Preventing a Rodeo Horse from Getting Gate Sour

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Holly Heidemann on behalf of Expert Village, and I'm here to talk to you about some problems that a lot of barrel horses experience. You can see mine right now is pretty nervous, he's been working and he's thinking he wants to do something, he's chomping at his bit a little bit but most barrel horses have some degree of nervousness to them. If they are going to be good barrel horses they have to have enough nerve to really want to run. Unfortunately along with that comes nervousness, so what we want to do to manage that the very best way that we can. This is a horse that in other hands could become an extremely bad gate problem or an alley sour horse a lot of people like to call them because he is very nervous. I try to keep him just as calm as I can by the way I ride and by not over reacting to some of the things he does. A lot of young girls usually that are running barrels and sometimes just inexperienced riders will get a horse really gate sour. What normally happens with a gate sour horse is they will be coming into the gate through the alley to make their run and the horse will freeze up, stop and plant their feet, say, "No, I'm not going another step ahead." The rider will get to whipping and kicking them but what they don't notice is at the same time the rider usually every time they take a kick, they are pulling on that horse cause they are using that momentum to kick and so one of the things we are going to address today is how to keep that from happening and once it does happen some things you can do to stop it. That's one of the very most difficult habits to correct. So for the most part we want to keep it from happening to start with. When you come into an arena, pretend like the entrance is right here and I'm heading, I'm looking at the funnel barrels right now, but pretend like I'm heading to those barrels. When you come into an arena be prepared to go forward. Don't try to keep your horse going slow, when it's time for them to run, get in that run position and let them go. The more you hold a horse back, the more you pull on them, yank on them, the more they are going to associate the entrance of that arena with a horrible experience. What you want them to do instead is get excited to run and think oh yes, we get to do this now and so what you are going to do to help them stay calm until they get to the point where they are going to run is you are going to keep your body back. I like to put my hand on the back of my saddle here and right on the little roll and I like to just hang on to that. What that does is it keeps my body back. If I have my hand up like this, this says run to this horse. If I come into the arena like this, this says hey everything is relaxed, we're almost on a trail ride, we're just hanging out. So I'm trying to keep my horse in that frame of mind the whole time while I'm getting ready to enter the arena and when I'm very first going up the alley to get ready to run, I like to keep him as relaxed as possible before I get in that run position. You can do this, you can do this and pet your horse back here, anything to get you sitting back and down, that says slow down to this horse. The minute you are ready to run, get your other hand back up on that rein and get in that run position and get dedicated to your run. Don't go up there and think oh I'm not ready and sit down and pull back on your horse. The more you get headed up that alley and then sit down and pull back, your horse is going to go through some confusion and some anger because they are ready to run and you're just stopping them from doing that. That's usually what gets the whole thing started, you actually are telling them to go forward and stop all at the same time. So to keep that from happening just keep them calm coming into the arena and then pet them, or hold on to the back of your saddle, something, and then when it's time to run just put your hand up there and go. Don't pull your horse back going to that first barrel, if you've done your homework at home, and trained this horse properly you should be able to run just as hard as you want to that first barrel and he'll sit down and turn it. So don't be thinking slow down at all going in there, you want to be thinking let's get going so you want your horse to feel comfortable with that and you'll never get a gate or an arena sour horse. You'll get one that can't wait to get in there and run their barrels."