Congratulations on your new gelding! You haven't had him long at all, so that's good, you haven't let him get set in any of his ways around you yet :)This is actually a common problem, and believe it or not, its often more of a dominance problem than anything else. Basically, when a horse refuses to be caught, he is showing you he's in control. This isn't always the case, as like you said, there can be fear issues, or other history problems, but most often this type of problem is the horse saying "nah, nah, you can't catch me!"
You don't say how big an area he has to run off in, so I'm going to give you the ideals and you can adjust as need be. Ideally, a round pen is a perfect place to start, failing that an arena or small paddock will work too. I've done it in large pastures, it just takes a whole lot longer and wears you out faster!
Put him in the round pen and walk off. This important, YOU walk off, don't let him turn away from you first. Come back in about 10 minutes and approach him. If he moves away push him on with you body language and make him trot/canter around the pen for about 5-7 minutes. Then step back and try to calmly approach his shoulder again. If he moves away, repeat. He'll eventually get the idea that moving away isn't all that smart, that you have control then. And he'll turn his head to you and allow you to approach him all the way. You can see where you would be at a disadvantage in a larger area, but like I said, it still works, just takes more time and patience. Its important to not get angry, just calmly go through the steps. Remember, he's a horse :) His reasoning doesn't always match ours so we have to adjust ours to match his.
Hope that helps a bit! Please do tell us more about him though! We love to hear about other's horses!
PH Cody
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