Anyone /never/ hit their horse?

Hevs said:
As the parent of 2 extremely well behaved and respectful children who have never been smacked or otherwise physically punishes, I have to disagree :)
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Absolutely. Why is physical punishment seen as the ultimate method of control. It doesn't usually work with children, and with horses, who have a totally different mindset to us, it must be very confusing to them. Especially as they are very unlikely to see us as other horses.
 
i dont have a problem with smacking horses or dogs or cattle or kids :) (last bits a joke altho a smack never did me any harm)
i only smack fliss when shes naughty and make sure shes knows about because she knows how to behave properly so i dont take any rubbish from her.
what i cant abide is people constantly tickling the horse with the whip it must really annoy them... either smack them or leave them alone!!!

*hides*
 
I must say i used to smack my horse when younger as he was big bargy and must confess even kicked him after he booted me out of the stable for no reason he kicked me so hard i took the stable door of with me but now only a dirty look is enough for him to know he doing something wrong.
 
If a horse bites me/nips me, they will get a quick smack on the shoulder. For example, Bonnie Coblet (who you all know I love to the ends of the earth) can be SUCH a cow at times, (e.g. Our last lesson... Witch!) but I have to be firm with her, for her sake and others.

If I'm not firm with her, she could play up with another rider, which if they are older/more balanced they can deal with. If its a small child however, then they mightn't be strong enough/balanced enough to deal with her grumpiness, so I as the older person have to make sure she behaves for other clients. If I get hurt, then thats fine, I wouldnt blame my RS, but another client, another day... Who knows!

She is, on the whole, a lovely coblet, but she is strong and wilful, and needs to be told in black and white what is and what isnt acceptable.

The same with Albert. He is such a lovely pony, yet needs to be told in black and white what is and what is not good behaviour. Eg. Barging me out of the way to get to some haylage is VERY unacceptable. Cantering nicely around the school, staying in lead file without becoming a snail, and being polite is very good behaviour :D
 
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I can honestly say that I've never hit Sketch because the only time that he has ever hurt me was when he had been in pain and reacted to me treating a cut or something. Fortunately he has only ever been on box rest once and that was for 3 weeks with Laminitis and he was a grumpy little horror at the time but never did anything to really hurt me. If he is naughty, I will raise my voice or growl at him instead of smacking him. I would say he is very well mannered so its obviously never hurt him.

If people want to smack their horses then let that be their choice. It is after all, their animal.
 
I don't do it very often at all these days, but I think there can be far worse things in a horse's life than having the odd, short sharp shock of a smack with a hand.
 
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