Horses that balk at the in-gate only at shows

Does anyone have any creative solutions for horses that get funny about going in the gate at shows? I have a jumper who is excellent at his job and is “point and shoot” in the ring but doesn’t like to walk in the gate. He hasn’t always been that way, but it started a little over a year ago when he had ulcers. We stopped showing, treated them, and got a clean scope before returning to the show ring and do everything possible under the sun to prevent them. He is still hard to get in the gate, though. We have tried treats, we’ve tried trotting in, we’ve tried backing in, and we’ve mounted in the ring. Once in, he’s good as gold, it’s just getting him there. He will plant his feet and sort of “shut off” so to speak when we try to just walk in. I would love for him to return to normal but running out of ideas and it’s hard to practice when he only does it at shows.

2 Likes

I dint have much, but have you also worked on changing your reaction to the in gate? I ask because I used to ride an ottb who spooked at irrigation gates. Which got me nervous, so we worked on getting used to them. Then one day i spiked at a gate, and he reacted to me!
Right then I realized that while i’d trained him to not spook at gates, I hadn’t also re-trained myself!

4 Likes

Could someone lead him in? I used to have a horse your grandmother could ride around prelim xc but boiled over leaving warm up and going to the start box. I used to lead him in with a leather thong like the gate guys at the track use.

4 Likes

What @LilRanger says. X10.
I had a TB who had about a 50% Loading success rate, until it occurred to me I was telegraphing my apprehension Will he? Won’t he? :grimacing:
I taught myself to think of anything except his first steps onto the trailer & our Success went up to more like 99%

4 Likes