Kicking Stable Wall

[maybs124]

Hi There

Wondering if anyone is experiencing the same thing with their horse or has any advcie/tips!

I got my mare back in November she is a 12 year old Irish Sports Horse. In work around 5-6 times a week, stabled at night and out all day. Couldnt fault her ridden wise however she kicks the stable wall at feed times (i think its mainly then) or when another horse is getting fed! and pulls alot of faces as well as nodding when in the stable generally to get attention.

Main reason i am so keen to stop this as she is now on box rest and recovering from a fractured splint removal operation!!

HELP...

Thank you

 

[ponios]

I have same problem with my Irish Sports Horse- must be in the genes!

Mine kicks when eating but doesn't move to do it so I just feed in the corner of stable where he cant reach the walls and on the side that there is a wall rather than another stable (bar partition so he can see the horse).

Another thing I found helps is to empty the feed on the floor (so no bucket). I don't know why but when in a bucket he used to almost get frustrated he couldn't get to food (though it was a big open bucket so no actual problem!) and he used to aggressively paw the bucket more often than not losing half the contents.

I also leave him alone completely when its feed time.

Since doing all of the above, kicking got rarer and rarer and now I cant think of the last time he kicked. I think he has broken the habit as sometimes when someone beats me to feeding in the morning he will have his bucket (feed not tipped out) and he still doesn't kick the walls- the bucket still get a bit of a bashing though!

 

[Lillian_paddington]

Not my horse but at a riding school I know - one horse kicked the door constantly so they put a couple of water buckets (full) in front of its door. Seemed to work really well, as soon as the horse realised it couldn’t make a noise anymore it stopped. So if you had a couple of big rubber buckets that wouldn’t injure a horse if it tried to kick then it might be worth a try. Obviously not the most practical so I suppose it depends on how much the kicking bothers you/ how often the horse needs to get in and out of the stable.
Or if you have a tie-up area, could you tie them outside at feed time? I do this with my one and he paws the ground but he can’t kick anything.