The simple answer is take grain, a halter and every bit of your patience out to the pasture, then sit down in a spot close to the gate, call to him and wait. It helps if this is right before or at meal time. Give him half the grain for coming to you and 1/4 for allowing you to put a halter on him. Give him the last quarter for walking next to you towards the barn. Then bring him in and feed him--or later on in the training, play with him in an arena before feeding.

Horses are normally hard to catch because they don't like what happens when they get caught. Our equine friends, as you probably know, love food, so catching them before dinner time with grain should help them associate catching with dinner time. Playing with them in the arena doing free lungeing (remember that a Standardbred loves to run and race!), halter class practice, grooming, or playing games like tag—whatever your horse enjoys—between catching and dinner makes them associate catching with having fun with you.

I always follow a "workout" with food. Even if it is just an extra flake of hay or a handful of pellets before turn out again. Make them feel special by fussing over them a bit.

Now the major things horses don't like are pain and confusion. So if your horse was easy to catch and is getting to be harder to catch with training, then you might try to find the source of their confusion or pain. Check tack fit and your riding style. If you have done the same things day after day in the ring and they are getting more and more difficult to catch and perhaps sluggish in the arena, then go somewhere else or do something else for a while. Take a break.

When in doubt about the source of pain or confusion, you can always check with your local trainer to ask if something is wrong with your approach or your tack fit. If the trainer says everything is fine, then the horse is just being naughty. If after a few lessons, the horse gets even harder to catch and starts seriously disobeying (maybe requiring gadgets to control him), I recommend finding a new trainer.

If your new horse is labeled as "hard to catch" then consider yourself forewarned that you need to make catching and working both fun and interesting. If possible, try to keep your horse in an enclosed paddock or small pasture if you are not stabling him. If you are stabling your horse, wait for him to come into the stall and eat before bringing him out to work on round penning/lungeing/riding. Then return him to his stall with treats and plenty of praise. You teach him you are fun, trustworthy and friendly before you attempt to catch him out in the pasture. :-)

These are just some general guidelines to follow. There are probably a thousand ways to catch your horse. These are the ones I like. I hope this helps.

Take care,
Ann S.