Opening and Closing Gates From Horseback

In theory, opening and closing gates from horseback is pretty simple; however, there always seem to be lots of things that can go wrong.

Opening and closing a gate from on horseback often ends up being harder than it was supposed to be. Here are some tips on how you can go about training a horse to open and close a gate and some ways to fix some of the common problems you might run into.

I’ll begin here, assuming your horse already knows how to stop and back up and has some understanding of how to sidepass. If those skills aren’t in place, then I would recommend teaching those first.

Training

To get started, I want my horse to stand completely still at the gate. If the horse will stand like a statue, I have all the time in the world to get the latch undone. The trouble that a lot of folks get into is they ride up to the gate and immediately start trying to open it. The horse then starts to dance around; the rider has to let go, and the gate swings away. Before you know it, the horse looks at the gate as a place of stress and anxiety. I try to get ahead of this problem before it ever starts.

I will begin by working the horse away from the gate (maybe trotting some circles), and then I ride up to the gate and let the horse relax and take a break. It’s very important that I line the horse up to rest where it’s easiest for me to get hold of the latch. I want to practice putting the horse in the perfect position from the very beginning. I’ll give the horse a little break at the gate, then ride away, put the horse back to work, and after a few minutes, come back and rest at the gate again.

I will keep repeating this until the horse lets down and relaxes the moment he stands beside the gate. Remember that I mentioned it’s easy to turn the gate into a source of stress for the horse. What I am doing here is the complete opposite of that. Instead of the gate being a place of stress, it becomes a place of rest and relaxation.

Once the horse relaxes as soon as he’s beside the gate, I will make a point of leaning over and shaking the gate, rattling the latch, etc. If the horse stands nice and still, that’s perfect, but if he starts to fidget, I will take him away, put him back to work and try again in a minute. Lots of horses will stand until the rider tries to open the latch, so we’re teaching him that he’s to stay still, no matter what’s going on.

Once the horse stands rock solid, it’s time to move on to the next step. I will shake the gate and check that the horse is going to stay still. If he does, I will reach down and undo the latch. I will then push the gate away from us and ride through the opening. Once we’re partway through, I will stop the horse and wait a few moments. Then, I will ride around the gate until I’m standing on the other side and stop again. I will keep my hand on the gate the entire time as I do this.

I start by working my horse away from the gate and then ride up to it and rest. I want the horse to think that standing beside the gate is a place to relax, which gives me lots of time to open it. Here, I’ve crossed the gate and am riding through. Photographs courtesy of Jason Irwin

The final steps are sidepassing towards the gate until it’s closed and latching it. In the very beginning, a horse might get bothered when I ask him to sidepass towards the gate because he doesn’t see anywhere to go. For that reason, I like to stretch my arm out to keep the gate away from us so the horse sees that there’s space for him to move into. Once the gate is latched, pet the horse and wait a minute before riding away.

The reason for all the stopping is that it teaches a horse to do the whole pattern slow and relaxed. It gives the horse time to think about each step, so he doesn’t get frustrated. After a few days of this training, you can take out the extra stops.

Problem-Solving

Some horses will sidepass away from the gate when you want them to sidepass toward it, and this will force you to let go. To help fix this, I will spend time sidepassing back and forth out in the open without involving a gate. I might decide to sidepass exactly six steps one way and then exactly six steps back the other way. Being picky like this and moving back and forth teaches the horse to keep between the rider’s legs, and he will be less likely to ignore the leg cues.

One I ride partway through, I stop the horse and have him stand for a few moments. I want to stop the horse at different points in the early training so that he’s thinking about going slow and not rushing. If the horse rushes, I will probably have to let go of the gate, which sets the training back. I have now ridden to the far side of the gate and have stopped again.

When a person leans toward the gate to unlatch it, they very often will squeeze with their inside leg by accident, which causes the horse to sidepass away from the gate, and then the rider can’t keep hold of it. This would be truer again if you’re riding a really tall horse because when you lean down, it’s nearly impossible not to squeeze with your inside leg. If this is a problem for you, I would recommend fixing it out in the open. Lean one way and then work on having the horse sidepass in the direction that you’re leaning. This is counter to regular sidepass training, but if your horse learns this, you will then be able to lean over to reach the gate and still sidepass your horse in that same direction.

Another issue you could run into is you or someone else has tried to open and close gates off of your horse, and he’s become frustrated or scared; he just rushes through the whole thing. This could be because there wasn’t enough preparation work, and at some point, the horse got bumped by the gate a few times and was now nervous. My advice here would be to go through the motions of going through the gate — without the gate.

When sidepassing to close the gate, I push the gate away from me so the horse sees that there is space for him to move into. Now that the gate is closed, I fasten it but wait a minute before riding away.

Leave it open and practice going through and sidepassing to the correct spots, etc., until the horse will go through the pattern perfectly and relax. If at any point the horse gets upset, just leave and put the horse to work, and then come back and start again. Once the horse has the pattern figured out in his mind, you can go back to using the gate.

I hope the ideas listed above help you train your horse to work a gate. Remember that the slower and more relaxed things are, the more time you and your horse have to do everything right. You can always go a bit faster once your horse knows how to do this correctly.

Good luck to you and your horse. 

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