The Gate Experiment -- The Other Half
So the other half of the gate experiment involved bringing the horses up at night. The first night we did it the old fashioned way and went out and drove them up. There was resistance and excitement involved. Afterwards, I felt that it wasn't furthering what I am wanting to create with Gunny. So the next night I implemented a different plan.
My main goal was to create peace and harmony with the process of coming up from the pasture too. On that night the only thing I did was to lead Gunny up through the big gate at liberty and wait for him to lick and chew after we went through the gate. While we were waiting, the rest of the horses came through and started up. They did come through at a canter but Gunny stuck with me and stayed calm.
After this, we had a series of about ten nights where they brought themselves up before the time I would go out to close the gate. I also started to observe Gunny being the "gate police" on the way through the gate at night too.
Then there was a night where they were still out. (Actually they had come up but I had forgotten about closing the gate and they had went back out.) I walked out to the gate and conversationally said, "OK Boys, time to come up." I did nothing else and just stood there. Gunny stopped grazing and walked to me. I scratched him and sent him on his way. My other horse, Ranger did the same thing. I scratched him and sent him on his way. They were walking single file up to the barnyard area of the main pasture and very shortly the other two horses also stopped grazing and joined the single file line. I was amazed and decided that I have been working way too hard all these years!
After that night, the rest of the month that we had that pasture open during the day the horses let themselves up into the other pasture consistently before the time I would close the gate. The weather during this time varied from hot and buggy to cool and windy and it didn't seem to matter. They became self-governing regarding going in and out of this pasture.
It seemed like the keys were that I removed the anxiety about the gate opening in the morning, which removed the resistance about leaving the pasture at night. And by giving them a chance to just do what I wanted without trying to make them do it (however politely or lightly), they took that on themselves quite willingly. All in all it was an amazing experiment and I look forward to seeing how things play out next time we open that pasture up again.
My main goal was to create peace and harmony with the process of coming up from the pasture too. On that night the only thing I did was to lead Gunny up through the big gate at liberty and wait for him to lick and chew after we went through the gate. While we were waiting, the rest of the horses came through and started up. They did come through at a canter but Gunny stuck with me and stayed calm.
After this, we had a series of about ten nights where they brought themselves up before the time I would go out to close the gate. I also started to observe Gunny being the "gate police" on the way through the gate at night too.
Then there was a night where they were still out. (Actually they had come up but I had forgotten about closing the gate and they had went back out.) I walked out to the gate and conversationally said, "OK Boys, time to come up." I did nothing else and just stood there. Gunny stopped grazing and walked to me. I scratched him and sent him on his way. My other horse, Ranger did the same thing. I scratched him and sent him on his way. They were walking single file up to the barnyard area of the main pasture and very shortly the other two horses also stopped grazing and joined the single file line. I was amazed and decided that I have been working way too hard all these years!
After that night, the rest of the month that we had that pasture open during the day the horses let themselves up into the other pasture consistently before the time I would close the gate. The weather during this time varied from hot and buggy to cool and windy and it didn't seem to matter. They became self-governing regarding going in and out of this pasture.
It seemed like the keys were that I removed the anxiety about the gate opening in the morning, which removed the resistance about leaving the pasture at night. And by giving them a chance to just do what I wanted without trying to make them do it (however politely or lightly), they took that on themselves quite willingly. All in all it was an amazing experiment and I look forward to seeing how things play out next time we open that pasture up again.
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