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  Discussion on Colt won't let me (or anyone) near without a struggle!!
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Posted on Thursday, Dec 9, 1999 - 9:41 am:

I bought a beautiful 4 month old colt (stud) at the sale 3 months ago. I usually buy colts and we train them for resale or to keep. I bought this one for myself..I fell in love with him when they bought him in the ring...but I admit i did not examine him beforehand as I did not intend to buy. He had not been weaned, and apperantly had never seen many humans. Well, several months later we are at a stand still. I still can not get my hands on him without a struggle..we have to hem him up in a stall..and it is a fight. he bucks, paws, kicks, refuses to lead, you name it. My other colts are all doing fine and progressing at a rapid rate. If I go to the barn by myself he comes within a foot or so but still won't let me touch him. He has already hurt one helper by pawing him. My husband says sell him NOW. But I want to keep him and am relucant to pass on a bad horse. Can anyone offer suggestions to this problem? I (and my husband) have been training trail horses for over 20 years...I hate to fail on this one! Thanks so much.

Posted on Thursday, Dec 9, 1999 - 2:50 pm:

I would try TTEAM TTOUCH on this fellow. Often, a horse will accept the stroke, touch of a wand all over its body before it ever accepts a person's hand.

Where do you live? I have a recent list of TTEAM practitioners. I've seen the techniques really work with all sorts of horse problems.

There is a TTEAM web site:

https://horsenet.com/tteam-ttouch/

Another approach would be clicker training. In this case, the animal is taught that click means, "that is good, now you get a treat." Once the animal is conditioned that click means treat, you can dispense treats in a feeder on the ground after the behavior is marked with a click.

For more information on this technique, check out:

https://www.crisny.org/users/kurlanda/

Both approaches may help to make a connection to this little guy and win some confidence.
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