Frisco
Well-known member
Yeah okay, here goes. I've been so mad for days about this, I thought I'd give myself a little time to cool off before I went after opinions, but its not working.
A while back I witnessed my neighbor bellykicking his kids' little shetland pony.
His 10 year old boy and a friend, for days, have been jumping on the little guy and then kicking him until he bucks around the little pen they have him in. Mind you this was the only riding this pony was/is getting. You can guess how hard this little guy bucks, a little hopping is about all it amounts to. Anyway, the 8 year old girl jumped on him to show off for her little group of friends and the pony started jumping around like he thought he was supposed to. Another daughter ran to the shed to tell the dad and about 15 minutes later he comes out and starts to bellykick the pony good and proper.
Since I couldn't understand why belly kicking was good punishment let alone abusing an animal for what he thought was the right response, let alone applying "discipline" so long after the event occurred, I asked what the hell he thought he was doing.
I was told I obviously didn't know anything about horses especially training them. It's true I don't train or break horses from the ground up, but I have been riding and using horses since I was 5 and I'm pretty sure bellykicking is NOT necessary EVER!!
He told me that his sister in law trains barrel horses and that you can't get anywhere with a green horse until you've left it in a corral for 48 hours without food or water, and then ride it at least 40 miles. Bellykick it every time it acts up. Acting up includes whinnying at other horses when its tied to a horse trailer at a rodeo or some such occasion.
I said "Bulls*!%t!"
What say you?
A while back I witnessed my neighbor bellykicking his kids' little shetland pony.
His 10 year old boy and a friend, for days, have been jumping on the little guy and then kicking him until he bucks around the little pen they have him in. Mind you this was the only riding this pony was/is getting. You can guess how hard this little guy bucks, a little hopping is about all it amounts to. Anyway, the 8 year old girl jumped on him to show off for her little group of friends and the pony started jumping around like he thought he was supposed to. Another daughter ran to the shed to tell the dad and about 15 minutes later he comes out and starts to bellykick the pony good and proper.

Since I couldn't understand why belly kicking was good punishment let alone abusing an animal for what he thought was the right response, let alone applying "discipline" so long after the event occurred, I asked what the hell he thought he was doing.
I was told I obviously didn't know anything about horses especially training them. It's true I don't train or break horses from the ground up, but I have been riding and using horses since I was 5 and I'm pretty sure bellykicking is NOT necessary EVER!!
He told me that his sister in law trains barrel horses and that you can't get anywhere with a green horse until you've left it in a corral for 48 hours without food or water, and then ride it at least 40 miles. Bellykick it every time it acts up. Acting up includes whinnying at other horses when its tied to a horse trailer at a rodeo or some such occasion.
I said "Bulls*!%t!"
What say you?