I'm going to go a bit further than just addressing the attack ... how about discerning what promoted the defensive action to begin with? The one thing that has made the deepest impression on me from any clinic I've gone to was something Mark Rashid answered for me. I had asked him what he did with a horse that was aggressively attacking him ... he kind of scrunched his eyebrows and thought for a moment then answer, "Why Miss Gwen, I don't think with all the horses I've worked with that I've ever had to deal with such a thing." Of course MY initial reaction to this was, "Hmmmmmm. Gee whiz ... I wonder just HOW many horses he's *really* worked with!!?" .. *LOL* but then upon discussing this with a friend who went to the clinic with me, she said, "Gwen, did you stop to think that perhaps he's never had to deal with it because he's never crossed the line with any of the horses to bring them to that defense?" .... AH HA!!! Bingo! That is the crux of it all. We don't want to aggress the horse in so far of a manner that we put him on the defense ... aggression is born from fear. If a horse is being defensive it is because he feels/felt fear. What, exactly, are we doing to cause that fear?