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Biting and Nipping

5K views 19 replies 17 participants last post by  possumhollow 
#1 ·
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. :-p
 
#4 ·
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!
 
#7 ·
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 dont 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.
 
#8 ·
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.
 
#10 ·
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.
 
#14 ·
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.

The thing I find puzzling is how you can have the nail in the correct position (how do you hold it or do you strap it on something?) and at just the right time that the horse runs into IT , and not some other part of your body.
The horse does't always bite at the same time and location.
 
#11 ·
I hope you know that she ain't thinking of the HUMANE thing when she's biting you.

I'm assuming you've never really been bit. Horses can crush bone. Seriously. And don't think she won't eventually get there. Bad behavior escalates.

I had a nippy horse when I bought him. He did not respond to traditional whack in the jaw, or having his feet moved, so I would simply keep him out of my space at all times. He tried to enter into my space, he would get an elbow in the face. This didn't even give him a chance to get close to biting me. I would just flap my elbows, and then continue what I was doing. Wouldn't look at him, wouldn't yell, just a "get out of my space." He thought he was running into me, similar to the nail thing that Cherie suggested. If this had not worked, I would have done the nail thing (as that would have gotten his attention even more). The horse is NOT thinking about your well being or whether she is being treated humanely, she is trying to dominate and hurt you. Period.
 
#12 ·
I'm assuming you've never really been bit. Horses can crush bone. Seriously. And don't think she won't eventually get there. Bad behavior escalates.
No kidding - I have been BITTEN, once, and that is all it took to convince me that a mouthy horse is just NOT something I am willing to tolerate, at all. I still have scar tissue underneath and scarring on the skin where I was bitten - and this was through three layers of cloth and in a way that the horse was not able to get *that* good of a grip/bite.
 
#13 ·
I'm also for the nail or the elbow jab. I have been bitten by a mouthy horse on the hip, it hurt SO bad. I still have a scar there, and it bled for so long. They actually thought at the time that I might've needed stiches. I will NEVER tolerate biting EVER. It is what I classify as one of the most dangerous vices. Of course the horse tried to bite me a second time the next day because i didn't have time to discipline him. Let's just say it wasn't very pretty.
 
#19 ·
Even if you use a nail or elbow, timing is everything. You can smack a horse that nips good and hard and still get nipped again if the timing is wrong or the horse does not see you as dominant.

If you're not good at this technique, I suggest trying mouth wash in a squirt bottle. When he goes in to bite, squirt the mouth wash on his nose. You don't have to be as accurate, and you want to get a little in the nostril so it burns. My mom has 3 walker stallions, and for whatever reason (probably my personality) I always get into the nipping game with them. This stops that once and for all, and may be worth a shot in this situation.
 
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