How would you deal with biting?

[Queenbee]

I would like some ideas and opinions please on how other people would handle this one:
My little man is trying to nibble everything. He is to all intents and purposes the most perfectly behaved foal other than his tendancy to bite. It is not done with malice, his ears are never back but it does hurt. Initially I began by just pushing him away, and firmly telling him no, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. He got my nipple (yes, ouch!!!) twice in one day, thankfully I had padding on I took him for a long walk the other day and at the end of it he managed to take bl**dy good bite at my side, sorry peeps but I gave him a smack on nose I was tired and it really annoyed me, but I then felt guilty As I said he is in every other way very well behaved, he is fine around traffic and only 1, good to lead, good to handle (apart from biting) picks up all his feet etc. apart from this, I can't fault him. He is going to be gelded this month as his little walnuts have appeared. But what would you guys do, surely I am not the only one who has had this, I am sure it is quite common. A friend of mine cured a habitual biter by just evading the bites before they happened until the pony just stopped doing it, I have known others who use firm reprimands and a smack.

What would you do, I don't want it to become a game for him and I don't want someone to lose a nipple!!!

Thanks

 

[spaniel]

Thump it one.

 

[RolyPolyPony]

I used to know a youngster who would nip. We used to give him a sharp flick by his nostril. Not hard enough to hurt too much but he didnt like it. He soon learnt not to bite!

 

[Toast]

ive learnt that flicking Otti sort of deters him!!
You'll have it all to deal with again when they get to about 18 months old... Harvey whos now two is currently taking chunks out of people whenever he feels like it and no amount of thumping is encouraging him to stop =/
x

 

[Queenbee]

Thank you, I didn't want to start a war game, 'you hit...I bite harder' but I have had enough of it I value my body too much to lose chunks of it! Toast, thanks for the heads up that it will happen again, I will sort the little sod out, then be prepared. The problem is that other than that he is almost to perfect and I detest horses that bite, just didn't want to make it worse! Cheers all

 

[Enfys]

Thump it one.

Colts get a smack on the nose or whatever part my hand lands on, they aren't being polite to me why should I be polite to them? Respect earns respect. Before anyone gets on the "Oh you are so cruel and you should consider what he's saying/thinking before you smack him blah, blah" wagon (oh go on then, I really don't care) then I've never, ever, had a headshy horse because it got smacked on the nose a time or two. I don't like doing it, but then again, I don't like being bitten either.

I once had a little welsh LR pony, cracking little pony, but a character who lead his previous novicey, nicey, nicey owners up the garden path and round the houses by their noses. First time I lead him to the field he wrapped his mouth around my leg, bit down and meant it, I gave him such a thump on his nose I should think his teeth rattled. He stood and looked at me, shook his head and then nuzzled me, never again (that I knew of) in the three years I had him did he put a foot wrong with me, or more importantly, with the small children who crawled over and under him.

He was still a holy terror in the field, big horses quaked and ran away, but that was on his time, not mine, not my business what he did off duty.

Queenbee, someone told me that squirting lemon from a Jif lemon thingy into their mouths at the appropriate moment could deter them. I could never get the lemon and the biting co-ordinated.

 

[Queenbee]

***wanders to the kitchen to get some lemon juice***

Cheers efyns, I think the thing is that his manners have been absolutely impecable uptill this, he comes across field, catches fine, blah, blah, blah, nothing has phased him; so I suppose this was quite a shock to me. TBH I can't wait to have him gelded, Ifind myself making an excuse for him due to his nuts and I KNOW thats wrong. I have spent the last 8 years with mares and nothing else and so making the transition back to the boys and also to a 'blank canvas' is a bit wierd. Eb's was always such a sensitive soul. Ben, well he is a boy, I can see that in his general temprament he will be really good, suppose I don't want to mess up. I kept telling myself that they would get firmly put in their place by their mums etc... Nice to hear someone else reaffirm it and tell me not to be such a softie.

 

[intouch]

I read on Monty Roberts - when a horse bites - or attempts to bite - tap him firmly on the shin with your boot. It takes a couple of goes for them to work out why they get a sore shin when they bite, but work it out they do - one of mine used to think about being mouthy and then look at his foot and decide not to. I've tried the syringe of water to squirt and it worked too, but not as well as the tap on the shin.

 

[Enfys]

I read on Monty Roberts - when a horse bites - or attempts to bite - tap him firmly on the shin with your boot. It takes a couple of goes for them to work out why they get a sore shin when they bite, but work it out they do - one of mine used to think about being mouthy and then look at his foot and decide not to. .

Ha! I read that too, so I thought I'd give it a go, the colt still bit then promptly held a front leg up! Didn't work for us, but smart pony anyway.

Had his bits chopped off, that seemed to work quite well

 

[*hic*]

I read on Monty Roberts - when a horse bites - or attempts to bite - tap him firmly on the shin with your boot. It takes a couple of goes for them to work out why they get a sore shin when they bite, but work it out they do - one of mine used to think about being mouthy and then look at his foot and decide not to. I've tried the syringe of water to squirt and it worked too, but not as well as the tap on the shin.

We tried this on an old and experienced Welsh who would "bunt" us far too hard with his head. Next time he tried it he got a sharp tap on the shin. He looked at us, decided we couldn't have done it, walked over to his friend and gave him a really hard bite that made the poor lad squeal.

