horses in the same field. You'll be mobbed!

tiamai_d

Each time we went to the field we took the head collar and rattled it. Each time they came to the gate they got food, whether it was feeding time, bringing in time, or a small treat at tacking up time. This meant that they started responding to the sound of teh head collar too, which we usually had to take out and get on anyway.

Think the main thing is food, food and more food.

It's easier in the winter to start training as in the summer there is plenty of grazing and their bellies don't betray them as easy.

fletcher1985

hi thanks for your ideas i go in the field and call him and he will look at me then turn round and carry on eating the little !!!!!! lol, he has had choke a couple of times so i have stopped all hard feed and just give him carrots so maybe i will try it with carrots in a bucket. if he knows i got food and im pretty close to him he will come to me but if hes not close he wont bother i think hes just lazy lol.