Biting and Nipping

My NSH likes to bite and nip when you 1) halter 2) bridle 3) clean his front feet (nips you in the back or the butt!). In other words, anytime you are near her face she likes to nip and bite. Usually it's nipping, but once in awhile she gets ahold of you and it's a nice pinch. How do you train a horse not to nip and bite? She's very mouthy and her former owner said she always has been. She's busy with a bit in her mouth too, usually gnawing on it. Any HUMANE suggestions? And no, I won't jab her with a tack or a nail when she does it.

The most common piece of advice I have seen for these types of problems is jabbing her with your elbow when she turns.

Mouth meets elbow

Get used to being bit......because you have just eliminated the fixes. You have a horse with a serious problem.

I have a 2 year old colt that started getting nippy with me a couple months ago. Whenever he would go in for a nip, I would flail my arms at him like a maniac, which would scare the pants off of him. I never even had to touch him and it cured the nipping after two tries. I'm sure I looked like a total weirdo, but it really doesn't matter as long as you have the respect of your horsey!

By the way, your horse is adorable. I owned a NSH mare when I was a kid- awesome breed!

Smack them in the nose, or elbow them in the nose. You have yo make it unpleasant for them to bite you. If you have the attitude of oh im not going to physically punish him, then good luck
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Which, if a horse is nipping and biting you at every turn, you do not...........

I have trained many horses and biting and nipping is an extreme issue that needs to be solved now, a horse bite can be bad... The way to fix it is to become the dominant horse of the herd, now how do you establish dominance? Well just watch how your horses do it. They kick each other, well you don't want to hit your horses you say....... Ok let them bite and disrespect you while I get to enjoy my horses who wouldnt dare think of biting or nipping their herd leader. Just establish your self as a herd leader and give the horse a good smack when he bites you. The horse will stop when you do it a time or two.

Aggressive behavior needs to be met with aggressive behavior, and you have to be willing to escalate because having a hole in your shoulder repaired is quite a bit more "disturbing" than hitting an animal that you are pretty much physically incapable of truly injuring bare handed.

Shock collar.

You do not 'jab' the horse with a nail. You simply 'let' the horse run into it. Immediate fix! It is no different than a horse bumping into an electric fence. The horse teaches himself that it is an undesirable behavior.

I do not like teaching a horse to be afraid of quick moves or a handler acting like a screaming idiot. I want my horse's trust and do not want to make moves that encourage a horse to be head-shy or back or run away from me or my hands or someone else. It is why I seldom ever pick up a whip. You do things like this and when you or someone else has to run past your tied horse for some good reason and it will panic and try to get away. You can be riding near a bunch of people and some running, screaming kid will make your horse panic because you have taught it to. Certainly not my choice for discipline. I'll just let any horse I have run into a nail. But then, if you have a horse's respect, it does not try to nip or bite in the first place. I cannot even remember the last time I had a horse of my own try to nip me -- they just never do and not one of them is afraid of me.