Horses and Starting Gates

August 2, 2012                     

Dear Readers,

As I go through the memoir there are passages that are going to get cut. Good stories that don’t necessarily move the story along and therefore need to be sacrificed. So here is one of the stories that got relegated to the trash bin. Hope you like it.

Along with proper conditioning through galloping and workouts, perhaps the single most important aspect of getting horses ready to run in their first race is the starting gate. Races can be lost behind the gate, in the gate and as the gate opens.

Behind the gate while the horses wait to be loaded, they are milling around in close quarters with all the other horses and ponies gathered together. Once the loading starts, the real excitement begins. Thousand-pound equine athletes, primed and ready to explode, are shoved into a confining steel chute. Jockeys are yelling at the top of their lungs, and the gate crew is rushing excitable Thoroughbreds into the stalls of the starting gate as fast as they can. The horses already in the gate are dancing in place, kicking and rearing up. Occasionally, one will flip and get stuck under the gate. 

During one Santa Rosa County Fair meet, Jim had a mount in a 350-yard Quarter Horse race. Drawing the number one post position, Jim and his nervous mount were loaded first. When the last horse had been coaxed into the gate, the starter held his thumb poised over the trigger that would spring the latches on each stall in the starting gate. In the time it takes for one beat of your heart, Jim’s horse flipped and became wedged upside down in the stall. Jim's legs were trapped between the horse’s back and the tailgate. From his knees to his head, upside down, Jim was completely helpless as he dangled over the back of the tailgate.

Depending on the circumstances, the gate crew often can simply open the tailgate, allowing the horse to roll out, scramble up and regain its footing. But in this case, if they opened the tailgate, the horse would land on top of Jim, smashing him under a thousand pounds of struggling animal. Finally the crew, with some fancy maneuvering, managed to get the horse upright and Jim back on his feet.  When asked if he was all right, Jim’s response was to grab his whip and climb back aboard his mount.

He barely had his feet in the stirrups and the reins gathered in his hands when the starter hit the trigger to open the gate. The field was away, and despite his unruly behavior in the starting gate, Jim’s mount broke fairly well. They managed a second-place finish, beaten only by a nostril, in a very close photo. As Jim dismounted after the race, he needed two valets to carry him back to the jocks room. In short order, it was discovered that his leg had been fractured when the horse trapped him. Jim had ridden the race with a broken leg.

This is just one story highlighting how Injury or even death can result from starting gate mishaps, a specter all horsemen live with until the field is safely away.  This is one reason so much attention is spent schooling horses in the starting gate, by both the trainers and the gate crew.

The men I have known working the gate over the years took great pride in their horse handling. It was personally satisfying for them if the horse they were handling got off safely and in good position. Unsung heroes these guys really take a beating from the horses and as the majority of jockeys know, at one point or another, the members of the gate crew have helped save them from serious injury.

That’s it for this time, I hope you have enjoyed reading this excerpt and keep sending me emails; it helps remind me to update the blog. I am heading off now to enjoy the equine jumping in the Olympics. I hope everybody is having the opportunity to watch the games. They have been terrific so far.

Take care,

Shelley Riley