 

[eoe]

I am prepared to be shot down for this, but I was taught when they bite you, you bite them back, its always worked for me, they have only ever bitten me once.

 

[siennamum]

I would seperate out instances of him just being mouthy. That's a habit which has to be discouraged, but I wouldn't punish a horse who is just trying to put things in his mouth (unless they are body parts!) I owuld just keep stuff away from his mouth.
If a youngster does bite though I would simply give it a slap on the nose, hard enough to hurt, I might also shout at it and make it back away from me a couple of steps. In all likelihood it will never happen again. I would be leery about putting my face close enough to a youngster to bite it back.
The kick on the shin thing is interesting but colts grab and bite each others knees as part of play fighting and mine used to want to bite me when I bent down to groom his knees, which is a natural reaction and a bit confusing to discipline them with I think.

 

[aquamarine]

Mine started doing this and someone suggested that every time he comes to bite, I poke him in the mouth/muzzle with a finger, hard enough to put him off. It does work, and doesn't make him headshy.
However, he's now two and going through the 'I'm going in for a quick nibble' phase again, I'm assuming there's lots of stuff going on in his mouth which is why the nibbling has started again. I just keep poking him with a finger and he eventually gets bored of trying to bite (and moves on to some other annoying thing like dragging/chucking round anything he can find in the yard )

 

[Kenzo]

A sharp elbow does the trick, you'll only have to do it several times and they get the message, by this I mean training your colt not to crowd your personal space, when he does, he gets a very sharp, very quick elbow, could be on the end of his nose, his neck, his cheek...where ever he invades your space with his head, he must learn to keep his face away from you, so your not letting him get the opportunity of been close enough to nibble you. You don't even need to shout or look at him, just watch him in the corner of you eye and then do it BEFORE he nibbles. He'll learn that then that biting is anti social behaviour and doesn’t get him attention.

Don't smack him with you hand across his head or nose, this only makes them head shy when your waiving your hands around or wanting to do things around their face (brush/wipe eyes/head collar/trimming etc)

 

[EquestrianType]

I am prepared to be shot down for this, but I was taught when they bite you, you bite them back, its always worked for me, they have only ever bitten me once.

With you all the way on this one...
When I first had my neddy 8yrs ago he tried to take a chunk out of my shoulder and did it bloody hurt.....no time or inclination for fancy fixes I pulled his head to mine and bit the b*ggers lip flamin hard.....look of surprise from him and he has never tried again...works!!

 

[LMuirEDT]

Mine did this as a youngster when you would lead him around but in a playful way. Every time he either bit or went to bite I would flick his nose or spin round to face him quick and step into his space (so he had to move away from me). Has to be done 'in the moment' but worked for me. It was the element of surprise that worked on my horse. Sometimes now if I'm leading him and he's dawdling behind, he'll nip as if to get ur attention and step back quick (he's not headshy in anyway!) expecting to be told off but I don't make a big thing of it.

ETA - it's more of a nip or nibble in my horses case tho rather than a full on bite, although maybe it would have lead to full on biting if I hadn't sorted it...

 

[micramadam]

I'm a member of the 'if you bite me I'll bite you back' brigade. After all isn't that the way in the herd? We also have a foal (6 weeks old) who is trying is teeth out for size. When he bites his mum she bites him back so we do the same. He doesn't like it but is learning not to do it. Apart from that he is a dream to handle, picks his feet up, leads, loads in the trailer (starting practising this early!) and is scared of nothing.
The only problem with biting back is the mouth full of hair!

 

[dunthing]

We were told as kids, that if a horse bites you, pinch the nostril or tug at their whiskers, of course, not all horses have enough of them to tug. The first time my yearling highland bit me, my instant reaction was to thump him on his chest and he never did it again. I agree with the biter being bitten back but I've never been in the right position to do that.

 

[Kat]

I've always believed in biting them back, but I was taught that you didn't actually sink your own teeth into the horse, you gave them a substitute bite. Normally a hard pinch to give the same effect without getting so close or getting a mouthful of hair.

I'd go with pinching a good handful of skin and giving it a bit of a twist, easy to do in the heat of the moment in any convenient place. Poking a finger in a soft bit of nose would work too, as would flicking somewhere sensitive or a smack with the end of a leadrope. It needs to sting a bit to get the message accross in the way another horse would.

 

[Hovis_and_SidsMum]

Yep i've done the "you bite me, i'll bite you back" thing.
It works too!
I only had to do it twice and Hovis never bit again. The mouth full of hair was grim but the result was great!

 

[Gluttonforpunishment]

my mare only tried biting me once, as a 2yr old she was objecting to being groomed and swung her teeth at me, my instictive reaction was to smack her nose, unfortunately for her I was holding a dandy brush so she got a sharp mouthful of bristles.

She never did it again.

Not a planned / recommended method I grant you but hey, it worked and no one got hurt

 

[Queenbee]

Well peeps,

I had a rather sadistic amount of pleasure last night when I gave ben a sharp flick on the nostril just as he was about to take a nice chunk out of my arm, he looked at me like I had just turned into a chicken!! Large, shocked 'how could you mother' eyes, he tried it twice more and got some of the same, then stopped and played with his lickit instead. This was most definately a vast improvement on how many times can I bite in a minute! Thank you all for your comments, seems to be working