Scary Gates - any advice?

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CharlesMax

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I have owned my 8yr old for 6 weeks. I bought him as a 'bomb proof' horse one could do 'anything' with but soon discovered he is less experienced than I thought! He is an absolute gem and I am thrilled with him and the challenge of gaining his trust, especially when out hacking when he can be rather spooky.

We are overcoming his fears when out hacking except with gates - he is PETRIFIED of going through gates, even when being lead through them. This is becoming potentially dangerous when out hacking as he rushes through them in a complete panic with me stiffening up which makes him more nervous. To make things worse, he managed to get himself caught in a kissing gate last week and got badly cut.

I want to get him over this fear ASAP as there are a lot of gates in our area. Have any of you had similar problems and how have you and your horses overcome them?

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

ENJOY THE SUNSHINE!
 
Make some home made gates at home in the school and SLOWLY build up his confidence.

(i.e get some material, jumps, barrells, crates etc etc and make some narrow spaces and start off with them being really wide and then slowly as his confidence grows make them smaller and then ride through these 'gates' etc.

x
 
Your has probably had a bad experience with a gate most likly a windy day and ones blown shut on him, i've come across a few horses in my time that have had this issue because they've had a gate/stable door slam on them when trying to exit. One horse refused to come in and out of her box she was so scared of walking though the arch way.
As said above highly recomend working on your horses fears in a safe enviroment, set up obstacle courses in your paddock or schhol using poles barrels etc i do all of this with my filly who use to run through the field gate and then proceed to rear around on the end of the line. 10minutes once or twice a day playing in the field persistantly walking past or though the so called 'scarry objects' til she began to appreciate they weren't going to leap out and attack her. Use a long line and if your horse wants to go up/run round and generally have a silly moment allow them to do so don't force the issue let them get it out of the system then when tehey've calmed down bring them back into you and try walking psat the object again, it will take time and patience but they eventually realise that nothing is going to happen and all this fuss just isn't worth the effort especially if they get a treat when they walk past calmly.
Good luck and have some fun palying with your horse in the paddock, my little filly now enjoys colourful poles barells/cones and worst of all scarry flapping flags and brollies!
 
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