the horse that kicks

[sharp penny <penelope_75647@yahoo.com>]

  When you feel your horse begin to kick,one or both
ears may go back and/or he may tense up, get his mind
busy on you and off of his surroundings. First
immediatly turn his head so his nose touches your
knee. This will shift his balance making it hard to
kick out. then get him busy, take a step forward,then
take 2 steps to the right,then 1 step to the left,ect.
Watch his ears to get an idea of his attention span.
If you lose his attention in 6 seconds ask him to do
something every 4 seconds. It can be anything that
gets his response ie walk faster, move his hip to the
left, give to the right rein, walk slower, turn around
a bush and so on. 

When your horse's ears tell you that he is distracted
by another horse or object in his vicinity,IMMEDIATELY
ask him to do something for you. You must keep your
attention on what you are asking your horse to do and
not the distraction. Your horse will focus on what you
focus on.

Don't spend your time telling your horse don't kick.
By doing that you will both end up focusing on the
kicking. Give yourself and your horse another focus by
asking him questions he has to respond to, like giving
to the left rein, moving his right hip over and so on.
By doing this you will accomplish 3 things: you will
have been working on basic manuvers, you will be
getting your horse more responsive to you and neither
of you will be thinking about kicking the horse that
just tried to crowd you.

As another ridecamper suggested take him to other
areas that are crowded and you have more space to
manuver. This will help teach him to focus on you when
there are other distractions around him. It will also
help you by giving you a "fire drill" to prepare for
the real thing when it happens on the trail.

Penny

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