So having thought Titch was fairly used to having the headcollar on and off in the stable, I decided about 5 days ago to let him have relative freedom out in the field again, just for a short while, as by now he had been in on hay either in Somerset or here for about 1 month. I tentatively walked him around the field boundary and showed him where the water was, but he was paying much more attention to the grass, of course! However when his half hour of grazing was up he did not wish to be caught! He acted as if he had never seen a headcollar before! He seemed relatively at ease enough to not just pee off galloping round the field to get away from me but was doing something like a turn about the haunches away from me so I just couldn't quite get near enough to make contact. I knew the last thing I should do was lunge at him so I had to toddle off back indoors to have a quick read of Sarah Weston's book. Ha! So let's try laying the headcollar on his back first. Nope, that wouldn't be allowed either, so I played the same game in the field as I had in the stable, shadow him if he moved away, until he stopped then walk myself away. It mostly worked but early on he did get away from me. In fact he got a bit of a wiggle on and his tail shot up in the air as he pranced away. If he had two fingers...well you know what gesture he would have been making at me! Anyway, my persistence paid off and what was supposed to be a 2 minute operation to recapture the ginger foal, turned into a 30 minute dance. I'm sure any neighbours watching would have been chortling throughout this 'game'.
A quick email to Sarah Weston for advice and I was armed with a different strategy, which over the next 3 days worked. Of course. Thank you Sarah!
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