Escaped Horse: Catching an Arab Mare on the Loose
On January 9, 2022 by Erika EckstromGoing into the acquisition of Kournikova, we knew we had some work to do. We have worked with other horses with similar backgrounds: basically unhandled and then pressured into work quickly. We just didn’t realize it would be this much “muchness.”
Kova got out of the fence on Monday 12/20 and gave us a 36 hour wild goose-chase.
It was eye opening how over my head I was and I think it essential to share. I’ve caught DOZENS of loose horses in the past. But this one really showed me how much I did not know and bore the true weight of the responsibility of care and custody.
Kournikova’s History:
Kournikova is a ten year old Russian Arabian mare. She grew up on an Arabian breeding farm where the owner pretty much left the horses to be a bit feral out in the fields (usually until they were six or seven years old). The only time they would be caught was when they were chased down for vetting or being used for breeding.
The owner underwent a divorce and as a result a bunch of them ended up being feral and unhandled a bit longer. As a part of the divorce the horses needed to be sold, so in a rush decision he had brought in a cowboy to “break” roughly ten Arabs in a week and get them ready for sale.
Now, I understand that this quick train method may work for some horses of some breeds – but it definitely wouldn’t have been my idea of an appropriate choice for a bunch of Arabian mares, a breed known for sensitivity and intelligence in both learning good skills and bad habits.
From there she was picked up by a local barrel racer along with two of her siblings. Accounts I later heard of the pick up from the transporter verged on humorous to traumatic as horses were basically herded from the indoor arena into the trailer, dragging people along the way.
In their new home, one of the mares came along more quickly, the other the new owner took a liking to, but Kournikova was the one that just wasn’t fitting in and wasn’t coming around. She started her in a round pen to be able to get her more halter-broke. While she could catch her in the field and even ride her on occasion, it wasn’t consistent and sometimes a fruitless effort. To handle her she often used a chain over the nose. She recounted that once just to catch her in the field she had to rope her off her cutting horse.
When I came to pick her up, her owner had been able to catch her that morning and put a halter and lead rope on her instead of keeping her secured. She then turned her back out with the idea that she would at least have a catch rope on her when we needed her. This wouldn’t have been something I would have chosen, but there wasn’t much to be said at that point.
Unfortunately the catch rope wasn’t much of a help because her radius is about 30m as she lunges around you. The rope also kept catching on her legs making her more touchy and nervous. After two hours of her circling us at a consistent trot, to catch Kova the owner ended up mounting her cutting gelding and chasing her down to catch the rope – an operation that still took 30 minutes or more.
Once caught she led for me like a doll out of the field and walked right on my trailer like a total gem. She tied well, didn’t paw or move and we went home calm and peaceful.
Kova at Painted Bar Stables
Once home she waited for me to untie her and backed off the trailer like a total pro.
I put her in a stall and gave her some grain and she was super peaceful. I tied her in the arena and groomed off the sweat, picked out her feet and tended the rope wounds on her fetlocks and had no problem – except that she was a bit nervous at times.
It was getting cold that evening and into the next week so we figured we would see if she would let us fit her to a blanket. No problems getting it on and she even let us toss it right over her back.
While doing up the straps, however, one of the back leg straps hit her leg directly on one of the cuts from the rope from when I picked her up earlier that morning. It definitely bothered her as she braced and jumped, causing it to hit her again and tangle up in her legs. She braced and jumped again and then exploded out of our hands. She ran to the end of the arena, where a door was open, but didn’t go through it. She just stopped and froze and waited for us to get her again.
At that point I had two choices: keep her in a smaller paddock or round pen, or put her in the field. She had lived in a disease quarantine environment (no horses in or out for 6 months) and I had her vaccinated before pickup so we would be able to add her to our herd without quarantine. Because she had been so easy to catch and handle in our barn, we figured that much of the problem we had that morning had to do with the rope dangling and chasing her. We figured that it may take a day or two in the large field, but eventually she would make at least one friend and then would figure out that 40+ horses in that field all line up in single file EVERY SINGLE MORNING at 8am to come into the barn and get food. A plan that had worked for numerous uncatchable horses in the past (Hermione, Piper, Mystique, Frigga, etc…).
Well. That didn’t work. Back to the lunging circles in the field any time we tried to get her. But our field was BIGGER so the radius grew to 60 foot circles!
She never really bonded with any other horse in the field – at her previous homes she’d always had at least one of her siblings with her. No dice here. So as all of the horses trekked to the barn every morning, she went to the opposite furthest corner of the far field and spent the day there alone.
