How to get a horse to load in starting gate when he sees the gate and freezes and won't move in?

Answer 1

Have you tried just HAND WALKING the horse through an open gate? You can also ride them through the open gate. We used to do this with 2 yr olds that were new to the track. You'll have to set it up with your gate personell & outrider PRIOR to doing it unless you are fortunate enough to have your own to to practice with! We also had several horses that would only load with another horse & this was a problem, so the gate personell made sure to have another horse next to them that loaded easily, but this is a frowned upon practice nowadays. You could always use the old food ploy! Have someone on the other side of the gate with his favorite treat. Other than that, we just used muscle, brute force, or the gate crew beat the crap out of 'em! Honestly, it just takes time, patience & repitition from people who want to help the horse, rather than hurt them. Your horse MAY have been injured in a starting gate incident at sometime in their life. They are just like we are, only they can't speak our language, so we have to learn theirs by trial & error & that ain't easy for most humans with an animal that is so headstrong & has mass over us. Have you tried using another rider? Sometimes this helps. Also try blinkers. It could be the eyes that are the problem area.

Answer 2

It depends. Are you talking about a horse you are training to go into the starting gate or a horse that suddenly acts up before a race? All horses must be certified by the gate personnel before they are allowed to enter into a race. Usually they are trained many times when they are babies using some of the methods described above (walking them through an open gate, allowing them to acclimate to the gate, lots of patience and kind words, etc.). Each track has different times during training hours in the morning when the gate crew is available to work with horses, and many large training centers will have a small gate for horses to get used to when they are being broken as 1 or 2 year olds.

Obviously what works to acclimate a horse in the morning are not the methods that will work with a horse causing trouble right before a race. If that is the case, the gate crew will try other methods to get the horse in. This can include pushing the horse or blindfolding the horse. A horse who refuses to go into the gate can be scratched by the stewards if he delays the start for too long, although tracks are loathe to do this as they would have to refund any bets placed on the horse. A horse who does delay, however, can have his gate card revoked and have to go back for training purposes before it is allowed to race again.

Sometimes horses will have a bad experience in the gate and need special attention. These horses may require blindfolds every time they go in, or prefer to be backed into the gate from the front. Other horses don't like the feel of the gate on their sides and will wear a special blanket over their hind ends that is attached to the gate with a string so that when they break the blanket stays inside the gate. These special methods will not be used for the first time immediately before a race but will have been practised on the horse during the morning training sessions.

Answer 3

It could be done the same way as loading a horse into a trailer. Take a strong rope and tie one end to one side of the gate or trailer. Pass the rope around the butt of the horse and loop it around anything strong on the other side of the gate or trailer.The rope is only looped and could be pulled. Have someone handle the loose end.
Talk to the horse, give him a gentle slap. Every time he moves, the person on the loose end of the rope takes up the slack. Before long he is moved more and more foreward until he's in the gate or trailer.
I've done this hundreds of times without ever beating the horse or loosing my temper. Easy does it.

Answer 4

All above answers work on certain horses depending on why they dont want to load. some have had the gates move againt them ( imagine the gates move against you while your standing still)...
a tactic wich usually works is following another horse for a while( during warm up then through gate slowly till he gets confident of no harm. or older horses are sometimes trying to tell you they are hurt & really dont want to run. but once are in the gate they kind of forget the fear of pain & run

Answer 5

Time and training. As on tv two people can loop hands behind and push him in. But training to not fear it is a better idea.

Answer 6

Blind him with a headcover and then take it off after he is loaded. This is a fairly common practice.

Answer 7

put a bend on the horse

Answer 8

a circle