Impatience and Pawing

[RubysGold]

My 3yo seems really impatient.
If he knows his food is coming, he kicks the door a couple of times (but I totally ignore him so hes not too bad, kicks lightly and then stops)
When he has food he waves his leg around and knocks his feed over

When I tie him up, he starts pawing, and striking his front leg out (unintentionally hes been rather close to hitting me with it)

None of the things bother me really, I just ignore them, or slap his shoulder sometimes when hes tied up.

But am wondering if Im doing the right thing, should I do something about it, or will he grow out of it? Ive seen lots of horses paw and kick and most get yelled at, and that doesnt seem to work (assuming becuase the horse is getting attention doing that) I dont want to ignore it, if I should be doing something about it, dont want him to grow up with a 'problem'

 

[ISHmad]

I would tend to ignore the pawing but make sure nothing good happened until the horse was stood calmly and still. Our youngster went through a phase of kicking his door at teatime but soon learnt that tea only arrived once door kicking stopped.

If he is in danger of knocking you then I'd have his leadrope through the tie ring but not actually done up, and if he did it again I'd back him up. Put him back in place, if he does it again repeat and so on. Keep your energy levels down, just move his feet a bit until he realises that standing still is far easier than having to keep being backed up.