Kicking Stable Door !

Question
Hi!

I have a 5year old pony who I love to bits, but I cannot put up with him constantly belting his stable door! He is such an attention seeker but when I'm doing other stuff around the yard he constantly kicks and kicks at the door which makes an un-bearable loud noise! He has being doing it for about a year and a half now. I thought he might just grow out of it but Im not so sure now! Ive tried punishing him by shouting at him to stop, or giving him a slap when he does it, but he has no hied at all! I dont really want to resort to hitting him as this could result in other problems later, if you have any advice I would be grateful! Allie

Answer
    Hi Allie,
  I have to admit straight off, that I don't have an easy answer to this problem. We have had a few animals who indulged in this behaviour, and, although I found it quite annoying too, I was always too busy with other things, to work out a solution.
  You are quite right to steer clear of hitting him. I would like to talk about the idea of negative consequences v. punishment. We understand that punishment can follow long after the "crime", and for the most part we accept that (you could take our legal system as an example). On the other hand, it seems certain that animals can only connect the 2 events, if they happen within a tiny timeframe. This latter is what I call a "negative consequence". If the animal receives "negative feedback" within a second or two of performing a certain action, it will associate the two events in it's mind, and be less likely to repeat it's original action. If, however the unpleasant consequence arrives sometime later, it is almost certain that the animal will not understand, and will possibly conclude that humans are crazy, and not to be trusted.
  Well, I think that is enough theory, so on to the practical. I am assuming that he is kicking the door with the front of his fore hoof, and probably at around the same height every time. If you could ascertain what that height is ( through marks on the door), you could fit a reasonably stout, round rail about 3 to 4 inches higher up, and set maybe 2 to 3 inches out from the door itself. I am not sure if I explained that very well, but I am suggesting that, if every time he tried to kick the door, he experienced a nasty rap on his fetlock, he would soon desist. I am thinking about 2 small blocks of wood, screwed on to the inside of the door, at the appropriate height, one with a hole drilled in it, to take one end of your rail, and the other with a U shaped channel cut in it, that you could drop the other end of your rail into. You could then seal the top of the U with a small lath of wood.
  I have to confess, that on reading back through what I just said, it sounds quite complicated. However I hope that I have given you some food for thought on the way houses operate, and you may be able to come up with a simpler way to achieve the same results. I would welcome any thoughts you may have on anything I have said.
  Meanwhile I will wish you the best of luck.
      Slan,
           Brendan