Ridecamp: RE: [RC] "Horses that kick"

I have a little gelding that was originally a school horse who was a confirmed kicker when I got him. It took me about 6 months of intensive work to stop the kicking. He's a little Napoleon, the toughest guy in the barn, and the one we turn out with colts who are being too rowdy because he will calm them down immediately! Yes SIR! But all it took was my riding him with a total awareness of his movements so that he was punished the second he even tensed his butt. He's a ballsy little guy who is so madly in love with one of my mares that he can't be left out with her if she's in heat, but he's smart. And not being allowed to even START the behaviour taught him to drop it from his repetoire. He doesn't kick now even if you run up behind him and bump right into him on the trail....but I also don't ignore those signs either. Just because he's stopped doesn't mean that he can't start again. A horse that will back up and kick when the rider is on the ground has some ground schooling to do. None of ours will do that. But like the Icelandics, they are turned out in groups in a relatively small area and they HAVE to behave or lose their turnout. Seems to work.

 

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
maryanne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.ratbusters.net

> This is an endurance horse also and there will be a red 
>   ribbon in her tail -- for all the good that will do if she hits reverse to go 
>   after somebody). My goal is to not be behind that horse ev er! (unfortunately 
>   she's a lot faster than we are, so I may have to settle for being waaaaay 
>   behind her).
>
> Sylvia & Harca (we were just standing there, really we 
>   were!)