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Kick it with you all night meaning12/18/2023 This may require reorganizing your herd to reduce conflict and bullying. If your horse is kicking out of fear, the only way to address the problem is to assuage his anxiety. Likewise, a horse may ultimately feel threatened enough to kick if he is forced to do something he finds genuinely scary, such as walking into a dark trailer. Hooves are likely to end up flying when a horse is pursued and cornered by an aggressive herdmate. In my work as an animal behaviorist, I’ve seen this time and again. Only when both escape and intimidation fail will the horse strike out. If that doesn’t work, he’ll likely try to intimidate the threatening presence by pinning his ears or raising his hind leg in preparation for a kick. First, he’ll try to move away from the threat. A horse who is truly scared will not kick immediately. You can recognize a fear kick by what precedes it. This response is instinctive so, depending on the situation, you may see it with even the most placid and agreeable horses. Horses in the wild can and often do repel predators by lashing out with their hooves. Message: “I feel threatened.”Īt its most primal level, the equine kick is a defensive weapon. To discern which one your horse is sending, you’ll need to closely observe his body language, take stock of the circumstances leading up to a kick and identify factors that may be contributing to the behavior. Generally, a kick delivers one of six messages. Some situations will compel practically any horse to lash out–to protect himself or to relieve pain–but in other cases kicking is a bad habit that must be addressed before someone is hurt. So if you have a horse who kicks, habitually, periodically or even only occasionally, it’s important to figure out the reasons behind the behavior. ![]() In addition, a horse can seriously injure himself by kicking a powerful impact with a cinder block wall, for example, can fracture bones within the hoof. In fact, medical journals document people going into cardiac arrest after sustaining a kick to the chest. A kick can shatter bones and traumatize soft tissue. Emergency room personnel have likened the destructive potential of an equine kick to that of the impact of a small automobile moving at 20 miles per hour. Of course, the sheer mechanical force of an equine kick underscores that it is an urgent message. Horses kick to deliver a number of different messages to their herdmates. ![]() Just as pinned ears or bared teeth send unmistakable messages, a kick–or even the threat of one–speaks volumes about a horse’s state of mind or his physical well-being. The kick is one of your horse’s most powerful forms of communication.
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