FEARFUL KICKS A fearful kicker is akin to
a fear-biting dog. He feels threatened and trapped and is doing nothing more than what he feels he has to do to protect himself. Freshly captured wild horses, previously abused horses or introvertive hors- es that hide their anxieties can offer the handler a fear kick if they feel too much pressure. These horses will usually show one or more
symptoms of defensive stress such as tails clamped against buttocks, heads high, eyes wide open and nostrils tense (held unevenly) or fl ared. Particularly ominous signs involve a defensive horse that starts deliberately swishing his tail, pinning his ears and/or snaking his neck. In all of these circumstances the handler should be careful not to pressure the horse into a fl ight or fi ght decision if the horse is cornered, secured or otherwise senses that it cannot fl ee. If I see a frightened horse “loading up,” I will yield
him some space. I’m not relinquishing my authority and status by doing this if I time my yield correctly. The conversation that is taking place is the horse
telling me, “Human, I can’t take much more of this!” My appropriate response would be to step back
one or two steps to say, “OK, horse, I’ll give you a little space so you can get a grip on your emo- tions.” What I don’t want to do is to push the horse to the point he even considers cocking a hind leg and threatening to fi re at me. If I wait that long to give him space, he could develop an association between his threat display and my getting out of his way. Once he discovers this “tool,” he could be really diffi cult to work with and this will no longer be a problem suitable for a novice to deal with. An effective alternative to triggering a showdown
is to let the horse out of the current encounter. Once in a controlled environment you can set him to forward motion in a safe endeavor such as longe- ing in a circle. He needs to work off his stress and get his emotions under control before you can do much with him and longeing provides a dynamic where you can get yourself out of a tough spot but still remain the leader.
BUDDY, CAN YOU SPARE ME A DIME? T e most painful kick I ever received was from a yearling
that I was teaching to trailer load in a short “safe trailer loading” video. Aſt er several successful loads we were standing around talking about the next shot, something caught the colt’s at en- tion and he fi red an exuberant kick into my pants pocket. T e kick from a yearling was strong enough to bend some of the change in my pocket into right angles!—Willis Lamm
PLAYFUL KICKS
The playful kick is also called the “kick that kills.” Horses will often play, “Tag, you’re it” with a nip or the fl ash of a hoof while running past a playmate. Since horses have good lateral vision, they usually dodge the kick and chase the mock
aggressor or wheel their butts around in response. Humans who do not benefi t from lateral vision and inattentive horses tend to get kicked. Both unwitting
horses and humans have been seriously injured or even killed this way. Part of the problem stems from the fl ick of
the foot being expressed as a form of atten- tion getting gesture, “Wake up! Let’s play!” Thus, if you are daydreaming while your horse is playing, you could actually invite such
an approach. Any time you are in an area with playful horses you must stay alert and wave them off if they approach to “buzz” you!
DISRESPECTFUL KICKS The disrespectful kicker is basically
saying, “Up yours.” He’ll swing his rear end toward you and fl ash you the bot- tom of his hoof. Disrespect seldom involves actual contact, however you can be accidentally struck and unchecked disrespect often leads to more aggressive behavior as the horse starts to believe he is the more dominant of the two of you. Disrespectful behavior can be an indica-
tion of anxiety or self esteem issues. Therefore while I have to have zero tolerance for this be- havior, I try to make immediate correction and back off as soon as the horse makes an attempt to “get right.” This horse often needs clear “wrong - right” signals from the handler in order to develop more appropriate responses, but overdoing the correction can lead to other undesirable behavioral issues. With these horses, at the instant the
horse displays submissive body language, I will immediately relax, let him come in and positively reinforce his decision to behave respectfully just as I immediately “negatively reinforced” his infraction. If an unsure horse or a horse that is testing me makes a mistake that I correct, I have to clearly indicate to him that I recognize when he gets it right.
continued page 48 46 June | July 2010 •
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