approaching a new horse

Question
hello Lyn. may i know how to approach a new horse? i mean, how should i get to know that it would kick us while approaching it. our local racetrack grooms are finding difficulty working with new horses. they are getting bitten and kick badly by the horses.

Answer
Rohit,

This is where you really need to understand body language and how horse's think.  I can't begin to explain all that here.  I am surprised that race track grooms are having such severe problems.  When I worked on the track, as a groom, we had to figure out how to deal with each new horse that we were assigned to groom.  Dealing with young, fit Thoroughbreds, many colts, yeah you got kicked/bitten occasionally.  Generally this was early on in the relationship with the horse before we got things worked out as to who ran the show and what was expected in behavior from the horse.  It took some training on the groom's part to teach the problem horse proper manners.  I had some really rank horses at times.  Any new horse I approach from slightly off to the side, not head on, and offer my hand to smell if I think it's appropriate.  A nippy horse this is not a good idea until you correct that behavior.  Kicking, well you just have to try not to let yourself get behind the horse until you can fix this problem.  Teaching proper ground manners was always just part of the job as a race track groom and I had to do it with a lot of horses I had over the years.