Years ago my trainer told me “Men and dogs like slaps as appreciation. Women, cats and horses hate them.” 
I also follow the 3-second “I’m going to kill you” technique and I’ve never had to use it more than once.
But I did boot one of my horses in the belly once when he decided to cow kick at my head for no reason while I was picking out one of his feet. (It was winter, so no flies.) It wasn’t the perfect reaction but he missed my skull by inches and I was pissed.
Well, sure. The logic works both ways. The person was doing something offensive to the horse, and the person’s turnout buddy would have bitten them for it (or under human social rules, yelled “QUIT!”) You issued a warning, it wasn’t heeded. That will be an important lesson.
A COTH poster used to have the username “Rubs Not Pats”. I always liked that. My horse prefers to have his poll scratched or the inside of his ears rubbed, so it’s a good thing he’s a compact model and I can reach.
There’s another video going around about a person who smacked her horse on the face, and people are freaking out, but on the video, you can’t tell why shes smacking the horse. I’m not saying they should smack the horse, but two weeks ago I was at an event, and when I was mounting for dressage, the person holding my horse had a baby on their back. At one point, my horse’s head butted, and they smacked her on the face, which I feel is reasonable considering my horse hit their back.
Last year, I had a young pony I was training. The first time I gave her a good girl pat on the neck, she freaked out. but it was like a good job pat. An onlooker would probably think I smacked her for the reaction she gave me. After that, every time I walked by her, I would give her a treat and a pat. Eventually, she figured out that I was happy with her.
I think as long as you punish within three seconds and only for three seconds for a good reason, that’s okay.
I have a now 22 stallion, who is awesome 99% of the time. But every now and then he aims a nip in my direction - and gets a smack. He does have a game of grabbing bridle parts, but as he’s actually seeking the bit, and not me, I cut him a break, lol. And when he’s in a “hubba hubba” mood, I might take my whip or a short crop when leading him somewhere - he knows this and will stay out of my space. If he’s in that mood while in the wash rack (why there??) I just wait it out.
If you have ever been bitten by a horse that means business, or run over/ kicked by a disrespectful horse you would hopefully employ some method of discipline to keep it from happening again.
In many cases the disciplinary action is( should be) a one time event , quick and to the point . I don’t hit or smack but a flat handed smack to a horse is nothing but startling. Never hit the face.
Oh definitely. I’ve never encountered a horse disrespectful enough to need a good whack, though. Guess I haven’t been around them long enough.
Add gate thumping/smashing to the list of behaviors that should never be tolerated.
My young horse decided to run out the gate and hit the gate so hard (into me), he knocked me off my feet. I went and firmly worked on backing away from the gate until it is fully open. Aggressively pushed the gate into him and deliberately bumping him with the gate so he knows 1) hitting the gate hurts 2) better to back away from the gate before going out. Today for turnout, he backed up 10 steps on his own, and calmly walked out.
I’m trying to impress on him that bumping into things hurt- I’m always afraid of them knocking a hip going past a fence post without proper clearance. He is growing so quick I’m not sure he realizes how big he actually is.
A smack on a fleshy area as a quick correction for dangerous behavior is one thing
But never ever their face.
Yes! I have heard people say horses get to understand that the slap means ‘good job’, but I cringe each time I see it. I also give scritches on the neck.
However, because so many people do ‘slap’ as a reward I lightly slap just enough that if it should happen the horse is used to it.
When we bought my first horse, we boarded her at the neighbors. They had a horrible mannered palomino gelding that was a nasty biter, and had reflexes of a cat that he was hard to smack if you tried. I just steered very clear of his stall because he would go at anyone anytime.
One day the farrier was out trimming my mare, and the gelding was trying his best to bite the farrier. Farrier was down and felt it, and he balled up a fist and flew around so fast he made contact. That gelding did a few chews and then stood with his head in the corner of his stall the rest of the time. Certainly didn’t fix the behavior, because the owner was…um…rough around the edges? And drunk most of the time. I think he thought the biting thing was funny or endearing. Reality was the owner needed that punch more than the horse 
.
If it’s the one I recently saw, she’s not giving the horse a smack, she’s bloody pummeling it.
No excuse for that.
Also, it’s rarely necessary to hit a horse on the head or face.
It tends to make them head shy.
An old rec.eq friend used to say, “punish the horse, not the body part.”
I’ll do it to correct bad behavior such as biting, kicking out at a person, running someone over, etc. I was always taught the “make 'em think they’re going to die for 3 seconds then move on” rule and stand by it. Most horses only have to be corrected once or twice. Most lol, Schmee is a bit of a blockhead
Or around young or green horses. My own basically safe and gentle mare would bite to draw blood if you pissed her off. Once I was trying to shut down the teeth threats saddling up and she waited two hours to turn around and give me a giant hematoma on my butt.
Beginners and lesson kids and people in programs tend to deal with horses that have had these behaviors fixed by their owners or trainers plus you’re never around them except when they are immobilized in crossties.
My experience is that nipping and kicking and running you over are natural horse behaviors that they use on each other and you have to figure out how to train them out so effectively the horse stops even considering them as possibilities. If all goes well you get that done when they are foals
I am not opposed to making a horse think that I am a crazy lady who should not be crossed if they threaten to bite or kick me. Severe balking without a medical cause will also cause a warning and then quick thwack with the lead rope or whip. But you can tell when it’s “I’m afraid” vs “I just want to eat the grass over here and I am going to be a jerk about it”.
There are also some horses you can be permissive with and some you just never ever can. I have one young horse that was spoiled (almost an orphan foal mentality) and I cannot give him an inch otherwise he takes 10 miles. On the flip side, I have a sensitive horse who safely will play with my clothing without nipping. He is permitted to do so because it never escalates.
I have a mare that was really girthy when she came to us, would pick up her left hind and swing, not to get you but to make you back off. I will explain to a lesson student why I am saddling her instead of them, that I may pop her with my hand flat which makes a loud sound but truly hurts me more than her, and then I calmly proceed. She has been a great lesson in why to correct immediately and then forget about it.
It has taken consistent work but she has stopped with the behavior. I could see her picking it back up again with a timid rider though.
I hope you also treated her for ulcers as girthyness is frequently a symptom. I now feel a bit bad for the number of school horses I swatted for girthyness!
We did have a horse that I board that the cause was ulcers as we treated her and that issue went away. We also found if we gave her a flake of hay before riding she was much better. The key is to always look for solutions as horses are not born with bad habits, they are created by humans.
Waaayyyy back in the day the Old Man tried his hand at kicking at me when girthed. I knew absolutely nothing at the time, so my instructor took over. He swung one at her, she smack his belly flat handed but HARD. He was so stunned, and he literally has never tried it again.
I feel such sadness when I think about all of the poor lesson horses I saw over the years get smacked on for girthiness. I’m sure many were full of ulcers or had awfully fitting saddles.
Shows you that girthiness isn’t always an ulcer issue. I think people would be surprised at how many riders ( of all experience levels) cause their horses to be girthy / irritable when saddled by just over tightening the cinch and doing it up too quickly.
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