Horse Kicks out when you go near its backend!

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boots13

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Hello there, i am new to this forum so i hope this posts in the right place. I have a mare who can be very moody, nearly every time i go near her back end to brush her tail, or to put a rug on her she threatens to kick out with her back feet, sometimes when i warn her she puts her feet back down but other times the threat just gets worse and i have to just stop what i am doing and leave her because she would kick out if i keep going. also she is quite bad with her front feet to they very rarely get picked out as she just will not let me near them, and her back feet are a complete no no! also she is bad with the farrier too he manages (after much carry on) to do the fronts but the backs she has to be twitched for. she is other wise a lovely horse i just have this major problem with her feet.
so does anyone have an training tips as to what i can do to over come this problem with her feet?

any help would be very much appreciated

Thanks in advance
 
Hi,

Huge pain in the butt :mad:
She has you well trained though by the sound of things :(

What have you already tried?
Do you tie her up to handle her?

Is this a recent development or long term?
Is your mare genuinely scared?
Or just stubborn and stroppy?
Or does she have some physical reason? (Recent fall/kick etc)
Is she different inside the stable to outside?
Is it every time or just when she is cycling? A couple of my mares are dolls except when they are cycling and they get quite twitchy.

The old stuffed glove on a broom handle works well, takes time and patience, but rub it up and down her legs, when she tolerates it remove it, if she kicks out keep it there.

What does she do when you have someone holding up another leg?

What is her reaction when you warn her, does she look scared/wary or sulky?

Demeanor would have a big effect on the way I would react to a horse kicking out at me...pure stroppiness/laziness and they get a good slap to remind them of their manners. Two feet in the face is no joke (ask Puppy on here about that) and not on at all.

Genuine fear (which doesn't sound like your mare from your description) is easy to tell and requires sympathetic, but still firm handling. She still has to submit to being handled wherever, and whenever you choose, that is part and parcel of being a domesticated horse.

Physical reasons need to be sorted, if her back/legs/neck hurts then fair enough, still no excuse, but it is a reason that can be looked into and worked with, a couple of my olds like to stand against a wall for balance when they are being trimmed.

Lots of work is required, it isn't easy if you are wary of her, but minimise your risks. Cross tie her and pop a hat on your head. Then rug on, rug off, rug on, rug off etc, etc, etc. Whatever she doesnt want you to do, do it, until she literally goes "Oh FGS get on with it then - here's my foot"
 
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hey,
well really the only thing i have tried is working round her feet and persevering since April, she is a little better as i say sometimes her warnings are just stroppy they are empty threats and other times they are serious.
I always tie her up when im working with her as she wouldnt stand still other wise, she likes to swing her butt round! she tries this too if she doesnt want to be touched. she has been like this since i got her in April, her previous owner said she was funny with her feet so if something has happened to make her be like this it hasnt happened with me. although i would tend to say that nothing has happened as such it seems to be just be that she is stubborn. she acts the same tied up in or out of the stable. when i warn her sometimes she will stop and let me do what im doing, giving in, in a sense i suppose and other times the threat gets bigger and bigger so i just stop because as you say a kick in the face is not going to be pleasant. i do give her a good slap to remind her of manners sometimes it works other times it doesnt. i think the glove on the stick is a good idea i think i will give that a go, as it will keep me out of kicking range!

thanks you, this advice is much appreciated and a great help, i have been tearing my hair out!
 
My new mare has 'attitude' when being groomed, rugged and tacked up. I was also told she was VERY food agessive!

I have no doubt we will have our ups and downs but so far we are just testing each other to see how far we can go and how to read each other .... I think im coming across well and a growl and a sharp loud NO is helping a lot.

Rugging isnt as bad an issue as i first thought (when i went to try her the faces she pulled when being rugged would have scared the devil!!) thanks to the growl and loud NO she soon snaps out of it so this i put down to her testing me.

Grooming is a work in progress ... she thinks she should be muddy ... I dont .. we are compromising on this and working our way through the mud daily.

Feeding I have changed her routine and she is tied on the yard first thing and fed as i need to get in her stable to skip out before work .. So far a few face pulling but nothing major. I WOULD NOT be in her stable when she is fed but thats because I'm still getting to know her and she obviously comes with a warning.

Tacking up .. The girth ... HELL JESUS she scared the bloody life out of me .. teeth an all :eek: ... lets say that's a work in progress as well because once i was on a friend did her girth up more and she didnt bat an eyelid :confused:

Good luck with your mare. Stay calm, confident and consistent. Always finish on a good note even if its not what you were initially doing and most of all stay safe :)

Have you thought about her diet? Could this possibly be affecting her mood?
 
Oh and just one more thing that is now my mantra and seems to be working and thats ....

'You tell a gelding, ASK A MARE and discuss with a stallion'
 
Another one for the long stick. I use some of that foam insulation they use to protect pipes from the frost. I just keep gently stroking and tapping until they give up. The stroking doesn't hurt them and the kicking gets them nowhere. If they kick, or threaten to kick, and you stop what has provoked the threat, they will continue. If it doesn't work, they WILL give up!

Allow plenty of time and be gentle and patient. Oh, and continually try different things. Relace the foam with a glove, the glove with a rag, etc. Continue to push the boundaries. A walking stick is useful to pick up feet from a safe distance and if they kick it, you only need pick it up and start again.
 
My friends horse used to threaten to go over backwards when you picked out his back feet. He no doubt had got wise to the fact that everyone would drop his feet at the slightest hint he might fall and 'hurt' himself.

I never fell for that trick. One day she was complaining that she couldn't pick out his back feet again. She'd just made him a thick deep bed so I offered to pick them up for her. When he got to the point where he was about to topple she let out a little squeal of 'don't let him fall' (which the horse had obviously anticipated and used against her so many times previously) but I held on to the foot for grim death. The horse toppled onto its arse.

It looked around it as if to say "how in God's name did that happen?". Looking back it was quite funny, the expression on its face! It only took another quick reminder after that before it learnt to let you pick its back feet up and pick them out without his toppling trick happening ever again! :):)

Sometimes you have to use reverse phychology against horses.
 
The mare I used to share is like this! She is incredibly moody & hormonal and can be a real witch with her back end. Her behaviour sounds pretty similar to your mare's. However the fact that she won't allow her hind feet to be handled is, I think, very telling - she is scared. Who knows what she may have experienced in the past - not necessarily abuse (but possibly aggressive and forceful handling) but a general lack of handling may mean she's never properly been taught to accept having her feet handled. Not wanting her legs/hooves to be touched is very likely to be due to fear.
I'd not even try to directly handle her feet but go right back a few steps - i.e. when grooming/handling her, rub her back end (standing to the side and close to avoid being kicked) and then go back to grooming somewhere she is comfortable with being touched. A no-fuss, relaxed 'approach and retreat' method every time you handle her should help to build her confidence in you.
I would be very wary to twitch her, despite how she behaves, as she will remember it and it's likely to make her worse (since I don't wholey believe in the supposed 'calming' effect of the thing, and in my experience many horses become more frightened after being twitched regularly).
I wonder if giving her a hormonal supplement specially for mares may help her to feel more relaxed and not behave so defensively?
 
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