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All about horses in northern B.C. Issue # 50: October 23, 2000 Published each Monday by Kristi McCrindle, editor Who said horse people slow down in the fall??? Boy are they wrong! While there are no longer any local shows to attend, and the poker rides are all but over, and clinics this late in the year are far and few between, a dedicated club member will still find lots to keep busy with. October and November seem to be designated the months for the year end wind ups, the year end awards, the social events and fun times for each club. The members get a chance to kick back and relax, some of them taking home prizes for their hard work during the summer. While many members do indeed get to kick back and relax, many others are responsible for organizing these social events. From booking halls, to decorating, to arranging menus and making potluck food, to organizing the awards themselves, there is a long list of things for active club members to do during October and November! And that is what I have been doing - tallying high point awards for four different clubs, researching and purchasing awards for two clubs, and helping organize two windups as well.... so far it has kept me busy enough I've only had time to ride Skip once this last week! Maybe by the time it gets really cold I'll have some time to myself to ride. Sure hope the arena has heat by then! Till next week, happy riding! ~ Kristi :) (Note from Jim: welcome to Ellen at Northern Horse Supply in Terrace, a new advertiser) 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 2 of 2)		Train-along - Let's guide!
After your horse has accepted standing next to the gate, reach over and move the gate slightly, but be prepared for him to pull away (don't lean over too far!). He will need to become accustomed to it making noise (metal gates such as those used in shows can make a lot of racket). See photo. Repeat this until your horse stands quietly even when you are leaning over shaking or banging the gate in all possible locations - an added benefit here is you are helping to spook-proof your horse! Now you can start to add some fancier footwork and start bringing your horse in not quite close enough to the gate to reach it. Ask him to move slightly closer by asking for the sidepass, or turn on haunch or forehand. One step at a time, then stop and settle. You can never work a gate too slowly in training! If your horse does not respond to the cues, ask once again quietly, then take him away from the gate before schooling the maneuvre again. While it may seem your horse is being stubborn, he may be scared to step sideways or backwards where he knows there is something in the way - he needs to learn (one step at a time) that he can trust you to put him places without bumping into the obstacle. Do not lose your temper! Any time you school hard or punish your horse near an obstacle, he will associate the obstacle with the fear of being hurt, making working the gate nearly impossible. So for instance, he won't move his hindquarters away from your leg towards the gate, take him away from the gate and push his hindquarters all over the place, then return to the gate and ask him to settle and stand quietly there (make the gate a nice place to be!). After both of you have settled, ask quietly for him to move his haunches. When you are working the gate, keep in the mind the standard rules. If showing, you should not let go of the gate, and if working a real gate in a pasture situation that might be good advice as well as some gates swing if let go of. Another rule of thumb is to only open the gate wide enough for yourself to pass through. If there is stock on either side of the fence, they can escape if you open the gate too wide. In a show situation, the judge will be looking to see that you keep the gate opening to a minimum. When first starting to work the gate though, you can open it, push it open, then ride through without closing it - this keeps it low key for your horse. In working a gate, be careful to keep your horse in mind. When you lean over to reach the gate, your body position changes. Try it - you'll be amazed at how the weight changes may affect your horse, especially if you have been schooling your horse to respond to your lightest touch. Add to that an outside leg that might be put on by mistake to hold our balance, or a spur dug in by accident, and you can see why the gate can be a challenge to even a well trained horse. Like everything else in horse training, there is no shortcuts that replace taking the time to teach the horse properly, one step at a time.	Northern Saddle Club Poker Ride Contributions from Lesley Flint and Dianne Klick - thank you! The N.S.C. Poker Ride was very well attended last weekend - there were 104 hands sold with over 90 riders. The weather was very nice and the riders all commented on what a beautiful ride it was. Everyone filled up on hot chili, buns and lots of goodies after the ride. The winner of the jackpot this year was Jill O'Neill, taking home over a thousand dollars, second went to Patti Mortimer who went home with a Canadian Helicopter ride, third was Jessica Aslin with a blanket donated by Ray Stewart. That's it! - Lesley Hi Kristi, yes, I took part in the NSC Poker Ride. Gail Pasaluko, the organizer, did an outstanding job. For the three rides I have been on starting from the Driftwood Hall/school area she has made the trails all different. I am jealous of the trail options they have in this area! Most trail horses made it around in three hours. I and two other cross country event horses did it in 2 hrs 20 min. (I do not appreciate cantering full speed downhill) The trail was a huge circle down valleys, through dense brush and on ridges with magnificent views. We even went across roads and pavement (foreign to some horses). Gail did an excellent job of marking the trail and her volunteers were super. I don't know how many horses but Jill O'Neill won first prize of one thousand plus dollars. I don't know who won the second prize of a helicopter ride but one of my students, Jessica Aslin, won third, a horse blanket embroidered with the 2000 ride donated by Loomis. Lots of draw prizes but I didn't even come close. The food was donated and the day was gorgeous, what more can I say? - Dianne 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	Last week I mentioned guiding on Skip, riding him one handed, even though he is very green. That may seem a foreign concept to many of you, and I know it did to me at first, but it is sure making sense as I go along. Here's more to that story. To teach Skip to guide, I bridged the reins as if I was riding two handed, then shortened them up and used one hand (this way the reins on each side are separated a bit, unlike when holding the proper way for showing). I asked Skip for a turn by taking my hand out directly to one side - not letting the hand come up or back as I did so, but staying parallel to the ground, and 90 degrees to his shoulders. At first he resisted this - he couldn't understand the pull on his neck, and on both sides of his mouth (I ended up pulling far enough out that I was also making direct rein contact on the inside rein). He tried to push his head in the air, and stick his nose out, but I didn't give up until he moved his shoulders in the desired direction. And that, in a nutshell, is what true guiding is all about. A horse doesn't have to follow it's nose, but it does have to follow its shoulders. If you can control the shoulders, and teach the horse to keep the shoulder between the reins, it solves a lot of problems later. Now, there are a few caveats here! One is, as I already mentioned, the pull must be to the side, parallel to the ground, and 90 degrees to the shoulders. It is okay if he walks ahead, but don't stop pulling until he moves the shoulders to the side. The other extremely important thing is to release AS SOON AS HE GIVES. You may have had the idea of going 'over there' but by the time the colt gives the desired response you are not quite heading the 'right way'. Too bad - you must release anyway, or he won't know that moving the shoulders WAS the desired response. If you think about it, that makes sense - did you tell him to head over there to that mark on the wall, or did you tell him to move the shoulders? You must immediately reward him for the correct response, so that he starts to look for it sooner next time. Most colts will start to look for the right answer more and more of the time. After four sessions, Skip is already guiding one handed better than many supposedly well broke horses I know. Makes you wonder why we've made it so complicated! I would work one side for a few minutes at least before switching sides, then you'll have to go though it all over again - horses learn things differently from side to side. So, that leaves you with something to think about until next week! You might even want to try it on your older horses - test to see if they really know how to neck rein. If you have questions about how it works, feel free to contact me at kristi@hiway16.com
	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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