My theory on kicking horses is exactly like my theory on
biting dogs. I don’t care about the reason, it is NOT acceptable, and
they will be corrected, hard, quick, and clean. Having said that, I will
defend my animals, and I try to pay close enough attention to them that they
never feel the need to respond defensively. If I allow my horse to kick
unpunished because someone bit him in the butt, or ran up his tail, or any
other reason, what’s to keep him from kicking when I’m shooing him
out of the barn one day, and pop him on the butt to get him moving. Or when I’m
not home, and my neighbors allow their 8 year old to come into my pasture to
pet my baby horse, and she comes up behind him and touches his butt. (this
actually happened. I did put a stop to this once I found out they were
allowing her to do this. What baffled me about this, is all their horses kick,
and she isn’t allowed in their pasture. But it’s ok to go in the
neighbors’ when they aren’t home. I wonder about people sometimes).
I don’t care if they are on lead, in the pasture, riding, or racing
around their pasture. If there are people in the vicinity, all equine herd
dynamics are done. There will be no biting, kicking, nasty faces, or people possessiveness.
Ever. With Merlin, I’ve been taking him for walks with some friends
riding their horses (he’s only two, and not under saddle yet). I’ve
been able to correct him on the ground for thinking about kicking, or making
faces, and I think that’s going to make a huge difference once he’s
under saddle.
I have used Alpine as a baby sitter for green trail horses.
He’s blocked the trail when a small child’s pony ran away, and been
run into. He gets used as the confidence builder for scared horses because he’ll
go through anything, and I expect that Merlin will be used the same way. I’ve
never had to worry about him kicking. I like that…
Juli and the Herd
Alpine (Mom would kill me for kicking. She would change my
name to Alpo and feed me to the dogs!)
Merlin (I have also learned this, and I really don’t
like getting in trouble, so I’m not planning on kicking ever again)
