REPLY:  Thanks for writing. Well...what I would have done differently there is...when you caught the runaway mare (good job there catching her, by the way!), I would have immediately haltered her in my natural horsemanship halter with 12-foot lead rope. For a couple of reasons, it's important:

1) You really don't have very secure control if you just put a rope around the neck, and the last thing I want to happen is any acting up or succeeding (release of pressure) for any of the wrong things. A rope around the neck can ask for trouble, a shortcut that's not worth taking, especially when you are going to be handling feet, fly spraying, etc. Think of it like: every time you handle your horses that they are in a lesson. And I want them succeeding in each lesson, and the NH halter/12' lead gives you that teaching control at all times. I want full control at all times for things like that especially (foot handling, fly spraying, anything I'm doing where I want the horse to stand still for). So...I would halter there immediately upon catching.

Remember: all horses learn from the release of pressure what it is you want, or what it is they can get away with (as the case may be), not from the pressure itself. So I want to always set things up so that I'm given the opportunity to correct wrong behavior quickly (with pressure applied) and not be releasing for the wrong things. Letting a horse go accidentally for the wrong behavior is a release for the wrong behavior and that just taught them: they can escape, run away, listen to the orders of another horse, etc. All stuff I don't want to have happen/don't want them learning.

2) Haltering the caught horse with my NH halter/12' lead also affords me an extra tool to deal with other horses around who might rudely enter my space there (or the captured horse's space). If a loose horse enters that/my space there unasked for, I can spin vertically about half of that 12' lead (the end of the rope) in the invading horse's direction to stop them in their tracks (even while the caught horse is haltered). If the invading-space horse chooses to continue invading my/our space, they WILL run into that spinning rope end "wall" all by themselves, and quickly not like it, and will exit. When I'm fishing out a horse in pasture, other horses aren't usually allowed in my space there. The rope can do your talking for you there, silently. And they learn: you are the lead mare, telling them to exit your space.

Why did the gelding do that? Because he could. He doesn't respect your space as leader. And he was trying to reestablish his highest pecking order there, with you, with the other horse, via: moving feet.

I really do think you would benefit from round penning this more dominant gelding. I would! High priority, too. He's learned to move your feet, and that's how they climb the pecking order. They follow an inborn rule that goes like this: He (or she) who moves the others' feet is higher up on the pecking order and therefore the leader worthy of respecting. He's learned to move your feet! And that's the quickest way to have a horse start disrespecting you/not listening to you. It's not your job to move out of his space; it's his job to move out of your (the lead mare's) space. You gain control of their feet and you will gain control of their mind and better establish yourself as "leader" of the herd. You need to turn that around.

I think you would greatly benefit from getting, for a start, my Round Pen Leadership DVD, because there you will see me teach round penning with 4 different horses of varying temperaments, and therefore you can see visually what I do with each, and I really think it's going to build confidence in you to then round pen this dominant gelding. He needs it! Bigtime. You wouldn't see me riding him myself until he'd successfully been round penned (and all that needs to be accomplished there, that I teach in my Round Pen DVD) and they also graduate from my Whispering Way 12-Step Total Training System program. It's quite dangerous potentially to climb onto the back of a horse that you haven't completed the ground foundation on, including earning their complete respect for your leadership and you in control of their feet, necks, entire body, safely on the ground first, before riding. That's how people get hurt, skipping all that. My program is 100% focused on safety, because without safety as our focus at all times with horses, we've got nothing.

I really think my program would help you a lot there, multi-directions, with all your horses. And it will build immense confidence in you at the same time, for handling them. Think about that, because I can see from here what you don't know and what you need to know, and you'll progress fast this route.