How To Stop A Horse From Kicking

 

From: Charlie Hicks

http://www.HorseTrainingResources.com

 

Horses kick to defend themselves but since we aren’t always aware of what they feel is threatening them, we can often mistake a kicking horse for one that is violent and unmanageable.

 

Nature has provided all animals with some means of defense. The dog has sharp teeth; the cat, teeth and claws; the cow, sharp horns; and the horse, solid hard hoofs. Kicking is the horse’s natural method of defense. In a horse’s wild, natural state, biting and striking may be the introduction to a battle, or small difficulties may be settled with the forefeet and mouth, but the principal battles are fought with the hind feet. As we know the horse, he has no more need to kick than a cow to use her horns. But the fact remains that there are an enormous number of horses that have this habit.

 

The causes for kicking are numerous, but they may be reduced to two main factors; the disposition of the horse and its treatment. Professor Jesse Beery, in his guides to horsemanship, introduce the four types of horse from the most placid (type 1) to the most difficult and wilful (type 4).

 

The types 3 and 4 have the instinct of self-defense developed so highly that at the least indication of danger, or mistreatment, they defend themselves. This tendency is so marked in some horses of these types that they kick at almost nothing. The habit grows to such an extent that it becomes easy for the horse to kick, until we say it has a “disposition” to kick.

 

Just because a horse has this disposition is no reason for classing it as an outlaw and thinking it cannot be handled. Its natural tendencies will only require more patient and persevering effort to make it as obedient as those in any other type.

 

Most horses do not kick on account of a bad disposition, but because their owners were ignorant and really taught them to kick by poor management in colt training.

 

Every horse that becomes a kicker does so in self-defense. Of course, after the habit is repeated a few times he learns his power, and it becomes a vicious habit.

 

If the horse kicks when the hold-back strap breaks and leaves the cross-piece of the shafts strike the hind quarters, it is only an indication that he was not properly educated when a colt. Kicking because the line gets under the tail is another indication of poor training when a colt.

 

This happens because the touch of the harness is frightening him and is making him kick. The cure is to properly train every part of him to touch using a technique called poling.  This straight forward process may at first seem simple and unnecessary, which is why so many make the mistake of skipping it, but it has been the means of preventing many horses from becoming confirmed kickers.

 

Do not make this mistake yourself and learn about poling and other techniques to cure kicking horses by visiting http://www.HorseTrainingResources.com.