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Any horse can kick.? That's my experience.

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Occasionally, I've observed incredibly bad horsemanship at some vet?holds,?standing in lines,?including my horse almost getting kicked by a mare whose owner had put a red ribbon in her tail, but then was not paying the slightest attention to her and letting her back into other horses (including mine), backing her ears and shaking her head.? Thankfully no one was hurt.? I asked the rider, "Does your mare kick, isn't that why she has the ribbon in her tail?? Could you please not let her back into my horse?"? I asked nicely (I really did!), but she gave me a dirty look and moved her mare away.? <G>? But, at least my horse didn't get kicked.

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Carla Richardson

Colorado

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On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 12:21 PM, Sandy Adams <sandydsa@xxxxxxx> wrote:

I don't generally try to acertain whether or not a flagged OR UNFLAGGED horse is going to kick. I just stay out of harm's way. How difficult is that for people to comprehend? I have in the past flagged our very sweet stallion simply because a few DOLTS were pushing him to NOT being so sweet; for example, the knnucklehead on a stallion who was tail gaiting just about every horse on trail, while his bad mannered horse bugled every 2 minutes on the way, zig zagging back and forth right in front of other riders, and finally taking a nice BITE out of MY horse's BUTT in the VET CHECK! The P & R gal was ready to let ME have it because my guy lifted a leg to deck the monster and caught her in the arm - barely thank GOODNESS - then saw the idiot who was paying NO ATTENTION to his brat. She let him have it, we got out of teh check as soon as they allowed us to - and that bad actor and his horse were DQ'ed as they SHOULD have been. My POINT is, why is it that this is even an ISSUE? Anyone who is "mature" enough to be allowed in such an event should not have to have anyone else tell them not to tail gate. Pretty basic good manners and common sense - so what does that mean that we have to keep going over this and that people feel compelled to flag horses who are NOT kickers but who could easily become one given a situation such as we were faced with?

On Apr 8, 2009, at 11:00 AM, Kitley, Carrie E Civ USAF AFSPC 30 MDSS/SGSLF wrote:

I don't agree. ?If other riders don't heed the warning of any ribbon,
that's just blatant rudeness or they simply aren't paying attention.
Most people I've come across however DO pay attention to the ribbons, I
know I do. ?That's like saying vehicles that have red taillights will be
ignored and we should just ram into them anyway, whether they stop or
not. ?A ribbon should be heeded no matter what the meaning because it
must mean SOMETHING to that horse and rider or they wouldn't put it
there. ?
Maybe we should use Yellow ribbons on horses that don't kick but don't
like tailgaters.
Carrie

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