The Road to the Tevis Cup, Post #14: The Arena Gate Incident

My second major training gaffe (or accident) took place way back in July. I’ve been waiting for the injury to fully heal. Due to the fires, I haven’t been able to condition Fantazia for nearly a month (not since we stayed in Paso Robles to train in sand). I don’t have any good training updates. It seems like a good time to write about the arena gate incident now.

(See my post on dealing with smoke inhalation in horses.)

The arena gate incident occurred because of the nature of the arena gate in question, and my preference for opening and closing gates from the saddle whenever possible. When starting a horse, I go through gates as soon as it goes forward willingly. Horses already know about gates–at least, if they have been around humans enough to have been led through them on a regular basis. This makes opening and closing gates a perfect way to teach leg aides. The horse already knows what it has to do when being led, you just have to translate that to mounted cues.

Fantazia already knew about gates

From the first day I rode her back in 2012, Fantazia and I went through the arena gate. It was a long gate that pushed open to the right (right-handed) from the inside. She learned very quickly to open (the easy part) and close that gate after working. As soon as she had that down, I started mounting outside the arena, then opening and closing the gate on the way in (left-handed push-open). Then we did pulling the gate towards us and backing through. This was my normal gate-training progression for all horses.

I don’t know if anyone had opened and closed gates with Fantazia since then, but I am sure she remembered anyway. However, the arena gate here is scary and heavy.

the arena gate incident — The arena gate here is heavy and scary.

The Arena Gate in question

You cannot operate the latch on this gate from horseback, so we leave it unlatched and pushed shut. It opens both ways, but my boyfriend likes to leave it on the inside, so you must pull it towards you. My boyfriend then just walks through and pulls it shut behind him. In most cases, you would back through (at least, in a trail class at a show) when pulling the gate towards you.

Fantazia was scared of the gate at first because it makes a creaking noise and looks scary (according to her… Things Fantazia is afraid of). It took several days just to be able to pull it open towards us and walk through. The first day it took me five minutes to open the door, and then she leapt out. After a week or so, however, she got used to it. We could pull it open, walk slowly through, and then I would pull it closed and walk off.

Fantazia got too used to it (and I got careless)

Unfortunately, Fantazia lost all her fear, and began dragging her feet. On july 10th, I was too hasty and pulled the door shut behind us too quickly. Fantazia’s left hind foot got caught under the door, between it and the frame. This is why it was a very bad idea not to pay attention, and to pull the door shut behind us rather than backing through. Well, and to do it without coming to a stop. I wasn’t doing that because the door is so heavy, i would take advantage of inertia to slam it shut.

Of course, with her foot stuck under it, all Fantazia could do was pull the door more shut on herself. I hopped off immediately, but there wouldn’t have been much I could do. Fortunately, the dirt under the gate was loose enough that she managed to pull her leg out.

You can see where Fantazia pulled her foot out from under the gate in the close-up.

Effects of the arena gate incident

Fantazia suffered both psychological and physical trauma from the arena gate incident.

First, she was afraid of the gate again–and this time it was an entirely rational fear. To deal with it, I put the gate on the other side, so I could push it out from inside the arena. I got off and led her through for several days, and then just pushed it away and let her jump through. After a few weeks, she could push it out and close it. I haven’t yet tried to pull it towards us.

The wound turned into scratches, which spread. You can also see the bruise on the hoof.

The physical trauma was fairly mild, although the bruise is still growing out of the hoof. She had minor contusions around her coronary band that took a while to heal and turned into scratches. To protect the wounds, I put Sox for Horses on her (a great product I highly recommend).

Sox for Horses are great for protecting wounds.

I thought I had taken a picture the first day, but if I did, it’s been deleted. I do have pictures of the resulting scratches and hoof bruise. As of today (three months later), the bruise is about halfway grown out (she’s due for a trim), and the scratches are gone.