# Kicking out in the trailer.



## SorrelHorse (Apr 9, 2009)

Well...

I picked up another horse yesterday as a favor. She's seventeen. A nice little Peppy San mare. She's sweet, real gentle, nice sorrel with chrome. She's a little shaggy right now from lack of grooming, but the deal is I take her and either Mom is going to buy her for herself or I am going to sell her and split the money with her old owner.

Now I had never seen this mare ridden, saddled, anything. I was feeling brave so I took her to the barrel race with me yesterday. I put her in the trailer and that son of a **** kicked like a caged dog against the wall, ears pinned, mouth open. In her defense Selena DID bite her quite hard on the lip through the divider, but the old owner says she does that anyway. She's not kicking at me, or even really aiming for the other horses, she's just kicking straight back. That makes me nervous because we have a four horse slant, and to get out you have to walk kind of near her hind and shut the divider. I don't fancy getting kicked. I have anxiety in the trailer as it is without that.

The thing is, I really like this mare. She rides good, she's lazy (which is really good, I was afraid she would be hot) but not TOO lazy, and I took her right away into the warmup pen after some exposure to the other horses in a less crowded area (With a red ribbon of course) and she was just fine. Pinned her ears, but never offered to kick or anything.

Put her in the trailer to leave, same thing. She didn't do it as bad, only twice as opposed to five or six times at first, but it's still unnerving me a little. Mom and I talked, I said "Let's just take her back." but she says, "Let's give her a month."

So, she has a month. Any ideas?


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## Brighteyes (Mar 8, 2009)

I had a friend who has a mare who kicked in the trailer. She put a shock collar on the horse (same kind as you use on dogs) and shocked her every time she kicked. The horse no longer kicks the trailer. I don't know any more details, but maybe it's something worth looking in to.


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Other than your trailer walls being lined with rubber matting, sorry I haven't a clue how to stop a horse from kicking inside a trailer. My friend's horse did that when she would load him to go to a show but after she had worked him all day, he didn't bother.


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## SorrelHorse (Apr 9, 2009)

I know an old cowboy guy, he told me just loop a hobble up from her back leg through her halter and let her yank her own face when she does it. Or put kick chains on. Honestly though, I've never done either of those things before.

Shock collar huh? At risk of sounding cruel, I'm very tempted to do it.

I am going to mess with her tomorrow and have a whip in hand. When I got out of the trailer yesterday, I just kept lightly tapping her hip as I walked away and she did not kick. I know how I would fix it if she was outside the trailer, but inside...There's not a lot of room for correction.


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## 4horses (Nov 26, 2012)

It could be nerves. I would just practice loading her every day by herself, locking her in there and letting her out. If she still kicks after that you can think try something else.

I don't think I would use a shock collar. I'd be surprised any horse would ever want to go in a horse trailer again after getting shocked!


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

It is just a bad habit she has been allowed to do.

A shock collar will absolutely work. I have never seen one fail for stall kicking or trailer kicking. To NOT fix this will result in expensive trailer damage and can cripple her or at least result in capped hocks. A shock collar is not cruel. The horse blames the behavior and not you. They do not get head shy or reactive like hitting one causes (which does not work anyway). 

We have an old Tritronics dog collar that husband used years ago when he hunted **** hounds. He used it to break them from running deer. It has seen more use on horses since. We have even stopped cribbers if they were not long-time cribbers. We've found nothing to stop those.


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## SlideStop (Dec 28, 2011)

I'm going with the shock collar too. Before you do it make her wear it a couple days a for a few hours so she doesn't know where it's coming from. 

IMO there are certain things that animals need to know are NOT acceptable. We trained my dog (with great success) with a shock collar. He wouldn't quit barking at people in the car so finally I turned it up and as soon as he opened his mouth I pressed the button. He never did it again.
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## SorrelHorse (Apr 9, 2009)

Great, I'll have to go up to my dad's and get the old dog's shock collar then.

We have a nice trailer which is the one she kicked at first, but I'm thinking I'll put her in the old stock trailer for this one. Let her beat up that thing if she wants. Maybe just load her in with the collar, give her a hay bag, and leave her. Hell I could even take her to Walmart a few times with me, lol. 

You guys don't think the horse would panic? She doesn't seem like a horse who would overreact, but I have this irrational fear of one jumping into the feeder, hay bag, trying to flip over backwards in the trailer, etc....


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## SlideStop (Dec 28, 2011)

I think putting her in the stock trailer is a great idea. I don't think she will react by flipping over or anything extreme. It may be a good idea to either mount the hay net high or keep it out. She'll probably jump a little bit and shake her head. The biggest thing with the collar is to make sure they DONT associate the shock in a bad way. You want her to associate it with the kicking, not the trailer. Make sure after you shock her she spends plenty of time in the trailer.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## SorrelHorse (Apr 9, 2009)

Okay, thanks guys. I will go up and get it sometime this week and load her up after each ride. If I'm going to get her sold, this habit HAS to go away. And unfortunately, that's the only thing standing in our way right now.

I went out today and literally tried to make her kick. Bags, whips tapping behind her, pulling her tail, picking up her hind feet, anything I could think of and nothing happened. It's clearly just the trailer that is the issue then. She is such a nice mare though...And some major legs! I wish she was ten years younger, I'd keep her as my barrel prospect. lol


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

If you put her in a stock trailer, she will set back when you shock her. Does it have divider gates in it? If you close her in the back compartment, you can shock her where she does not have enough room to set back hard.


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## SorrelHorse (Apr 9, 2009)

Yeah it is a four horse stock trailer, straight load divider up front and then the middle divider. I was thinking the same, the back area would be good and she wouldn't be able to pull back.


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