When grooming or picking a horse hooves and the horse kicks what should you do?

Answer 1

A horse kicking is absolutely unacceptable. Don't tolerate it, ever. To begin with, perhaps the horse needs some more basic ground manners training. That is for you, the owner, to decide. You can hire a trainer or train yourself. There are many varying opinions on how to discipline a horse. Even most natural horsemanship trainers will agree that for a serious infraction such as biting or kicking, it is absolutely OK to hit your horse back. (Just never hit them in the face) At the same time you yell out "NO!", you can smack them on the neck or shoulders or hindquarters with the flat of your hand or a comb or a crop or something that will make a good smacking sound. Trust me, it is far easier to hurt your hand than the horses flesh! But be reasonable! Obviously, you dont' want to hit the horse with a 2 x 4 piece of board or anything sharp or anything that is going to seriously hurt or abuse the horse! What you actually want to do is scare the horse more than hurt the horse. The general rule is that you take about 3 seconds to make that horse THINK that you're going to kill him or her (and the face and head are always off limits) It's a mind game with horses. They are herd animals and they have a heirarchy. You must prove to that horse that YOU are the alpha, the leader - NOT them - and let them know that you are not scared of them and that you are not going to tolerate that behavior. Another method of discipline is throwing your hands up in the air and yelling or using the lead rope to flail in front of the horses face while using a very strong voice and make the horse back up for several steps. Backing is very uncomfortable for a horse. If you consistantly make them back up several steps after EVERY TIME they threaten to kick, they should stop kicking. Another very effective method of discipline is you yell "No!" at the horse and then while holding their lead rope, make them run a few tight circles around you. Keep yourself facing and staring into their shoulder and using either the end of the lead rope or a small crop, tap their hindquarters and make them TROT several tight circles around you. This is also a very uncomfortable maneuver for a horse to do. A few times of this will definitely get the horses attention. They hate it. Whichever of these disciplines you use, when you see the horses ears go back up and when they begin licking their lips, that is a sign of submission and you should stop immediately. That is horse sign language for "I'm being submissive right now. You win." The moment you see them lick their lips, stop what you are doing. Go back to trying to lift the hoof and if they kick or threaten to kick again, you do the same discipline again. Stop as soon as you see them lick their lips. After discipline, make sure you REALLY praise them when they allow what you want to do. In other words, for every foot that horse allows you to pick up, AFTER you set the hoof back down, give them a nice soft rub and a nice soothing voice to say "Good job!" If the horse lays its ears back or lifts the leg, even threatening to kick, go back and do the discipline again. Be consistant. EVERY TIME they kick or even THREATEN to kick by laying the ears back or lifting a leg, you do the same thing. The problem won't go away in a day. You must remain consistant. If none of this works, I would suggest more round pen training by someone who is experienced with this type of behavior. If that doesn't work or you can't get a trainer or a round pen, then it may be time to trade horses. A biting or kicking horse must be stopped or it will seriously hurt someone, or worse. Never, ever beat the horse. That is abuse and its just wrong and it will ruin your horse. But a little FIRM, correcting "tap" here and there is going to teach them some respect. Correct them when they're wrong and give them lots of loving when they're right and chances are extremely good that you'll have a good horse that will respect you and love you back. As for natural horsemanship training, check out some books or videos by Buck Brannaman, Tom Dorrance, John Lyons or Clinton Anderson. There is lots of information on Google and from Amazon.com. They are all excellent trainers and will be able to give you much more detail and much better instruction that what is possible here on this website. Further down this page are a couple of links to natural horsemanship training that may be of help to you.