The closest she got to making friends was a slight curiosity in one of our mares, Lady Whistledown, who is also new but in routine. She followed Whistle up towards the barn on Day 4, but the second we opened the door to let Whistle in she was back off to the far field and never returned to the ‘catch pen’ near the barn again. Even when there was more hay in the near field, she still stayed in the far field away from the barn. We couldn’t lure her out of that field with friends nor grain and couldn’t get close to her on foot or mounted.
It is important to remember that Kova wasn’t being naughty. Basically, all of her life she had been trained to run away, to essentially play tag and was just doing the routine she was trained to do. She wasn’t bad natured, she just was doing what she thought was the right and safest answer, and this time didn’t have her sisters to help her get out of that routine.
Kova’s Epic Odyssey
Monday morning we figured we would give it another attempt to herd her into the barn.
The way our pasture is set up, there is a perimeter fence made of high tensile hot cote visible electric wire surrounding the entire back field. Within the perimeter fence, the field is divided by electric rope fence on t-posts into the near field (near the barn) and the far field (further from the barn) with our trail chute cutting through and around the perimeter leading out to the trails.
Our goal had been to herd her at least from the far field where she had permanently stationed herself to the near field where we would have a better chance of herding her into the barn through an open door.
After some effort we were successful in getting her into the near field! Unfortunately once there she found a weak spot in our interior fence and poorly ‘jumped’ a divider fence trying to return to her spot in the far field, taking down the electric rope with her. More unfortunately she didn’t end up in the far field, but the eastern trail chute and with riders out on trail the gate was open at the end allowing her to jet straight out into our trail system.
She headed out down the access road and stopped in the a neighboring farm’s alfalfa and timothy field ¼ mile away from our farm. We found her with a truck and a man on horseback.
For probably 5 hours we tried various tactics in this field.
- We tried coming up on her and pushing her slightly into the tall hedge grass and standing still enough that we could almost reach out and get a rope around her neck. It almost worked.
- We tried cutting back and forth with two horses her hoping she would tire (she definitely did not but our riding horses did).
- We tried herding her back to our pasture but she would circle off and head back to the alfalfa field.
- We tried to push her into the narrow wooded trails along the side of the field and apprehend her from both sides.
- We tried to corral her in the brush but the brave little toaster of a horse would bust through the thick brush and back to the field.
Everything we tried we had about one chance and then she had completely learned how to evade it and we weren’t able to do it again.
Eventually we had the vet come out with sedative. They had a 4’ syringe extender so that we could ride up and stick her in the bum. Using the contraption was a significant challenge because it involved carrying a long stick with a sharp end on horseback while chasing and getting close enough to a target that was definitely on the move. On the first try we got roughly a half a dose in her – but not enough to slow her. The second try the needle broke. We never were able to get close enough for a third try.
For most of the day she wouldn’t cross the hedge thread hold but at this point she had learned to brave the woods and was now trekking through the woods to find somewhere safe. From there she made it up to the agricultural fields on up the hill and National Forest pheasant fields.
I had (of course) lost my phone in the field earlier in the day but had since found it and was trying to make up lost time to track down a tranquilizer dart gun. Tranquilizer dart guns are few and far between, mostly because the sedative needed for them is so highly regulated and they are so rarely needed. Even our local sheriff and DEC officers were not able to help. By the time I was able to get in touch with people who had access to one – night was coming on quick and it was too late. By then she had ducked into some thick brush where we couldn’t follow.
We noted that she never directly ran away from the horse and riders without pressure. She would move off and then circle around finding a place with higher ground and secure advantage but never completely just running away. This is the same behavior I had noticed from her when I had picked her up, when I had tried to catch her in the pasture and what I saw in the alfalfa field all day. It wasn’t that she was running, it was more that she was lunging off of us and releasing her own pressure – a behavior that makes even more sense knowing her history of being chased.
With that, we decided that there was a high likelihood that she may not move if we took away the pressure so we left her overnight praying we could find her in the morning. In this location she was near a neighbor who also owned horses and she left grain out for her overnight to try to keep her stationary.
The Next Morning
The next morning we woke before sunrise to at least try to find her. We had gotten all of our ducks in a row over the past evening and now had all of the equipment we might need (and not need!) on hand: Aerial Drone, Access to two tranquilizer dart guns (one on hand), Ropes, Fencing panels and temporary fencing, Fresh mounts, Local cowboys en route who have developed a sort of specialty in catching loose livestock., Community with their own mounts on call.
Right at first light my husband saw her with his binoculars exactly where we left her. However, exactly where we left her was also about 25 hunters and cameramen planning on heading out her direction and into the National Forest to videotape a documentary hunt on the final day of muzzleloader season. My husband was able to explain the situation and they fanned out south of her in the National Forest working away from her – but it also meant there may be gunshots throughout the day to startle her and make everything more lively.
