Young horse starting to kick out-how to solve?

[abbeyjoll]

On Monday and Wednesday I took myrecently backed 4 year old out with my other sensible horse hackingwith about 12-15 other horses. He was veryexcited and put in the odd buck (just out of excitement).
On Monday he tried two kick two horsesbehind him and caught one horse who went lame.
Then on Wednesday he tried to kick out atone horse. Both days I immediately took him to the back of the ride.I do not think it was out of nastiness just they were crowding him. He has never tried to kick out at my other sensible horse.
Please help I do not want him to keepon doing this. Do I just ignore it as he is only 4 and this is hisfirst time? Or do you suggest something else? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[be positive]

I think it is expecting a lot of a recently backed horse to go out in such a big group and would think he felt anxious and reacted as most youngsters would the first time, to try again 2 days later was pushing your luck.
I think you need to go back to quiet hacks with the one horse until he regains his confidence, then build up the numbers one or two extra at a time, keeping him at the back or front so he is not hemmed in, if he kicks it does really need you to tell him off but you really should give him a chance to succeed not put him in a position too soon where he can fail. If you plan on hunting this will need careful addressing, if going out to compete in the future I would start taking him out to a quiet venue and just walking around so he gets used to seeing other horses but is able to relax and be out of the way rather than in the thick of things.

 

[abbeyjoll]

He is very good alone or in company with about 2 other horses. Again he is at the front or behind. He has never been in a sand school and is hacked out 3-4 times a week either alone or in company (seems to be confident and chilled out). He was lead on hacks since he was 2 and a half ( then turned away 2 times) . That is why I am so surprised he did this. I want to hunt with him this season this is why we are going on these hacks to get him used to this volume of horses.

Thank you for your feed back. I will increase it to 3-4 horses as you suggested. How do I tell him off? I have never whacked him-only once when he bit me as a one year old. Do I shout, turn him in circles or whack his bottom?

 

[Tinypony]

Why are you thinking of whacking him when he's only reacting to being overwhelmed?
As above, you need to build up to this (and IMHO if he's not ready to hunt this year then wait until next). Also, the other riders could help by giving him a bit more space - they were possibly too close if a horse got kicked. I should think people ignored some warning signs for him before he kicked out. People who are helping a young horse to get used to things need to keep an eye open and be considerate... they shouldn't have been "crowding" him.
You've got many years ahead of you and your horse hopefully, so why not slow down a bit?

I'd go for turning and disengaging his hind end and being very quick to reward him relaxing to deal with kicking out. But not if that means confining him in close proximity with other horses that are crowding him. If you do that you can expect his "energy" to try to come out in a different direction.

 

[abbeyjoll]

Thank you. Yes I agree. I had a ribbon in his tail and some ignored it. There is no rush at all! Thank you for your advice. I will be hacking as normal for a couple of weeks and slowly introduce a few more horses and rewarding for good behavior when around them. I do not need to hunt this year, and I probably will not if he is not comfortable. Thank you again for your advice. He has been so easy up until now and I was unsure of what I should do next.