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Training Your Horse Not to Bite
03/30/2009
A horse who bites is a horse that leads—and doesn’t accept yout authority. Show your horse who’s boss, and stop the biting, by taking a cue from the Dog Whisperer: horse training.
If you’ve ever seen Animal Planet’s The Dog Whisperer, you’ll know that when animals bite, it’s sending a message of dominance. They think they’re stronger, that they’re the leader, and so in order to take care of the pack, they become overly aggressive. Horse training is no different then dog training when it comes to biting. A horse who bites is a horse that leads—and doesn’t accept yout authority. Show your horse who’s boss, and stop the biting, by taking a cue from the Dog Whisperer: horse training.
When it comes to horse training, biting is often a more important priority than kicking or bucking. That’s because a horse has such powerful jaws and teeth that you could easily loose a finger. When you see any signs of nipping begin, horse training must immediately be deployed to stop the aggressive action. Often, horse training should begin before the biting even starts. Flattening ears, irritated body language, and nipping in the direction of a human are all warning signs that horse training is in order.
The first way to engage in anti-bite horse training is to get your horse’s respect. The answer is not to get respect with violence—horse training doesn’t work if you hit your horse every time it bites someone. Just like with spanking children, this kind of negative-attention horse training leads to a horse respecting you for the wrong reasons. Instead, try horse training through an overabundance of affection. The next time your horse flattens his ears, reach out and stroke his nose for a few minutes. After a while let go, and maybe jostle him a bit, encouraging him to be aggressive. When he starts to get a bit annoyed, re-instate the horse training by petting ad nauseum. In order to make sure you are horse training properly, you must pet the horse until he pulls his head away. Then continue to pet for a few more moments.
With this kind of positive horse training, the key is to be attentive every time you are around your horse, and look for excuses to do it. The more vigilant you are in your horse training, the more vigilant your horse will be in avoiding the things that cause this annoyance. Also, be prepared to engage in horse training for days, weeks, even months depending on your level of dedication. It may take a horse a long time to realize she isn’t the boss.
Once you’ve established respect with your horse, a good way to maintain the horse training is through changing your behavior. Be more vigilant of ways your horse is disrespecting you. Horse training is necessary if your horse kicks the door when you’re slow with the hay, when it moves when you mount, or when it refuses the bit. Biting is just one symptom of a larger problem. These bratty attitudes are the attitudes that are leading to horse biting, and you must engage in horse training to ensure your horse no longer shows disrespect to you.