Plan A was to use the tranquilizer gun. We chose this to be Plan A because that she was standing reliably out of the brush on the community trails giving us clear sight lines and could be done with the least hullabaloo.
Plan B was to have mounted horsemen, including the professional cowboys when they arrived, head out to try to apprehend or rope her.
Starting on Plan A, two mounted horses went around in the back to push her up the trail towards the two marksmen with the tranquilizer rifle. The plan worked well, however the first shot was a glancing blow and did not get any sedative into her. Instead of running off she hid in the brush at a trail crossroad. The second shot unfortunately ricocheted off of brush and she moved further down the trail.
While one rider kept in her tail, trying to not push her further into the brush and we reloaded more darts with sedative.
The second attempt was a success, however upon waiting it was obviously not enough sedative to slow her so a final shot of sedative was given so that we were confident that she would be adequately sedated. She slunk into a deep brush as the sedative took effect.
In the meantime, everyone for Plan B had arrived and was in place in case we were not able to get her. A reminder, even a sedated horse can move rather well when they have enough adrenaline.
During this time one of the riders and his horse had developed a strong rapport of pressure and release and gained a bit of trust with her. He was able to ride up and dismount, and eventually halter her as she was sedated in the deep brush.
Slightly drunk with the sedatives, she was ponied back to the trailer and made her way to the barn where she was made comfortable in a stall.
Legal Responsibilities:
I think it’s important that everyone understands the situation we were facing.
When it comes to horses and other livestock owners are legally responsible for the care and custody of them. And by custody it means control – we have to legally keep them on our property and have control of them or keep them contained when off property. As a result, any animal that is not under control (aka loose) puts incredible liability on the owners. If that animal destroys any property we are liable for it. If the animal gets hit by a car and people get hurt or die, it is also on us. It could actually be deemed Involuntary Manslaughter – negligently causing the death of another person.
Not to mention that our world is not designed for horses on the loose nor are our horses capable of living in the wild. A loose horse could suffer a horrible death, ranging from starvation and dehydration to horrific injury to becoming prey to coyotes.
When a ‘normal’ runs away, they are used to humans and probably can eventually get caught. With a more unhandled horse like Kova, especially one that’s been taught to avoid humans by repeated chasing in the past, we were really getting to the point that we had three options:
- Rope Her: something that none of us on site felt safe doing. Roping a horse is VERY DIFFERENT than roping a cow or other animal. It is a highly skilled maneuver and comes with a lot more momentum and chaos. There are a lot of caveats that can end in injury to the loose horse, the riders mount or the rider. Not to mention the possible mental trauma in terms of the future re-training trajectory afterwards.
- Tranquilizer Gun: a lot of people don’t realize that tranquilizers do not work like they portray them in the movies. You don’t just pop them with a dart and 60 seconds later they fall asleep. Even if you do get a direct hit, there’s no guarantee that all of the sedative will be injected; and even if it does there’s a 15-20 minute delay in the effect. During that delay the horse could potentially flee, get highly angered and aggressive or injured.
- Euthanize via Gun: yes, this is reality. If you cannot catch the horse it is your responsibility to handle it.
We were very lucky that we were able to catch this horse, albeit through sedation. We received a lot of congratulations and praise on social media and within the community for our efforts because of the happy outcome.
However, I was grateful when a colleague reached out and wisely told me “The implication of all that praise is that you would have had to carry some sort of guilt if you hadn’t saved her. Not from me. You can’t kill yourself over a horse. I want to give a different reaction to your Kova story: it also would have been acceptable, in my book, if you’d had a different ending. Not happy, but fundamentally acceptable.”
And she is right. People cannot kill themselves or others over a horse. Even though I had said it repeatedly, most people still did not comprehend how seriously close we were to having to euthanize Kova on Monday night. She had already traversed a roadway and was trekking across private and public property. If she hadn’t ducked into the bramble so that we could not immediately follow her; if the sun hadn’t set so early; if one of the riders tracking her hadn’t affirmed my belief that she would stay put overnight… we probably would have needed to shoot her. The DEC officer had already offered to do it on our behalf.
Two weeks after our adventure catching Kova, another owner about an hour away had a similar issue with a horse getting loose that was also not easy to catch or handle. Unfortunately the owner was out of state at the time and her parents had spent three days chasing this horse, who was known to be dangerous. In the end, they had to make the decision to euthanize the horse – they couldn’t catch it and in their situation it was becoming too dangerous for her family. There were also real and major concerns about the feasibility of getting this horse onto a trailer once caught, even if sedated.
