Have you ever had a horse that is barn sour? Does your equine companion behave perfectly at home but becomes one of the devil's own when you try to leave the barn and go out for a nice relaxing trail ride?
Most riders find that riding in the arena is only satisfying to a point. Even when training my show jumpers, I throw in at least one trail ride a week for each of them. Being out in the countryside is where God intended horses to be. OK so He didn't intend for them to be carrying my fat butt around while they were out there, but you know what I mean!
So we all know how frustrating it is when you make up your mind to spend a couple of hours relaxing and unwinding on the back of your horse, just trolling around the neighborhood, only to find that your horse has other ideas and refuses to leave the safety and familiarity of the barn. What was intended as a stress reduction exercise can rapidly turn into an instant blood-pressure elevation technique.
So how to deal with the equine tantrum without bursting the proverbial blood vessel?
First of all, accept that you are not going on a trail ride today - rather that what you really wanted to do was to have a training session with your buddy which would actually evolve into a program which will culminate in a trail ride sometime in the future. Accepting this inevitable fact will go a long way towards keeping the blood pressure even and will minimize the risk of the loss of temper on either part and thus the risk of damage to anyone. Just how far in the future your trail ride might be depends on how stubborn your buddy is and how often you are prepared to work at this. As with any horse training exercise, patience is the key and each session will last no longer than your temper, so be prepared for a lot of short workouts!
What gave you the first clue that your horse was not going to leave the barn? Did he just walk so far towards the gate and then stop? Did he start prancing or backing up as you walked towards the gate? Did he turn around every time you pointed him away from the barn? Did he get so far and then turn around and head back? Did he (as one of my mares loves to do) stop dead and start lifting his front feet up as he tried to wheel around (not exactly a rear but more of a protest)?
Whatever form of protest you (or he) can think of is quite possible to be exhibited by the barn or buddy sour horse. Many people decide to overcome the problem by always riding out with a friend and letting the other horse lead the way. That is certainly an option, but what happens when your friend moves out of state or is visiting her mother on the only day you have time to take a ride? It is just as easy to take a ride with a friend on a non-barn-sour horse as it is on a barn-sour one but it is impossible to take a ride on your own on a barn-sour horse so the best answer is to cure the barn-sour problem.
So let's get started.
First of all pick a spot between the barn door and the gate that is closer to the barn than the point at which the horse started to balk. That is your trigger point. It may only be a couple of steps away from the barn, particularly of your arena or the turnout is in the opposite direction. I had one mare that would go happily through the fields, out the "top" gate into the woods and around the trail, returning along the street, down the driveway and through the gate, but refused point blank to go on the exact same ride in the reverse direction, starting by towards the gate.
Our purpose for the trigger point is to start our work before we reach it. If we stop the confrontation before it starts, we do not end up in a battle of wills.
So having picked our trigger point stand immediately outside the barn door, mounted and facing towards the trigger point. Ask your horse to walk forward. When you reach the trigger point, ask the horse to stop. Immediately ask the horse to do something else. Depending on the amount of space you have between the barn and the trigger point, turn the horse around and walk back or ask the horse to back up. Do not give the horse time to think about the trigger point and decide it is now the place to stop. Immediate action will make the horse consider the trigger point as a place to start work not stop.
When you get back to the barn door, ask for the halt again then immediately start back towards the trigger point. Neither the barn door nor the trigger point can be the end of the work session - horses are very good at figuring out that a place is where the work usually stops - that's why they always slow down approaching the gate to the arena and speed up as they go away form it.
Repeat this process a couple of times. If you feel your horse is not balking as you approach the trigger point, take him one step past the trigger point before reversing. However, if you feel any resistance at all, ask for the halt and reverse before he can complete his protest.
Do not repeat the process more than 5 times with the same trigger point. Otherwise your trigger point becomes your balking point and you will have to move the trigger point closer to the barn and start again.
Having worked on this for no more than 10 minutes, take your horse into the arena or wherever you usually work him and give him his usual workout. There can be no reward for refusing to do what you asked of him in the first place. You may not get your ride, but he isn't getting a rest.
The fastest results will come if you are able to work with your buddy every day, but I am realistic to know that this is not always possible, so just make sure that every time you do work with him, you start off with the barn-sour exercise even if you do not intend to trail ride today.
The next time you start work, pick a new trigger point. The new trigger point will be one stride short of where you left off last time. Repeat the process, moving your trigger point forward as often as you are able within the 10 minute session.
As the trigger point moves further and further away from the barn and you have more room for maneuvering, you can throw in some harder exercises. For example, make a quarter turn on the forehand towards the right, then leg yield / side pass back to the barn; turn around, take 2 steps back towards the barn, halt, complete turn on the haunches, walk back to the barn. You can throw in as many variations as your imagination will come up with.
Eventually, depending on the distance from your barn to the gate, you will arrive at the gate.
Here is another big obstacle. Passing through a gate is a milestone and needs to become something your horse wants to do. So start with a closed gate.
Does your horse work with gate opening? If he does you are ahead of the game. If he doesn't, well you need to work on this anyway.
If he does work on the gate, go ahead and open the gate, take 2 steps away from it and then close it again.
If he doesn't work on the gate, walk him right up to the gate and halt, if possible with his head over the gate, if not then as close as you can get. Turn your horse on the forehand so that your favored hand is closest to the gate (right if you are right-handed or left if left-handed) and you are facing the end of the gate with the latch.
If you are not close enough to reach the top of the gate, use your outside leg to push him closer to it. Grab the top of the gate with your favored hand. Give the gate a little pull and let it rattle a little so that he is not spooked by it. If he is calm, you can continue, otherwise, turn him back on the forehand so he is facing the gate, back up a couple of steps, turn and walk back to the barn, ready to start again from here the next session.
Once you can touch and rattle the gate without a reaction, walk hour horse forward so that your leg is by the latch. Lean down and open the latch with your favored hand. Sit up and grab the top of the gate and hold it steady.
If the gate opens towards you, use your inside leg to ask your horse to move away from the gate one step then forward one step. Allow your favored hand to slide along the top of the gate thus keeping control of the gate and preventing it swinging into your horse and spooking him.
If you feel any resistance or fright in your horse at any point during this exercise, stop immediately and reverse your steps to the point where he is relaxed then start again from that point. If your horse is not used to opening a gate, it will likely take several sessions to perfect the process.
repeat the side/forward steps until your hand reaches the corner of the gate. At this point, ask your horse for a turn on the forehand, around the gate so that you are on the other side of the gate and are facing the end with hinges.
Now reverse the process by asking for the step forward and step to the side to close the gate.
When you get to the point of closing the gate without resistance you may either repeat the process and open, go through and close the gate to get back, or if you feel your horse has had enough, by all means dismount and lead him back through the gate. Above all, keep the stress level low for both of you.
In case you didn't notice, you just passed through the gate and off the farm property without a fight - congratulations!
In all probability, having reached this milestone, your horse will now continue on down the road and through the trails without incident. He will be so happy to be able to go forward and relax, that he will not balk again. However, if his euphoria at being able to keep going forward wear off at any time and he decides to stop again, treat this point as the new focus for the trigger point and work on getting past that point in small increments.
NEVER let the horse decide where the turnaround point is. Once he balks he has to go past that point even if it is only by a step or two and then you can decide the new turn around point and head for home.
This is not the easy solution, but it is a resistance free, conflict free solution that can help to sharpen some other skills while resolving the problem.
I hope you have some fun working on this and - I know happy trails will be in your future!