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All about horses in northern B.C. Issue # 49: October 16, 2000 Published each Monday by Kristi McCrindle, editor Whew! If someone asked me to describe my life right now, topsy turvey would probably be it! After all the soul searching mentioned in the editorial two weeks ago, suddenly I had two interested buyers in my young stock! I'm learning not to get too excited (which is why I didn't mention it last week), but the long and short of it is that Cody has gone to Colorado and Lena has gone to Texas! Wow! There was a trailer with two spaces in it leaving northern Washington on Saturday morning, and all I had to do was meet it before they left. Gee, all I had to do! Rush trips to the vets for Coggins tests and export exams, lining up appointments with the Canadian federal vet and the US border vet, finding places to stay along the way - and all on less than a week's notice! Wow indeed! It was a long trip to make alone, and I had a few adventures along the way (or perhaps I should call them misadventures, like almost smoking the brakes out of the front of the pickup on one particularly nasty hill), but I'm glad I went and equally glad that it sounds like Cody and Lena will both have great new homes this week. The fact that everything came together tells me that it was meant to be, and that means a lot. So now, I just have Skip and Riser to ride until Raime is healed up, but those two should keep me pretty busy! Till next week, happy riding! ~ Kristi :) email to editor: kristi@hiway16.com new! Photo Show search for horse or fair Archive to find all past issues of Northern BC Horse

	Past articles are all available in the
Trail Horse series The Gate (part 1 of 2)		Train-along - First ride - Saddle up and climb aboard!
Have you ever watched the horses in trail class work a gate? See photo. Have you ever been out on the trail and wished you could perform with the same ease they do, just quietly open the gate, pass through it, and close it behind you, saving dismounting and having to find somewhere to remount (especially if you ride bareback!). Let's talk about training your horse, and yourself, how to properly work a gate. You have to realize that any gate can be worked 8 different ways. There is right hand push, right hand pull, left hand push and left hand pull, each from both sides of the gate. If you are planning on showing your horse in trail classes, you will find that some course designers specify a way of working the gate, and you must comply or be considered off course. However, if you are just going through a gate along the trail, you can choose to work it the way you and your horse find simplest. To start with, you need to get your horse very well broke. He needs to understand a variety of intermediate maneuvres, some of which we covered on the ground in the series of columns in November and December. These maneuvres are: - Stop and stand quietly on a loose rein (easier said than done some days!) - Back up, slowly, one step at a time, and shifting directions if asked - Turn on the forehand - Turn on the haunches - Sidepass Practice these in your warm up, away from the gate, and practice them one-handed as well - you will need to work the gate one-handed so you need to school that way. After your horse is comfortable doing the maneuvres reasonably well one and two-handed, it is time to introduce the gate. Start by coming straight in next to the gate and ride right on by it from both sides and both directions until the horse pays no attention to being that close to the gate (for training purposes, I suggest you use a free-standing gate in the center of the arena). After a few passes each way on both sides, stop your horse next to the gate and let him stand for a few minutes to settle. Let him get comfortable just standing there, stroke his neck and talk to him, especially if he is nervous of the gate. Repeat this several times, from both directions, on both sides. If your horse is very nervous of the gate, that's probably all I'd do in one day. Gee, things are just getting exciting, and now you'll have to tune in next week, cuz we're out of space!	Follow up to Northwest Classic report contributed by Barb Bowerbank Hello All! Just thought that you may all be interested in the write-up for the 2000 edition of the Northwest Classic Paint and Open Horse Show in Vanderhoof, BC this past BC day weekend. The results are now posted with some pictures. Go to: http://come.to/thenorthwestclassic On this home page there will be a link directly to the photos and write up on the show. Within the next month the show photographer should have pictures of our Hi-Point horses and Futurity winners to me, which I will post on the results page. Will let you all know again when they are posted. Thanks for coming to the show and hope to see some of you back for next year! Western, English, Penning or Trail riding, all equine sports have a voice on Northern B.C. Horse If you are new to Northern B.C. Horse, check out all the previous issues on the Archive page. Kristi is building a great knowledge base about horses, with the emphasis on our area of the world. Northern B.C. Horse is brought to you courtesy of our advertisers including: The Tack Store Ridennoure Paint Horses Burns Lake Building Supplies Northern Horse Supply Hoskins Ford Uniglobe Travel North Griffin Enterprises Thanks to our advertisers for making this all possible... ...for information about advertising, email jim@hiway16.com	As I talked about in last week's editorial, I got going on both of my colts this month. I'd like to go into a little more detail about starting a colt for those of you who also have a winter project of getting a youngster going under saddle. We covered a lot of ground work in the issues from November 22 on to January 10, and then we covered sacking out in the July 3 and July 10 issues. You can refer back to them in the Archives for more prep work with your young horse. When I began this fall with Cody, who had very little work done this summer, I started out by sacking him out again with a light saddle blanket. He appeared to remember his summer lessons as he stood quietly for both that and the saddling. When starting with a colt, it is better to repeat ground often, partly to make sure that the lessons are being instilled but also to give the colt some familiar ground each day. I also tacked up Skip, following the same procedure of lightly sacking out with the blanket before continuing the saddling process. I like to do this with a young horse so that he becomes used to the blanket being somewhat thrown at him - if I were to trip walking towards him, or if the wind caught the blanket as I put it over him, he is less likely to spook if routinely exposed to it. I also prefer to treat the horse like a trained horse, rather than tiptoeing around him, which generally makes a horse more fearful - they seem to think 'Gee, if she is tiptoeing around, there must be something to be scared of'! I started out riding Skip, who I had six rides on this summer. We went right to work, teaching him to guide at the walk and trot. Guiding is the term we give to teaching the horse to stay between the bridle reins at all times, even if he is green. I rode Skip one-handed except when I required two (if he resisted and it took two hands to move him over, or if we are working something specific like a back up). Cody, of course, was nowhere near as advanced. I started out getting him used to me bouncing beside him, then rising partway up in the stirrup before returning to the ground - getting him used to someone being above him, and to the sensations of weight in the stirrups pulling the saddle sideways. I allowed him to be scared but not to run away - like sacking out, it is a tool used to increase a horse's safe zone by praising them when they stand their ground, and backing off before they reach the flight response. By pushing that threshold a little farther each time, they soon lose all fear. I did this bouncing and partial mounting from both sides, then mounted and dismounted a couple of times from each side. I like how John Lyons explained it - that IS your first ride! By keeping it short, the horse learns there is nothing to fear with you in the saddle, as you will get off sooner or later. Each time I stayed a bit longer, then I asked Cody to walk on. All we did for the day was walk and turn a bit left and right, very basic stuff, but Cody learned to listen to clucks and nudges from my legs to mean forward movement, to move his shoulders in the right direction when I asked him to turn, and to stop when I shifted my weight in the saddle. Not bad for a first ride!
	If you have tips or questions you'd like to share with other local equestrians, please mail them to kristi@hiway16.com

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