Gate? What gate?

Because I didn't bounce back from my surgery as planned, I haven't been out to see the horses in a week. I did, however, have a conversation with Marge, the barn owner last night. Apparently my horse is being a bit of a dipwit about coming in from turnout.

He's not being bad, he's just being unusually stupid about it. The situation is this - there is a pasture on each side of the barn - left and right - with both having two sections - one close to the barn and one close to the road. To access the ones closest to the road you have to walk through the pasture that is closest to the barn. When the mud dries up in the summer the gate between the pastures is left open and the horses have two pastures to graze in. When the mud gets bad we close off the one pasture closest to the road so that at least one field will have decent grass in the spring.

Right now the pastures on the left side of the barn are not usable because it's too icy to walk the horses over to it. So one set of horses goes in the front pasture on the right side and one set goes in the back pasture. The ones in the back come in first, then the gate is opened between the pastures and the horses from the front pasture come through the back pasture and out the gate to the barn. This is not a new thing, and happens often.

So, in Kaswyn's little herd of four, he is last to come in. Which suits him fine, as long as you don't take too long to bring him in. He doesn't like to be out alone, but is patient enough for you to get the horse before him in his stall before he starts to panic. Usually he will stand at the gate by the barn, in the back pasture, and wait to be brought in.

I guess twice now, when the gate between the pastures has been opened so that his group can be led in, Kaswyn will not go through the gate. Instead, he runs back and forth, right in front of the gate, right BY the gate, along the fence line. Like he's suddenly forgotten what a gate is, or can't see the gate, or can't figure out how to get through it. This is not a small gate either - it's got to be an eight foot wide gate. He's not happy about it, and when the last horse besides him is brought in he gets even more agitated.

So Susan and Marge tried to call to him, try to calm him down, but he just wasn't getting it. So they had to walk out to the front pasture and catch him. Then they walked him through the gate and suddenly it's no big deal. They say nothing happened to him during turnout like he got stuck in the gate or another horse ran him into it or something. They have no idea where this is coming from.

My plan tonight was to go out to the barn and walk Kaswyn in and out of the gate a few times, then groom and lunge both boys. However, work had other ideas and I'll not be getting to the barn tonight. I will have a short time tomorrow night to go out there, so I'll certainly work on this and try to puzzle out why my horse is being such a ditz. I think I'll be able to tell from his reactions when I walk him through the gate what's really going on. Then again, sometimes my horse is just a boob!