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boon
Posts: 3
| Need advice on how to cure a gate sour horse. She is quiet warming up, stands tied at the trailer with no issues but I swear she knows my name because as soon as the announcer says it she starts getting nutty. Once I start heading for the gate she freaks. She'll spin away and try to head away from the gate, sometimes she will rear. Basically throws a fit for about 30 seconds until I get her lined back up. Once I can get her over to the gate and lined up she goes right in ready to run. I've tried walking in and out while the arena is being dragged and for the most part she will. It's like she knows when it's her turn to run. Not sure what to do, any advice would be greatly appreciated. |
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Expert
Posts: 1477
 
Location: In the land of peanuts and cotton | Make sure your not tensing up. I didn't even realize I was doing it. I was made to hold my legs out until I got in the alley and had no problem after that. |
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boon
Posts: 3
| I don't think I am but I do anticipate her blowing up so I very well could be. I'll have to pay better attention to what exactly I am doing next time. Thanks for the advice!
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 659
Location: somewhere in the bluegrass... | I walk in with a buddy. It helps for the most part, certain pens are worse than others for whatever reason. I also try to stay really loose and not react or get tense. It throws both our game off when I try and "fight" it. |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| If you have someone who is experienced and that you trust you might put them on him and see what he does. We have had that problem in the past, first thing we did was go to the vet to look for anything hurting. Could not find anything so next step was to put our trainer on the horse. He walked in like going on a picnic with her :). Put our kid back on him and he was back to his old ways. Our trainer said he just taking advantage. She told my daughter he is very, very smart and on the next run if he does it again, get hold of him and have a quirt ready- hit him one time as hard as you can and say "Little Man NO" as if telling a dog no. He did so she did- hit him hard one time and told him no like she meant it. He could not believe it, he stopped dead in his tracks, looked back at her like where did that come from? Dropped his head and walked right in-game over. That was probably 7 years ago and he has never tried it again.
On my other horses I have to work really hard at staying calm or I send the nerves to them and make them act goofy in the alley.
Edited by rodeomom3 2014-05-13 8:33 AM
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Veteran
Posts: 220
| Mine is doing the same thing. I can walk her in and out with drags, but the minute it is our turn. She spins around and is like nope aint gonna happen. But once she is in the alley she fires just fine. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 448
Location: lone star state | In my experience horses with gate issues are usually in pain. Get a thorough vet check including teeth and chiro. If you find and stop the pain the gate issues will be resolved.
If pain is ruled out score your horse after each run. Get off Loosen cinch remove boots etc so horse understands the alley can be a relaxing place and not always a high pressure place. |
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 Own It and Move On
Location: The edge of no where | CCDenno - 2014-05-12 10:58 PM Need advice on how to cure a gate sour horse. She is quiet warming up, stands tied at the trailer with no issues but I swear she knows my name because as soon as the announcer says it she starts getting nutty. Once I start heading for the gate she freaks. She'll spin away and try to head away from the gate, sometimes she will rear. Basically throws a fit for about 30 seconds until I get her lined back up. Once I can get her over to the gate and lined up she goes right in ready to run. I've tried walking in and out while the arena is being dragged and for the most part she will. It's like she knows when it's her turn to run. Not sure what to do, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I'm going with her feeding off your energy. If she's good right up until your name is called, then you're subconsciously cueing her. I watch people school horses all the time at shows, they'll walk up the alley during the drag with totally different body language than they use when they go to make a run. Your horse knows the difference. Make sure you are remembering to BREATHE, do not tense up....be conscious of your body language. When you school her by walking up the alley during a drag, do you pick up as if you're going to make a run? How does she handle that? |
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Expert
Posts: 2678
Location: Mi | firewaterfuelsme - 2014-05-13 10:23 AM In my experience horses with gate issues are usually in pain. Get a thorough vet check including teeth and chiro. If you find and stop the pain the gate issues will be resolved. If pain is ruled out score your horse after each run. Get off Loosen cinch remove boots etc so horse understands the alley can be a relaxing place and not always a high pressure place.
I do that from the time I start mine on the barrels. After my run mine go back to the alley way, gate etc stop, stand, get off losen their cinch, pet them and unboot them. I may have to wait for a few horses to run after me to get back in teh alley, which is fine I just stay on until I can. Not every set up in ideal to do so, so it does get skipped once in a while. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2097
Location: Deep South | Thorough vet check before trying any of these suggestions. Gate issues are almost always pain related, once the pain has been resolved THEN these are excellent suggestions for moving your horse past the issue. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 178
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Exactly! Also, it wouldn't hurt to just do some slow exhibitions (jog, slow lope) so that every time you're entering the arena, it's not to make a run. I had a mare that I did the other suggestions (vetted, scored, paid attention to my own actions/nerves, rewarded), and I found a lot of it was her anxiety (she was younger). By scoring and doing some stress free exhibitions (it took hauling to a few shows and some arena non-stress situations before it really took and I started running her again), but the ends met the means. She is much better now! |
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Hungarian Midget Woman
Location: Midwest | Mine had hock pain, I took care of it, and he is still a bit funny at certain types of arenas.
I think at this point (he's in his teens) it is a learned behavior, in addition to him being on the hot side anyway. Also, I have anxiety issues, and I think that may be the majority of his goofiness. He is really not bad. He normally has issues when we cannot just run in (like a side gate) and he will get flustered and stop, maybe spin once. Nothing scary (no buck or rear). If he spins I will back him closer to the gate and then roll back in and he's fine.
I also try to stay off his back and away from the arena until it is my time to run. ETA: It's funny, I can see him watch the other horses run from outside the arena and start getting worked up. He is another one that walks up to the gate fine during the drag or if he sees another horse being ridden in the arena. He has no alley type issues at home, either, other than being excited to RUN instead of just lope. I rarely work him on the pattern at home... maybe a few times a year? or if he hasn't been run in a long time.
Edited by barrelracr131 2014-05-13 11:28 AM
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 Expert
Posts: 1218
Location: South MS | I would rule out pain and check teeth and hocks/stifles
Rule out ulcers
My bleeder was refusing the gate - he still tenses up now but I think he is worried he is going to bleed and its more of a habit now
My vet told me to give 1/4 of a tube of gastrogard before I run a few hours out with my lasix and I also do chlorapromazine 30 minutes out and that has helped alot
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  JMHO
Posts: 1869
Location: Oklahoma | Rule out pain or a bleeder.
Make sure your saddle fit is good and doesn't pinch anywhere.
Then I'd try a bit of a calmer like THE has or 707 before a few runs. Good luck! |
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