Why does a horse strike out at a person?

The horse may be trying to show his dominance over you or he could be "playing" with you. Both should be corrected immediatly.

I've heard of one story where a horse was abused, so when faced with a human, he acted like he was going to kick them to try to scare them away, but he would never actually go through with it because he was actually scared of humans. This can be compared to your horse-he acts like he's going to run over you, but he never follows through because he's scared. Try to find out about his past if you do not know all about it.