Should a rider kick harder when a horse refuses an obstacle?

Automatically increasing leg pressure when a horse refuses an obstacle is not the correct first response, and understanding why reveals the more productive approach. A refusal at an obstacle can have several distinct causes — fear of the obstacle itself, confusion about what is being asked, a setup that gave the horse no reasonable approach to the obstacle, insufficient confidence from previous training, or physical discomfort that makes the specific demand of the obstacle uncomfortable — and adding more leg pressure addresses none of those causes while potentially creating an additional problem by turning the refusal situation into a pressure conflict. A frightened horse kicked harder at an obstacle it is afraid of becomes more afraid while also becoming resentful of the rider's pressure, which is a worse training outcome than the original refusal. A confused horse kicked harder at a task it does not understand receives an escalation of an unclear signal rather than clarification, which does not improve its understanding. The more productive first response to a refusal is to evaluate what caused it and address that cause specifically. Was the approach too fast or at a poor angle that gave the horse no reasonable path to the obstacle? Set up the approach again with better geometry. Was the obstacle introduced at a level of difficulty beyond the horse's current preparation? Make the task smaller — greater distance from the obstacle, a simpler version of the same challenge, more time to investigate. Is the horse genuinely frightened of a specific element of the obstacle? Return to groundwork desensitization of that element before asking again from the saddle. Once the cause has been addressed and the task has been appropriately adjusted, a clear, specific forward cue is appropriate — but it should be applied to a situation the horse has been given a reasonable opportunity to succeed at, not to the same situation that produced the original refusal.