Question:
I have a gelding that kicks and really misbehaves when I ride him with unfamiliar horses. He has tried to fight with another gelding while I was riding him, but he has kicked a couple of mares. He doesn’t pin his ears or anything, so it’s difficult to stop him before it happens. I do have some other problems with riding him as he is fairly herd-bound and a bit spooky. Do you have any thoughts on why he might be kicking and how to stop that?
Answer:
Martin: The question shouldn’t be “how to stop a horse from kicking”, it should be, “what can we do to give him no reason to kick.”
The fighting other horses away from him is an insecurity issue. If he gets threatened by unfamiliar horses invading his space he will defend himself. This is common when horses haven’t been raised in a natural herd environment. Typically they learn to take flight rather than take fight in a herd. This type of horse doesn’t respect the pecking order and often annoys other horses and the other horses are more likely to picked on him.
What to do about it? It’s not always easy when we don’t or can’t play by nature’s rules then try to deal with the negative outcome. The simple answer is he needs to get more confidence around strange horses. When other horses come close to him, help him out by getting him to move away from them instead of waiting until he is aggravated or feels threatened.
Don’t wait for a unexpected situation to happen that you’re unprepared for. Set up a situation where the other riders are aware and can calculate their distance based on their safety and his comfort level.
It wasn’t one experience that made him this way and it won’t be one experience that gets him over it, plan on a multitude of experiences for him.
If he could get enough good experiences you should see some progress.
Martin Black
