The Gate Obstacle

By Steve Halfpenny

The Trail horse should be an alert confident horse that is extremely responsive to rein and leg cues (aids). A good trail horse needs to be able to back up, side pass right and left, turn on the haunches and turn on the forehand. The horse should have a good solid foundation in these exercises and be able to do them all with the reins in one hand before beginning to school on the obstacles. We do not want to cause our horse to fear any of the obstacles. There are some things that are very important to me in preparing a horse to compete in any event. I do not want to put too much pressure on my horse to get him close to any of the obstacles he is likely to encounter in the competition. I think it is important to make sure that the horse has no fear of the obstacles as this will cause him to resist our cues and teach him that he can push through pressure. Let us start with one of my favourites- the gate.

There are many ways you can be asked to go through the trail gate depending on what side you approach the gate, which hand you use to open it and whether you go through forwards or backwards. Usually you will be asked to go through forwards in snaffle bit classes and back through for more senior horses at bigger shows.

Let us start with a right hand push away gate. This means that you approach with the gate on your right hand side so that when you close the gate the latch is within easy reach of your right hand, without the need to lean over too far to open it. The hinge of the gate should be behind you to the right.

I usually practice on a gate in the fence line of our property that is secure and stable before moving on to the small competition type gate that can move around if the horse pushes against it. In the competition you will have to hold onto the gate all the time it is unlatched or you will be penalised for letting go of it.

Do not make a big deal about it at this stage because if the horse pulls away from the gate and you hang on to it he may take fright as it approaches him and then we will have caused him to fear the gate. Remember that this is about preparation and does not need to look like the finished goal.

The first thing that I would do is to make sure that my horse can stand next to the gate in a relaxed manner. If he is reluctant to stand there and is nervous of the gate, rather than try to make him stand still I would allow him to leave and trot some tight circles before returning to the gate and offering him somwhere to stop and relax. The idea here is to teach the horse that it is more comfortable standing quietly next to the gate than it is to keep moving around. This way he makes a decision to stand still and I do not have to try to keep him in position. Once he is standing quietly I would reach out and hold the gate, move and rattle it slightly but not so much that he cannot stay still. I would build on this until I can rattle the gate hard without causing my horse to have to move his feet and giving him plenty of time to relax. I would like to have him accept that the gate is not going to hurt him even if I kick it with the side of my stirrup. Once he is really confident with this then I will open the latch and move the gate away a little and then back towards him until I can touch him with the gate without any reaction. If he takes fright and has to move away let go of the gate because if he is frightened and the gate keeps moving towards him this will only make matters worse. Just take a fresh start. We need to build confidence in our horse without force. The first time I go through the gate I will push it out of the way and ride through as it moves away from him. Horses are much braver about things moving away from them than they are about things approaching them. If he is OK with this then I will start to work on staying close to the gate.  Next time I will unlatch the gate with my right hand and back my horse up while allowing my right hand to slide along the top of the gate. At this stage I am only backing up I am keeping the gate in the closed position and getting myself into a position so that when I push the gate away from the horse there is plenty of room for him to pass through without hitting the gate post. Also if you open the gate too early and leave a small gap the horse may try to rush through the opening and get a stirrup hooked on the gate or gate post which could cause a wreck. If you back up near to the hinge of the gate you will not have to move your hand too far when you open the gate and it will be easy to allow plenty of room for you and your horse to pass through the opening.

The more room you allow for your horse the less claustrophobic he will feel about it. Now once we are happy about being in a good position to open the gate push it away from you until you have enough room to safely pass through. Then walk forwards towards the opening a step or two and stop for a while then repeat this with your right hand still on the gate a step or two at a time until your hand is at the end of the gate. These stops are to teach the horse not to rush and wait for our directions. If he did not want to stop I would forget about holding the gate and back up a few steps and rest to reinforce my stop. Now you should be at the end of the gate with your right hand on the top edge. From here I would use my right leg to move my horses hindquarters so that it moves around the end of the gate leaving me parallel with the gate but facing the hinged end with my right hand still on the gate. Now I need to slowly close the gate by sidpassing to my right while my right hand pushes it away from my horse. As the gate closes I may need to back up a little to maintain my position at the end of the gate.

When the gate is in the closed position I should be in a good position to secure the latch. This whole procedure should not be hurried and the horse should already understand how to respond to the various cues needed to keep him in position as we open and close the gate.To do a left hand push away gate you just do the same thing from the other side of the gate using your left hand to control the gate.

The main thing when teaching any new manoeuvre to your horse is to take your time and build your horses confidence. Horses need time to accept new things and if you do not have the time to prepare properly it would be better to work on that part of the task at hand rather than rushing things and causing the horse to fear the gate.

I remember a show a long time ago in Australia where a rider on a young horse was going through the gate and one of his stirrups caught up in the gate and caused it to start to tip up. The horse really panicked and ran backwards tipping the gate right over on top of them both and could have ended in a disaster if the stirrup did not finally come loose. This is why we need to prepare well so that even if something like this happened to us we could keep our horse calm and under control. The show ring is a place to show the finished product. Put in the time at home so that you and your horse are confident by the time you get to the show ring.