training a 6month old fillie

Question
i recently purchased a mare and foal, i have already trained her to lead. she still has bad habits, such as kicking and biting.st will stand for the blacksmith but when i try to clean her feet she wants to bite and kick, also she will walk past me and kick at me when she is in the feild. how do i go about breaking her from these bad habbits? i realize she is young and dont know any better.

Answer
Hello,
Young horses are definitely going to try to play with you, they have not learned that you are a leader and not a playmate. Firstly I think horses do best to be left alone until they are older. But, if you do want to work with her you could have someone else hold her halter to save you from being bitten, start with her front legs, pet them all over. How does she react? Is she wiggling or does she not mind? My assumption would be that she gets wiggly. Don't worry about the feet getting picked up yet, just get her to happily accept you touching her all over her body-can you find any itchy spots that make her very happy that you came to see her? When all that is in order you can ask her to pick up her foot-which only means to take the weight off of it. Dont ask for more! GIVE! Pet her more and in a minute or two ask her to take her weight off it again. Once you get this going on all her feet I think you will have solved your problem. Just remember to think to yourself "Whats in it for her?" If she takes the weight off of it and you leave her alone she says "Wow! Thats cool, I know the answer!" If you hold on and try to clean her hoof you will just be teaching her to wrestle with you.
Let me know how she is when you get all this going for you.
Best Wishes