Operating gates is a challenge, depending especially on how he's got them latched.
Yes it is. It's a skill I've never taken the time to master, but I think it's a valuable skill to have in your horse's bag of tricks. I've often wanted to enter the Trail Obstacle classes in the local horse shows and one of the obstacles is almost always negotiating a gate, with the goal being that your hand doesn't leave the gate from the point that you start to open it to the point that you close it back. One of these days when I have my own arena, I'm going to work on stuff like that. It'd be fun.
Oh, and the kind of gates I hate the worst are the ones that drag. No matter how they're latched, you just can't get those open from horseback.