my mare kicks on rides how can she "kick" her need for kicking horses behind her?

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Hi ! Janessa is essentially correct. Glad to know that my granddaughter is taking to heart all the horsey psycho babble that I am constantly yacking about when she is at our house! :)

First, we should do some detective work and try to find out WHY she is kicking on the trail. First thing that comes to mind is that your mare is being crowded by the horse behind her.

Okay, two issues here...

1) Not your mare's fault. It is the responsbility of the rider behind you to observe some safe distance between their horse and your horse. This is just common courtesy and a huge safety factor. Do not tailgate the driver in frnt of you when you are dirving your truck and don't tail gate the horse in front of you on the trail.

2) Part of this IS your AND your mare's fault. Even though the rider behind you should have courtesy and not crowd your horse, your mare does need to understand that it is not tolerated. if she did this only once, I would not fuss about it, but if she is doing regularly, then she also has an issue. What if we are all standing in the creek getting a drink during a trail ride? Is she going to kick because she is a little crowded?

2A) Your fault - knowing that your mare has intolerance issues, it is up to you to be an alert partner. If you see her getting crowded by a disrespectful rider behind you, politely ask them to put some space between you. Give them a warning, my mare might kick if she gets crowded. If they are inexperienced, or continue to be inpolite you can move to another place in line where you and your mare not be so crowded. If this is an organized trail ride by another host, at some point quietly inform the host and let them handle a teaching moment with the offending rider.

Now Janessa is essentially right...let's use this as a "learnng together" moment...

Let's pretend that your mare is just cranky and will offer to kick at any horse behind her. Start looking for signs that she is going to kick. I promise you she will give them, it is just a matter of looking for them. it could be a hard swish of the tail...pinning of the ears...a constant turning of the head to get a better view...increased agitation in response to your cues (mostly because she is worried about the offending horse behind her).

When you see the first sign, ask her to do something..speed up jsut a hair...use a leg cue to ask her to sort of move diagonally forward..anything at all...jsut get her mind back on you.

if this isn't working, tell the rider behind you that you are about to stop. Then perform a one rein stop. Get lateral flexion of the head and have her disengage her hindquarters. When she stops, relax, rub her beck...wait 15 seconds and proceed at a walk down thetrail again...You could always take this moment while stopped to explain to the rider behind you that "she was about to kick his horse and that you're working through it but it might be wise to give you some space while you are learning together wiith her to not kick".

In a more severe case, you might want to keep circling her in a tight forward circle or keep disengaging the hindquarters over nad over again circling her rear end...eventually ask forthe stop and rub her. This is a case of "Making the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult". Not the best method, but it is something to try while on the trail.

Last, have some friends at the barn pretend trail ride int eh arena with you and you work on looking for the signals and how to gather your horse's mind. Practice at home before going on the trail.

Hope this helps.

Michael