Hello! I'm on my way to a show so bare with me * should have done this yesterday :? - or later * Anyway, my question mostly is for mares. I have always owned geldings and if they did anything wrong it was quite easy to tell them "no". But my mare, well, she used to kick out very quick sharp blink of an eye kicks, straight back, cow kick-whatever. But getting her used to me and knowing I'm not going to beat on her and working with her everyday she has stopped. She wouldn't let you anywhere near her head before, except to bridle she would shoot up. Many signs of a horse with some.. handling issues.... *cough*
But there are times when I bath her, groom her, fuss with her hind end area or just taking too long with her feet exc. she will just do a little twitch or swish of the tail, all the signs that she will kick out. She will lift her leg staight up then back down.
So I know how to fix this with a gelding, quite easy, but with her...not sure. One person has tried smacking her with a crop on the leg and she gets mad and gets worse. She has come so far, i couldn't lift her back feet to pick them out because she would just shoot with those legs when you touched her. I can do anything with her but now but I don't want to leave it and it actually become a big problem. She has hind shoes with corks and one good kick on me or someone else.. I don't even want to think what a "good one" would do.
So my question is, how to fix/ prevent this from getting worse without picking a fight with my horse. I have asked at the barn and they said smack her with a whip. I would like to get more options before I do that. She has come SO far, I do NOT want to put her back.
But there are times when I bath her, groom her, fuss with her hind end area or just taking too long with her feet exc. she will just do a little twitch or swish of the tail, all the signs that she will kick out. She will lift her leg staight up then back down.
So I know how to fix this with a gelding, quite easy, but with her...not sure. One person has tried smacking her with a crop on the leg and she gets mad and gets worse. She has come so far, i couldn't lift her back feet to pick them out because she would just shoot with those legs when you touched her. I can do anything with her but now but I don't want to leave it and it actually become a big problem. She has hind shoes with corks and one good kick on me or someone else.. I don't even want to think what a "good one" would do.
So my question is, how to fix/ prevent this from getting worse without picking a fight with my horse. I have asked at the barn and they said smack her with a whip. I would like to get more options before I do that. She has come SO far, I do NOT want to put her back.