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Stopping A Stall Kicker

Off Course
#1

Ugh, almost nothing annoys me more than a stall kicker…and the new guy just happens to be one.

Now, I don’t mind if they kick at the stalls while I’m feeding; I just yell at them and they knock it off. But at night, when this guy wants more food, or in the morning when he’s ready for breakfast, all I hear is “Bang! Bang! Bang!” (My barn is unfortunately right near my house, and the noise wakes me up even through closed windows.)

How do I stop this? I’m not worried about my stalls breaking…he’s kicking 2’’ roughplaned aged oak and he’s going to break before it does. But I hate the noise and I hate the thought of him getting injured.

I try to ignore it at night, but I can’t help but “reward” him in the mornings because I am on a a schedule and eventually I will HAVE to go out there and feed him (and the two good ones) because I need to get the day started. He will kick for a good hour before the official breakfast time. (And yes, I do vary feeding times in order to not have this problem. But morning feed takes place around the same time every day as I try to stay in bed for as long as possible. :lol:)

So what are my options? Kick chains? Do those work? Are they safe?

#2

A friend’s new horse does that. It was just the stall door with him. She tried all sorts of things but it kept on. She finally padded the door. :slight_smile: He still kicks but she can’t hear it and she’s not worried about him hurting himself now.

#3

Hang a couple of those “lite mats” on the walls. Use screws with washers and attach at the top of the mat into the wall but leave the bottom hanging without screws.
Many kickers love the noise they make…muffle the noise and many stop. Others hate the feel of kicking a mat. It also stops them from dinging up the walls, harming themselves and muffles the noise for you overnight.
If it’s a boarder, I’d add the cost of the mats onto their bill for the month. It could get expensive buying and hanging mats in stalls for chronic kickers.
Don’t hang the regular thick heavy floor mats…BTDT and have the sagging walls boards to prove it. I have BO idea what hubby and I were thinking hanging 2 100 lb mats on one side of a stall wall and 2 more on the other side. We thought we were preventing stall wall damage in our shiny new barn…but 400 lbs of heavy rubber hanging on a few 12’ long boards makes for a saggy wall and makes the top grill bars fall out. :lol:

1 Like
#4

That’s the thing. I know he loves to make noise and be a nuisance, he’ll bang on my metal gates too, to get attention. So maybe mats would take away some of the glee. :lol: Like I said, I don’t care if he kicks those walls, THEY aren’t going to be injured. But that noise drives me insane at four in the morning! :lol:

#5

If your stall is large enough, you can stack straw bales 2 high all the way around. No noise, and keeps them from hurting themselves.

#6

Is there a reason folks aren’t suggesting kicking chains? I’ve used them with great success.

Also like the mat idea

Also have heard of placing a type of inner barrier - type structure around the walls so horse cannot back his butt up to kick. I’ve seen it built once, but honestly I’d be afraid a horse might rear and get a leg stuck over it, or under & cast himself should he roll.

Can the little bastard live outside? With a wooden gate?

#7

I also had this problem with my younger mare. She loved to kick and make noise! What worked for me was lining the inside of the stall with really prickly door mats (the commercial ones that you see in supermarkets.) She hates the feel of them and stopped kicking.

You might have to play around with a few things before something works. For example, my trainer boes boarding too. She had a stall kicker who any sort of mats didn’t work. She eventually hid next door to him and squirted him with a water gun when he started kicking. Worked for him- he hated getting wet! :lol:

#8

Can the little bastard live outside? With a wooden gate?

LOL…chronic kickers drive me bananas too. Last place I boarded had a young mare who used to strike the stall door with her frotn leg…talk about a sharp ringing noise! I wanted to shoot her owner for having a horse with such an annoying habit. I think I called her the “little bastard” too. You could hear her paw the floor mats in preparation and then one really loud CRACK on the stall door.
Kicking chains work well on many horses although I have met a few that like the “jingling jewelry” and still kick. I was going to suggest trying them, but it’s easier to have mats on the walls then to put on and remove chains every time they come in or out. One less barn chore per day. :winkgrin:

#9

I have a Morgan that does that and will wake me up at 3am. My solution with him is to feed him lots and lots of grass hay that will keep him busy until breakfast.

Funny thing about this horse is he does not kick waiting for his feed, but will kick once he is eating it. His head will be buried in his feed bucket and he will strike the stall wall with his front legs as he eats.

