I purchased the Horse Kick Pro by Ortega Guitars in late 2021. The pedal has served me well and it has been a game-changer when performing in my acoustic duo.

Unfortunately, the Horse Kick Pro pedal started to let me down when playing gigs at the end of 2024. When performing at a wedding gig, the pedal started to randomly swap between Cajon and Bass sounds as I was stomping. The pedal also lost volume at other gigs and would randomly switch back to full volume or not work at all. Not ideal!

I contacted Ortega Guitars and they told me to contact the seller, so I opened up the Horse Kick Pro to try and fix it myself, although there was nothing obvious to fix and I needed a replacement stomp pedal as I had fast-approaching gigs that needed my stomping sounds.

One pedal I had previously looked into buying was the Roland SPD:ONE Kick. There were none in the country to try, so I waited patiently and purchased the pedal as soon as one became available, hoping the pedal would be a good replacement.

With hardly any time to try the Roland pedal, I was using it on a gig.

At the time of filming this video, the Horse Kick Pro is selling for £203.48 on Amazon and I paid £219.00 for the Roland SPD:ONE Kick, so the prices are very similar.

The Horse Kick Pro features a true discreet pass through, meaning that you can plug your guitar into the pedal and mix the guitar sound and stomp sound into one input of whatever amplification device you are using. This is not possible with the Roland pedal, so this is a point worth considering if you only have one input to plug in to.

So, how does the Roland SPD:ONE Kick compare to the Horse Kick Pro?

The main sounds I had been using were cajon and cabasa, so these are the sounds I used on my first gig with the Roland SPD:ONE Kick.

When arriving at a gig, the first question is usually whether it is a boom or a tsh gig. Playing a large festival is an example of a boom gig with a big, thumping low end coming through the PA and playing background music at a wedding is a tsh gig, using the cabasa just to add a subtle groove.

The Horse Kick Pro works better with certain types of shoes. My pair of blue suede shoes worked very well with the Horse Kick Pro, although other footwear did have trouble triggering the sounds. Without sounding like I am an Elvis fan, the blue suede shoes were great, but this could be a problem if I needed to wear different footwear. I was concerned how different shoes would trigger sounds with the Roland pedal, although I needn’t have worried, as all shoes seem to work fine with it.

Both pedals do slip on some surfaces, and I found that using an anti-slip mat worked well to stop this, although The Roland pedal was moving a bit, even with the anti-slip mat.

The Horse Kick Pro is very comfortable under my foot as the mahogany box slims down to nearly nothing. The Roland SPD:ONE Kick is taller at its lowest point, and I found it easier to have a small block of wood under my heel when stomping.

I am planning to mount the Roland pedal on a small pedal board, so I will need to have my heel raised on something to make stomping more comfortable.

I found the level of the cabasa to be slightly loud compared to the cajon with the SPD:ONE Kick. There is a volume control on the pedal, so I will need to adjust this. This won’t be a problem once I am more familiar with the pedal, although the sounds were better balanced with the Horse Kick Pro.

So, am I happy with the Roland SPD:ONE Kick? The answer to that question is a big fat yes.

Although I mainly used two sounds out of the 5 digital samples produced by the Horse Kick Pro, the Roland SPD:ONE Kick has 22 onboard sounds and you can import your own sample to one of the slots via USB, which adds even more functionality. I will definitely be experimenting with extra sounds now I have the Roland pedal.

The Roland SPD:ONE Kick also has a tuning control and the ability to add distortion or reverb to your tone.

When it comes to stomping, the Horse Kick Pro is touch sensitive, although I would occasionally miss beats if I wasn’t accurate with my foot. The Roland SPD:ONE Kick has a sensitivity and threshold control to perfectly set how the pedal reacts to your foot. This is important as the surface on which the pedal is placed, and the surroundings has a big impact on how the pedal triggers. My stomping so far has been way more accurate with the Roland pedal.

So, to summarise, the Horse Kick Pro is a great pedal and has served me well… until it broke. The Roland SPD:ONE Kick offers so many more features and sounds. The pedal seems very solid, and I expect it will last me for many years of happy stomping.

I’ll leave a link to both pedals in the description if you fancy reading more about them, but the Roland SPD:ONE Kick is the definite winner for me.

Here is a quick run through of the sounds that come with the Roland SPD:ONE Kick.