No matter what is causing your horse to kick, it has to be addressed immediately as it can quickly become a habit and is very likely to cause serious injury to you or another person or even another horse.

As with all undesirable behaviors, you need to determine exactly why your horse is kicking. You can usually boil it down to one of two things, your horse is fearful or something is causing him pain. Rule out anything hurting him and then you can concentrate on the kicking being simply bad behavior from acting out.

If your horse has been mistreated or abused, he is going to consider nearly all people suspect for further harm to himself and he may kick out of fear to frighten you away. You need to begin to slowly assure your horse you are his companion and will never hurt nor allow anything to hurt him. This will have to be repeated frequently and he will begin to touch you. When he kicks, get out of harm's way but do not leave. Simply move out of his kicking range and talk softly. Do not feed your horse at this time as it can be interpreted as a "reward" for kicking and thereby reinforce the kicking.

Get your horse used to being touched. If he'll allow it, a bath is a fantastic way as nearly all horses love the feeling of being bathed. If he is not ready for such close contact then simply touching him as you walk around is a good way to desensitize your horse and allow him to begin to trust you.

A horse's eyes are positioned in a way that they cannot see directly in front of or behind themselves, that is the reason they get skittish when something or someone they can not see if behind them. Talk to your horse as you walk behind him and pat him gently as you go, if you see him tensing up to kick, stop and reverse your steps until he is ready for you to walk behind him. With repetition, he will learn that you are not out to hurt him but you are his loving companion and he will then trust and respect you as such. Through daily working and repetition, your horse will learn to stop kicking and you will have a loyal and loving companion.