Horses kick out when someone stands or walks behind them because they feel threatened. Horses cannot see behind them, so their instinct as, a prey animal, is to assume any surprise outside of their line of vision is a predator about to attack.
Never stand directly in front of your horse when leading or backing. Horses cannot see directly in front of them or behind them. Stand to the “near side" (left side) of the horse, between the head and shoulder, ideally at the throat latch. Standing behind a horse is also unsafe, as they have a blind spot there as well.
When approaching a horse from the rear they cant see or smell you very well so they may kick out of fear thinking your a predator. You should always try to approach horses from the side or front and stay away from there rear end to prevent kicking.
Parelli's Answer: Horses kick for two reasons: fear and self-defense, or as an act of dominance. A fearful kick is usually quick and tends to happen when a horse feels cornered or trapped. A dominant kick is more of a premeditated attack and not quite as quick; you can see it coming as the horse backs toward you.
Punishing a horse that acts out by kicking or biting does nothing to ameliorate the situation. Instead, find a centered place in yourself and teach the horse to respond to you by controlling their feet. It might be a bit challenging at first, but this is the simple and easy way to turn distrust into trust.
A kick to the arm or leg can cause a fracture, the bone will show deformity and the casualty will tell you where it hurts! A nasty kick to the chest or stomach could result in internal bleeding.
Horse kick injuries tend to be severe, because the transfer of energy from the end of the hoof, with a small cross‐sectional area, to a small field, leads to internal organic injuries that are more severe than predicted, similar to a handlebar injury.
Give Up On Kicking!
Kicking your horse only stuns, disturbs, imbalances, and hurts.
Striking occurs when your horse uses its front feet and legs to kick. This kicking can be towards other horses, objects or even people. Many times, striking becomes a habit that can cause dangerous situations for your horse and for yourself.
You can recognize a fear kick by what precedes it. A horse who is truly scared will not kick immediately. First, he'll try to move away from the threat. If that doesn't work, he'll likely try to intimidate the threatening presence by pinning his ears or raising his hind leg in preparation for a kick.
Being Stepped On
This can lead to bruising, abrasions, and even fractured bones. It is possible to have your fingers stepped on, say when cleaning hooves, but far less likely. After a fall, it's possible that the horse might step on you, but often your horse will do what it can to avoid you.
Most horse bites do not break the skin because horses have blunt teeth that have evolved for chewing grass and hay. According to nih.gov, most horse bites heal without emergency medical care. Rarely, horse bites crush or amputate a finger.
Be sure to stay away from the sensitive areas of the horse like the eyes, ears, muzzle, and belly of the horse. While some horses might be OK with you petting these areas, many are sensitive and won't like to be touched there.
The short answer is sometimes they do… and sometimes they don't. (Sounds a lot like our moods, right?) It's most likely that horses like or dislike riding based on whether they like or dislike the specific circumstances that occur during and surrounding the activity. Every horse is different.
A horse's kick is extremely powerful and can cause severe, even fatal injuries. Many riders have experienced broken bones, deep lacerations from a hoof, and even cardiac arrest if the kick landed on their chest. It is also extremely possible to suffer from head injuries that can be fatal if the impact was extreme.
“Kicks by other horses remain the leading cause of fractures to long bones, such as the tibia and radius,” shared Catherine Whitehouse, M.S., of Kentucky Equine Research (KER). Kicks are also to blame for orbital fractures, coronary band wounds, and hematomas.
Strongest Kick: Zebra — Kicks With About 3,000 Pounds of Force. Due to the power of its kick, a fully grown zebra is able to kill an adult male African lion with one blow. Between the well-known force behind the kick of a red kangaroo and a giraffe, you might be surprised to read that the zebra beats them both.
Animal physical abuse: The infliction of injuries or causing unnecessary pain and/or suffering. Abuse may be caused by hitting, kicking, throwing, beating, whipping, spurring, shaking, poisoning, burning, scalding, suffocation, etc.
A horse has more weight behind his kick than the kangaroo. However, that said, the kangaroo has velocity and inertia that the horse doesn't have. Neither one would be good. Being kicked by a kangaroo can open you up the same way a deer's hoof will because of its sharp edges.
The estimated kicking force of a horse is 2,000 pounds per square inch with an average speed of 200 miles per hour.
Because horses can not stay off their feet for long periods, broken bones do not have a chance to heal, and so often sadly the kindest way to help a horse with a broken limb is to put it down.
Generally speaking, horses are larger and thus more powerful than donkeys and the kick from a horse would be stronger. On the other hand, the kick from a small horse who is weak or doesn't have good muscle tone would be much weaker than a kick from a mammoth donkey.
Even a draft horse can't generate much more than a hard shove abou a foot behind it. If they can get full extension of its legs though, they can kick much, much harder. horses also kick much higher than a cow.