My horse runs away from me in pasture ):

The first week he would walk over to me, but now it seems his "bad boy" switch has turned on. It feels like he completely forgets everything we work on overnight. The biggest issue I'm
Having is he runs away from anybody and everybody that walks up to him. Sometimes if your lucky he will get close to you and act like he's going to cooperate, but them he turns and runs off. Obviously he thinks its a game. How can I work on this and fix it? And ideas? Everything would be appreciated!
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Walk him down with low energy like you are out for a stroll. He won't run as far. When he stops you stop. Then step back a few steps. If he doesn't move toward you even one step the shoo him away as tho shooing chickens. Just enough to make his feet move, preferably slowly. Each time he stop, back up and see if he will approach even half way. When he watches you with both eyes you have his attention. If he comes part way, approach him. If he looks away, do the same as this often draws them back. When he does walk off be sure you walk the opposite way at first then walk him down. Higher ranking horses do this in the herd and he will begin to respond to you. When you take him thro the gate, have some feed ready, let him enjoy it then put him back in the field. Won't he have a nice memory. Do this every day for 3 or 4 days and he'll soon be at the gate when he hears you.

Thanks! I'll try this tomorrow :)
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When you do catch him, don't always ride him or take him out of the pasture and do give him something good to eat. Carrots. Grain. Something.

To get to the root of the problem it would be worthwhile to ask the question "what happens after he's caught that could be causing this to happen?". If a horse was previously easy to catch and that's changed, something else changed. There's a cause and effect relationship taking place there.

One thing that I've found to help tremendously in the cases of 'hard to catch' that I've had to solve is to become more aware of the first impression I make on the horse as well as the last impression I leave him with. I think that it's okay to work the horse and ask effort from him, but at the same time I'm aware that if I do that every time I catch him and then just turn him loose when I'm done then pretty soon this evasive behavior is likely to crop up. This is my solution. I make sure that when I catch my horse, I give him some time on the front end of our session to relax and get used to the idea of being with me before I start any real work. I take my sweet time in getting him ready to be ridden. I do my leading, grooming, and tacking up in such a way as to encourage myself to relax and enjoy the process. It's a little bit like meditation. That feeling will then transfer over to the horse so that by the time I'm ready to throw a leg over him we're both settled and ready to work together. The same goes for cooling a horse out and putting him away. I try to never turn a horse loose until he's completely settled. To me that means that his breathing is slow and regular, his body is relaxed, he's dry, and he shows no signs of being troubled by being with me. I want him to get into the habit of feeling good in my presence so I consider the investment of time to be well worth it. It may take awhile at first but as he adjusts to the new 'normal' of feeling good with me it will become more and more his default setting.

Finally, if a horse is inclined to be herd-bound and whirl away/take off when I remove the halter I will actually walk him all the way back to wherever the herd is and turn him loose next to the other horses. I hate to turn a horse loose far from the herd and watch him run away screaming. I think that that just encourages him to view me in a negative light and become bad to catch. On the other hand, if I take the time to walk him back to where he feels comfortable he'll begin to look at me as someone who takes him places that he wants to be.

That got a bit longer than I intended but this is a subject I struggled with a lot in the past so I've given it quite a bit of thought.

Thanks so much, that makes since! I haven't owned him very long, but he is a rescue horse. He's not a rescue because he was abused or anything but because he was severely underweight. He is only 2 so I wanted to fix this problem before it got worse. But what troubled me was the first week he would come when called and then all of a sudden he ran away. I was clueless because we have done absolutely nothing in training so far. When I go to get him from the pasture I tie him up so that I can brush and bathe him (he's solid cremello with one brown spot, he gets dirty super fast). But I know it's going to take a while and we have to build more trust, I just wanted any pointers that anyone had :) thank you!
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He doesn't have a 'bad boy switch' and far from forgetting 'all you've worked on', the problem is that he doesn't forget it & it's not something he looks forward to. When you get him, take the time to do something nice with him instead of something unpleasant. Make sure when you do have to do unpleasant stuff that it's also mixed up with nice stuff. I would suggest not bathing him all the time either, as that's not good for their skin.

I like & agree with your post Ian, except the above bit - I really enjoy watching horses being 'screaming mimis'! If the rest of the mob are far afield, I usually accompany the release with a 'Go! Go! Go!' to encourage them too!

[QUOTE=loosie;1638564] When you get him, take the time to do something nice with him instead of something unpleasant. Make sure when you do have to do unpleasant stuff that it's also mixed up with nice stuff. I would suggest not bathing him all the time either, as that's not good for their skin.

The thing is the only thing I've done with him is a little bit of basic ground work. He handled it greatly and none of it was an unpleasant experience. Although, if he did hate the ground work then I don't see how he could hate it because while we did it I mixed in treats, groomings, and non stop petting. I guess I
Could see where's he coming from if he absolutely just hates any kind of work at all but we've only done the grous work maybe 2 different days.
Oh and yeah I know bathing can be harmful to the horse if overdone, lol. We only bathe once in a while when he's so dirty its beyond trying to brush, And then we don't even use shampoo most the time, mainly just water.
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You say that when you first get him & tie him up & groom & bath him. That doesn't sound like fun. Also consider that it's possible grooming & 'non stop petting' is not a Good Thing for him.

When a horse runs from me, I make them work. I let them make the decision whether to run or stay when I come to catch. When I work with an arab mare who detests work [she'll stand nicely if I don't have a halter or lead for some lovin'] and if she runs, I make running harder for her.

I'll take a lead rope and whip it against the ground and chase her off. If she hides behind a tree, or another horse when she runs, I chase her off again. I keep my focus on her, and by doing so, I don't cause all of them to go running off like crazy horses.

When she sits and relaxes and looks at me, I can go get her. As soon as she moves off, I relax immediately because my goal is not to associate being good with pressure. After a time or two with this, she stops playing and settles down and we move on to our regular routine.