My gelding is stall kicking. I’m not there at feeding time, but my trainer tells me the stall kicking occurs when it’s feeding time. The same thing happened the last two places he lived. She has tried feeding him first, but that didn’t help. His care at this barn couldn’t be better, and we are at a loss as to how to stop the kicking. A suggestion was made to me about kicking chains used when he is in the stall; do you know anything about them? It’s my understanding this method might break the habit in a few weeks.     Joyce

Kicking or pawing that occurs only at feeding time can be simply a learned behavior resulting from the traditional patterns of feeding domestic horses by providing infrequent, highly palatable meals on a fixed schedule. We typically dispense grain twice a day, at the same time each morning and evening. The fixed schedule, together with the same pre-feeding activities, cues the horse that it is feeding time.

The behavior of grain-fed horses clearly indicates that they anticipate these meals. Even if problem behaviors are not evident, almost all horses normally show changes in activity and behavior suggesting positive anticipation, or the “thwarted goal” or frustration state. As the routine preparations are made, the horse anticipates–but cannot control–access to feed. This normally results in general increased activity and specifically the frustration or thwarted goal-related behaviors such as pawing, circling, head tossing, vocalization, or kicking out. Whatever the horse does just before the grain is dispensed is automatically rewarded by the feed, and so according to the laws of nature, the behavior will continue. Because we continue to go about reinforcing it over and over again, it quickly becomes a serious habit or even a stereotypy that is self-rewarding and can extend beyond the feeding time.

In the case of your horse, at some point while waiting for his caretaker to bring grain, he might have kicked out either in excitement, frustration, food-related aggression, or just by chance. Of course, he was immediately fed, so the grain followed the kicking, essentially as a reward or positive reinforcement