Re: [RC] stallion kicking [RC-Digest] Vol: 03.1818 - Mary Ann Spencer
RE: Stallions:
I have ridden a few rides on a few stallions.
As they are mostly ridden alone, I think that is part of the reason. To
me, it seems they feel threatened when some animal runs up on their
behind. One ride I did was interesting in that a nice older man waited to
start the ride, as had I, knowing my horse was green for this. I warned
him about this 4 yo stallion and he just gave us a distance ahead of him.
His needs were meet in that he wanted a horse to follow and my horse got some
training about riding with another horse which we had never done. The
first hour he kept looking back to see if he was still being followed. The
second hour he allowed the gelding to get closer to him, like 10 fit. Any
closer and he positioned to kick. After the second hour, he did not
care one way or the other. The gelding trailing us was slower and we just
went about riding our own ride.
I am now riding a 7 yo gelding who was gelded last
fall at age 6. He was not under saddle until age 5. He was quiet as
a stallion. Long story about reason for the gelding, mostly due to my time
in Iraq. I took him to a social trail ride and he was fine around
the horses. It was his 3 rd trail ride and he fine overall. HOWEVER,
on one little ride, there was a stallion who was well behaved. While
waiting for a gate to be opened, I pulled him to the side of the trail.
Well, the stallion was there and in a NY minute, they were squealing at each
other. It was sort of -Oh, I remember about being a stallion!!!! We
just kept them separate for the remainder of the ride and things went
fine.
When he was a stallion, we could put some geldings
in with him but not others. They have their own likes and dislikes in
horses. BUT, they are instinctive to keep others out of their herd and
those instincts are why they do what they do. A few don't give
a darn.
The same can happen in mares. To fix that in
a mare I used to compete with: got someone to ride a horse up to her rear
and when she tensed to kick, I wacked her with a riding crop. Only took a
few sessions. That might not be Parelli or Horse Whisperer but they
weren't around in those days and when there is something that can be dangerous
to others then it needs to be corrected quickly. The mare never kicked
again.
