Horse Kicking Stable Walls

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TulipBlaze

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Hello,

My mare has recently started kicking the stable walls approaching evening feedtime, when her stable neighbours go in or out, and at night. This has also included double barreling the one concrete wall in her stable, twisting her shoe and bruising her soles, resulting in a vets bill and nearly 2 weeks off work. It does seem to be linked to feed times, and she also pulls faces at the horse next door, which she is otherwise generally friends with.

She is in good health, has had regular farrier visits, physio and massage, dentistry, tack checks etc so I don't think it is as the result of a physical pain.

Does anyone have any similar experience, or advice to help stop this happening. I have considered lining the back wall with some rubber matting, (its a livery yard stable, not my own) or ordering some Old Mac type boots to wear in the stable, especially at night as this is when it seems to happen most.

The problem does seem to be worse when she is left in for long periods, and I am trying to work out a new turn out routine, as she does not like being left out all day while I am at work, and runs up and down by the gate.

Any advice or ideas gratefully received, I am very worried about any further damage that could occur to her legs / the stable wall / the yard owners sanity if she continues to do this, especially damage to the pedal bone.

Thankyou
 
I've got one who does this big time, luckily my stables are wooden so less damage likely to her pedal bone as stable kickers can easily fracture the pedal bone.

We used to pin gorse around her stable, that helped a lot, but now we have put rubber matting around her box, this has helped recuce the damage likely to her feet and also reduced the noise she used to make, and since we have put it up, she doesn't kick quite as much, so I think she liked the noise her kicking made.

With brick/solid walls, I would be inclined to put the mats up to help protect the feet and you could try some gorse over the mats to stop the kicking. I'm afraid habits are hard to break, mine mainly does it if she thinks that room service is not as prompt as it could be :) bless
 
TulipBlaze said:
Hello,

My mare has recently started kicking the stable walls approaching evening feedtime, when her stable neighbours go in or out, and at night. This has also included double barreling the one concrete wall in her stable, twisting her shoe and bruising her soles, resulting in a vets bill and nearly 2 weeks off work. It does seem to be linked to feed times, and she also pulls faces at the horse next door, which she is otherwise generally friends with.

She is in good health, has had regular farrier visits, physio and massage, dentistry, tack checks etc so I don't think it is as the result of a physical pain.

Does anyone have any similar experience, or advice to help stop this happening. I have considered lining the back wall with some rubber matting, (its a livery yard stable, not my own) or ordering some Old Mac type boots to wear in the stable, especially at night as this is when it seems to happen most.

The problem does seem to be worse when she is left in for long periods, and I am trying to work out a new turn out routine, as she does not like being left out all day while I am at work, and runs up and down by the gate.

Any advice or ideas gratefully received, I am very worried about any further damage that could occur to her legs / the stable wall / the yard owners sanity if she continues to do this, especially damage to the pedal bone.

Thankyou
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If she is in a barn with bars between boxes it would also be worth putting rugs over them to give her some privacy, some mares really do like to be private and not watched constantly by their neighbours it can wind them up as well as make them more clingy and reactive.

Sorry linked the wrong post, I meant link the reply not the OP.
 
My youngster is a wall kicker, with her its temper and seems also to be linked with feeding, but also if she doesn't think she has given me permission to leave! i have resorted to EVA rubber matting from ebay cost me just £17 per 6' x 4' mat. Definately worth it in my opinion as will save her feet and legs and of course the wall, and also means it makes less noise which is easier for me to ignore!
 
My share horse does this - it started due to itchy legs when he had an allergy and became a habit. He also does it when he's cross that other horses are going out and he's not - his 5 months of box rest were interesting! Rubber matting on the stable walls have been a godsend. Because it's reduced the noise, he doesn't get the same "reward" from it so he kicks less, but he also lost shoes doing it and the rubber matting has stopped that happening. We bought old conveyor belt rubber very cheaply which works well.

He's not great with other horses and really likes his own space so we also moved him from the corner stable where he must have felt quite hemmed in, especially with two dominant horses either side of him, to a stable on the end with a bottom-of-the-pecking-order-horse next door so he doesn't feel threatened and a bit of a view. This has helped enormously - if he goes back into the corner stable (my horse is in it now so he sometimes goes in if we're mucking out his stable) he starts kicking straight away.
 
My mare does this. I initially thought that it was due to wanting out of her stable. I moved her to a yard where she is out 24/7 with access to open stables and she still goes in and does it! No horses near her and not feed time. I am now wondering if it is hormonal.
 
Slave2Magic said:
My mare does this. I initially thought that it was due to wanting out of her stable. I moved her to a yard where she is out 24/7 with access to open stables and she still goes in and does it! No horses near her and not feed time. I am now wondering if it is hormonal.
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She doesn't have itchy legs does she? This is what started my share horse off.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

For those of you who lined the wall with rubber mats , how did you attach it?

Because the wall is concrete I cant nail it in, there is a wooden beam higher up I could attach it too, I will have to check how difficult this would be. The YO also suggested getting some matting like that used to line lorries and trailers, and gluing it to the wall with some quick set strong stuff. Any suggestions?

Thankyou!
 
TulipBlaze said:
Thanks for all the replies.

For those of you who lined the wall with rubber mats , how did you attach it?

Because the wall is concrete I cant nail it in, there is a wooden beam higher up I could attach it too, I will have to check how difficult this would be. The YO also suggested getting some matting like that used to line lorries and trailers, and gluing it to the wall with some quick set strong stuff. Any suggestions?

Thankyou!
Click to expand...


My matting is very light, but dense EVA matting designed for stable walls and trailers etc., my sister in laws hubby fixed them for me by drilling into the breeze block/concrete, putting in a raw plug and a screw and a large washers as well. My concern with glueing them is that eventually the glue may perish, but also if you were to move stables or yards you may struggle to take them down in one piece.
 
Joyous70 said:
My matting is very light, but dense EVA matting designed for stable walls and trailers etc., my sister in laws hubby fixed them for me by drilling into the breeze block/concrete, putting in a raw plug and a screw and a large washers as well. My concern with glueing them is that eventually the glue may perish, but also if you were to move stables or yards you may struggle to take them down in one piece.
Click to expand...

This - drill into wall, rawl plugs a big washer either side of the rubber and screw into wall. You just need a strip about 2' wide about 2'-4' high - unless she's incredibly athletic and kicking really high! The marks on the wall will show you where you need it.
 
annagain said:
This - drill into wall, rawl plugs a big washer either side of the rubber and screw into wall. You just need a strip about 2' wide about 2'-4' high - unless she's incredibly athletic and kicking really high! The marks on the wall will show you where you need it.
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Ummm the kick marks go up to about 4ft haha! It looks like a fly buck when she does it! This is why I am so concerned about her pedal bones :)
 
TulipBlaze said:
Ummm the kick marks go up to about 4ft haha! It looks like a fly buck when she does it! This is why I am so concerned about her pedal bones :)
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Just use enough to cover where the kick marks are, you do't need to cover everywhere. I'll take a photo of his stable tonight to show you if you'd like.
 
TulipBlaze said:
Ummm the kick marks go up to about 4ft haha! It looks like a fly buck when she does it! This is why I am so concerned about her pedal bones :)
Click to expand...

This is what my girl does, I have breeze blocks, we put the mat level with the bottom of the 2nd block up from the floor so about 8" off the ground, fixed them as i said with washers, rawl plugs etc., so mine are probably almost 5' high.
 
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