I had a saddlebred mare that was a stall kicker and I did keep kicking chains on her. She learned to back up to the wall and kick that way to keep the chains from hitting her (chains would hit the wall) but it would be a much more muffled and less powerful kick.:smiley:

#10

A dog training collar around his neck with a velcro strap. It will come loose if he gets it caught and you can tell him you have had enough. LF:yes:

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#11

[QUOTE=LostFarmer;3716361]
A dog training collar around his neck with a velcro strap. It will come loose if he gets it caught and you can tell him you have had enough. LF:yes:[/QUOTE]

You know they make these for horses now :D, they have a little more umph to the zap! We also have the wicked witch boarded right now and we have a metal Barnmaster. You can here that wicked thing kicking from a mile away and she pisses off her neighbors and gets them doing it too. She can’t live out as she kicked through a fence and tore her leg up (surprise…surprise), so at the moment she is stuck in jail. We put kick chains on her (1 for each leg, because she figured out how to kick with the leg without the chain on) and she will kick once and as soon as it hits her leg really good she stops. BTY don’t buy kick chains made for horses, the chain is too short and light. Get a leather dog collar and have about 10" of a heavier chain put on the ring. They are half the price and work twice as well.

#12

My old gelding once kicked down a wall… :rolleyes:

I used kicking chains and it stopped very fast. I used cheap leather dog collars and 4 links of heavy chain. Attached them just above the coronet band, and poof all kicking stopped. I used them religiously for about a month.

I would prefer to have kicking chains than a horse with leg problems later on.

1 Like
#13

LMAO something about the bitter inside me that is woken up at 3 in the morning LOVES the idea of the shock collar!

I may try kicking chains before I try the mats, just because of cost and because of the fact that I LOVE my gorgeous oak walls. :slight_smile:

I would just give him plenty of hay, but the issue is that he’ll eat all the hay I can give him if I just keep it coming in small batches. But he seems to “take it for granted” if I dump it in a giant pile in front of him and grind it into the bedding/dirt. With the prices of hay, I cringe at the idea of loosing so much to waste!

#14

Could he have ulcers?
What about using a haybag?

#15

Carrera, my very first horse used to kick her stall door off on a regular basis. I paid more extra board for replacing stall doors…she’d get pissed at her neighboring horse and turn and fire both hinds into the middle of her stalll door…it would fly off the hinges and across the aisle with a huge BANG! Then she’d turn around and ppeek out the door with this face: :eek:
As if she had no idea how her door did that. :rolleyes:

#16

A vote for kicking chains. You may also try a set of racing blinkers. Some horses won’t kick what they can’t see it’s an old racetrack trick.

#17

Kicking chains or hang something prickly where he kicks.

Although the shock collar sounds more fun.

#18

Ummm, whats wrong with just leaving him out?
I did that w/ the one I have and he is 100% a diffrent horse. Comes in to nap get schooled and goes back out w/ a small pony an shed.
Why go thru the hassle of, chains, mats varied shedule.

#19

I like the mat idea. Both of my horses will kick, but it’s mostly a territorial issue. They HATE seeing their neighbors and feeling like the other horse is eyeing up their food. It can be particularly bad at grain time, and I’m sure that constant impact didn’t help my gelding’s hocks. One fix was solid, tall walls between neighbors (my guys don’t do well if they can see any snippet of their neighbor, so metal bars are out), and feeding them in a corner away from their neighbors’ heads. So when we had to be in barns with bars, I fed them in ground pans in the back corner of their stall, while their neighbors were fed at the front and far side of the stall. And I always feed kickers first - when my gelding first started doing it, I thought he just needed to learn patience, and I yelled at them for it, but the yelling didn’t work, and it’s not something a horse is going to just decide not to do anymore of their own free will. It sounds like your guy’s case may be more than just being territorial though.

I’ve seen kicking chains be effective too.

#20

I also have one that hates being in so he lives outside. He will kick the walls, stall walk and generally make a huge mess. Last summer I had him in for a little bit and he kicked out with both hind legs and cut himself up pretty good. He still has a bump on his back leg from it. Tonight I brought him in for 20 minutes to get him in out of the rain and then he started kicking the stall. So out he went. I would rather him be wet than hurt!!!

So with that said - if mats or kicking chains don’t work…would he happier outside?

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