How do you handle a colt that is difficult to catch for training sessions?

A colt that is difficult to catch for training sessions is telling you something about the relationship — specifically that the training sessions have a higher ratio of uncomfortable things to comfortable things, and the colt has learned that being caught reliably leads to pressure. Clinton Anderson, Pat Parelli, and Warwick Schiller all address this problem and all point to the same underlying cause. Anderson's solution is a two-part approach. First, he makes not being caught more energetically demanding than being caught. When a colt moves away from being caught, Anderson follows it with calm persistence — not chasing, but walking steadily toward it every time it stops, directing it to move on if it runs. The colt quickly learns that moving away from the handler results in sustained work. When it stands and allows itself to be approached, everything stops. Anderson also spends time in the early stages of training catching the colt and immediately releasing it — haltering, rubbing briefly, and letting it go — so the catch does not always predict a work session. Parelli's approach focuses on making himself interesting. He spends time in the colt's space doing things that are curious rather than pressure-oriented — moving objects around, walking in patterns, ignoring the horse — until the colt's natural curiosity brings it toward him. His point is that a horse that is inherently curious and that trusts the human will eventually come to investigate, and that first voluntary approach is the seed of the catch. Schiller addresses catching difficult horses through what he calls relationship investment — spending time with the horse that has nothing to do with training. Hand grazing, grooming, sitting in the paddock, walking alongside without asking for anything. His observation is that horses that are genuinely difficult to catch are often horses that have rarely experienced a human presence that was not immediately followed by demands. Changing that ratio changes the catching difficulty.