working horse too much?

How much is too much to work with the horse a week?

I work with my horse twice a day (morning and evening).

She was doing really good about letting me put the halter on, but now she just walks away from me if I have the halter in my hand.

She will approach me to see what I'm doing, but once I get the halter ready to put on she starts to walk away.

The most recent thing I have been doing with her is putting a saddle on her back and leaving her tied for a while (no more than 45 min).

I wonder if she just assumes she will be saddled and tied up when she sees the halter and wants nothing to do with it.

A properly conditioned horse can work all day, several days per week. If your horse is walking away when he sees you with a halter, he's come to associate the halter and work.

What I do with a horse that acts that way, is to always have the halter with me. Sometimes I'll just walk up to him, give him a treat, then walk away. Other times, I'll halter him, then take it off. Still other times I'll hand walk him and let him graze in the field. The point is to not let him associate the halter with work - that the halter is actually a part of me and not a means to catch and saddle him.

Good luck with him.

Or the horse is sore, fatigued, unhappy, bored, etc.

I agree with iridehorses. Sometimes I catch my horses and tie them up to feed them. Regardless of whether or not I work them afterward, they associate being haltered with feeding.

I also second iridehorses. She is associating the halter with work and anticipates you making her work every time she sees you with the halter. Change it up a bit. As iridehorses said, walk around with the halter with no intentions of catching her, just pet her, give her treats etc. Also, say you do catch her, don't worry about working, just bring her in, groom her, spend some time with her, or even walk her around to graze on some fresh grass for a bit. Good luck dear!!!

Nikki

That would be my guess. If I were your horse, I'd be associating the halter with being tied up and made to stand, doing nothing. Not work, which might be interesting, but boredom.

Mine all like to work and will meet you at the gate when they see you coming. Does not matter how much I work them. However I change up what I do when I ride. I also make sure that after the ride they get Bioscaned to make sure the do not get sore and they love that.

I also never work on the same thing 2 times in a row. If I work on turns one day I will work on rollbacks the next time. Some days I just lope the whole time. Some times I will do nothing but walk and let them stand. I have yet to have a arena sour horses or a barn or buddy sour horse.

What does Bioscanned mean?

Here is a site that gives you all kinds of info. This is also the place where I get my bioscan items. Have saved me a lot and made me even more in pay checks at shows.

OmniLight, Inc. Dba BioScan

Yes, I am going to jump on the pile. Association with work. Don't always make her stand after she is caught. Take her to graze, let her eat. Walk around with the saddle on, maybe. Give her treats with the halter in hand. Make her associate the halter with something besides work and besides standing. What I did is I would take a sunchair out to the pasture in the summer and I just tied a whole bunch of halters to it and tanned out there. Soon enough I had horses looking at me and coming to see me like "WTF? Since when did you start tanning here?'

Hehe, multitasking