It is important to acknowledge that the less fortunate outcome that this other owner had, while less desirable, is equally acceptable.
Protecting Yourself from Liability
Something we don’t talk about enough is liability. The circumstances of Kova’s escape and capture are on the extreme end of the scale, but there are many liabilities that we have as owners of horses AND as riders of horses we do not even own.
A pet peeve of mine is that most horse owners don’t realize how important yet cheap it is to have personal liability insurance for them and their horse.
New York State Horse Council membership plus insurance is $55. USEF or American Endurance Ride Conference (AERC) both total $95 for membership and insurance as a package. All of these programs offer EquiSure Insurance with a $1M excessive liability coverage. Not to mention when you join these organizations they often offer amazing perks and discounts at various stores such as SmartPak, Dover Saddlery, John Deere, Goodyear, USRider, Nationwide Insurance, and more!
It’s a phenomenal deal and honestly anyone who owns a horse should have it. No excuses.
Going forward I may start to require that anyone bringing horses to my farm or taking my horses to events purchase it as a prerequisite to participation. We need to start requiring this to be a community standard!!!
Why? Scenarios:
- A friend comes to your house to visit and gets kicked while petting a horse, it covers that!
- Your horse is boarded and hurts the staff or destroys the barn. It covers that!
- You’re out trail riding and your horse spooks and hurts a hiker, it covers that!
- You are riding your horse (or really any horse!) in a lesson and another rider gets too close and your horse kicks them! It covers that!!
- Your horse escapes the fence and runs around the county destroying property. The horse is on the road and eventually causes a car accident as someone swerves to avoid it. It covers that!
- You’re doing pretty much anything with a horse, especially at a public event or competition where pretty much everything and anything CAN go wrong!
The AERC offers some great FAQ information about how personal liability works:
NOTE: This is not BUSINESS LIABILITY INSURANCE! It covers only personal liability and not the liability of a professional doing business, such as training, teaching or boarding. It covers your actions and your horses actions as a personal individual.
In the Weeks After Kova’s Capture
Despite crashing through bushes and running all over the county – Kova had very few wounds. She had reopened one of her fetlocks where she had the rope injury and had another small cut on her shoulder. The only other sore spots were where the darts had hit and where we had jabbed her with the sedative stick. We checked her to make sure there were no broken needles and she was fine.
We kept her confined in a large broodmare after all of this and put her on a strict food routine so that she could start to develop a schedule of desirable human interactions.
She was not highly food oriented. We think part of her issues with food was because she needs dentistry work but we also started treating her for ulcers and put her on a high calcium and fiber diet with lots of alfalfa and hay.
All of us at the barn spent a lot of time in her stall, just talking to her. One of our guests over Christmas read her books and listened to music with her often. We have been letting the interactions mostly be on her timing and providing positive interactions that don’t require “catching.”
I had a great brainstorming session with Stasia Newell on ideas and techniques on how to catch her which reinforced and reviewed a lot of concepts I already was working with and clarified and introduced new ones as well. Kova seems to respond best using what is called the “Waterhole Rituals” – a technique spearheaded by Carolyn Resnick about communicating respect and trust in a horse’s own language.
I’ve been working with Kova on groundwork and she’s brilliantly smart and highly sensitive. She needs a very accurate release of pressure to gain her trust but is very attentive. She quickly became incredibly gentle in a halter and walks alongside with a loose rope and her head down, only needing reminders every so often. We also have developed the start of good lunging skills including whoa.
In the meantime we hired a local at-risk teen who put in new fence posts so that one of our inner paddocks will be more reinforced and ready for her.
For a month after the incident we would give her exercise turnout in our indoor arena – a space where we worked often on a catching routine. She’s been increasingly easy to catch and is particularly in routine with the feed schedule.
By ‘being caught’ what I mean is that Kova has to catch me, not me catching her. Some people call it “Join Up”, others “Natural Horsemanship”, the technique I’m following is more in line with “Waterhole Ritual”…. but either way the idea is that:
– I’m cool
– I’m not going to chase her
– Creating a bond by sharing territory in peace
– Creating trust by saying hello with no expectations
– Companion walking.
When we finally went outside into a paddock, it took about 10 minutes of play/work to get her attention really on me and not on pacing the fence line… but after that we had some really lovely moments. In the end she trotted right up to me and companion-walked until I put the leadrope on.
I still suspect her teeth need to be floated and dealt with because she is very sensitive about her head and mouth being ‘captured’ by a rope.
She now gets daytime turnout in a paddock with some peaceful buddies in a padded breakaway halter and has been allowing my staff to catch her routinely. Eventually we will be able to do more turnout in larger paddocks but as with everything that has to do with horses…it takes time.
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