Horses have been domesticated, but retain their wild instincts of survival.
No matter your level of skill or experience with horses, it is always advisable to be alert and cautious around horses.
Looking at their size and characteristics (teeth, hooves and swatting tail) you always want to have respect for the animal.
Any horse has the potential to react unpredictably, any careless horse person can attest to this.
To avoid unnecessary harm you should learn the appropriate ways to approach and handle a horse.
A horses vision is limited, so if you approach him from his blind side and he reacts by kicking out at you, you really only have yourself to blame.
Your horse is simply following age old survival tactics of protecting himself from a predator.
It is not his fault he could not see you, so do not respond with your own natural instinct to react back.
Horses develop a sense of trust with handlers.
As a groom, whether you are a groom by profession or a horse owner who actually grooms your own horse, you have the advantage of getting close to your horse.
Developing a close bond and relationship with your horse will help you to be in closer physical contact.
For example when I started working in a yard I watched a groom pulling a stallion's mane.
He was restricted in a crush and he also had a twitch on his nose (control method).
At the time I was happy she was the one working with the stallion as from the looks of things he seemed to be a difficult horse to handle.
A few months passed and as fate would have it both the stallion and I were moved to a new stud and I was the designated handler.
Now I could have simply approached the stallion in the same manner as I had seen, but I had been working hard to develop his trust.
Instead I managed to pull his mane in his stable and with only a halter to simply tie him up.
What this should teach any person who approaches horses is to know your limits as well as the horse's natural responses.
If the very first task I did with the stallion was to pull his mane, I could have been seriously harmed in his stable.
He was known to bite and bully grooms - hence the twitch.
However I worked with him on a daily basis respecting his space and developing trust.
It is not advisable to harm a horse, whether in anger, punishment or instinctive reaction on your behalf.
Mostly likely you will come off second best and you are teaching a horse to fear humans and to naturally fight for survival.
If you find yourself in the company of an aggressive horse, or even a horse that has a pesky habit of biting, if you do not know how to respond, then do some research.
There are numerous books that deal specifically on how to work and re-train horses that have less than favorable habits.
You could also call in a horse professional who could advise you and help re-train the horse.