My horse Bites everything including me!

[Loren27]

I have owned Max for 2 weeks, the first week was mainly him just relaxing in the field with his new friends.

For the last few days I been taking him to his stall so we can spend some time together to get to know each other.

The biting usualy starts off with him grabbing his lead rope (shortly after catching him) with his teeth while shaking it around! i didn't think this was a problem until i decided to take it from him then he started to grab my coat, in a playfull way, I think!..

But today we spend sometime in the arena (on foot) I was sitting down on a chair and he was free to walk around, he came to me often for a brush and some cuddles. After 45mins I decided to walk up the other to see if he would follow me he came trotting along beside me then started pushing with his head and biting me! I pushed him away before hopping over the fence then he decided to grap my coat from behind, he has a grip for 20second or so (might not seem like a long time but when i horse has you from behind with his teeth it is lol) until i managed to reach around and force his mouth open! if he had pulled me back over the fence i would hate to think what could of happend.

He seems to want to bite everything in sight not just me, his buckets, the fence anything that looks yummy or not was even chewing on the schooling whip..lol

I need to put a stop to this ASAP im not a one for smacking or hitting my horses I do push him away and it seems enough with his pushing etc. just not with his biting!

(Max is 6years and been out all winter also had his teeth done in January. Looks like he was bullied in his last home too and has the scars to prove it not sure if this is related)


any advice would be appreciated! i will try anything within reason

Thanks in advance
Loren

(sorry for the rushed text)

 

[bonny]

Sounds like a typical young horse who doesn't have enough to do.

 

[Clodagh]

Do you have someone to help you with him? Looking at this and your other post you seem very unsure and you have got a big young horse to deal with there.
Learn about body language and getting him out of your space, start doing work with him rather than playing with him calling the tune. no feed unless he is skinny as, is his worming up to date?
Is your yard manager/owner helpful?

 

[Loren27]

Sounds like a typical young horse who doesn't have enough to do.

Thanks for the reply.

I guessed it may be boredom but we working on that and it is at another level. He has been out all winter with not much human interaction but was looking for tips how to stop him doing it rather then what caused it.

 

[be positive]

Sounds like a typical young horse who doesn't have enough to do.

Is there any reason you are not working him, he sounds as if he needs something to do and is getting bored just hanging around waiting for something interesting to happen.

 

[ImmyS]

Firstly, I agree with bonny. I have a 6 year old ex racer, when she's not in consistent work she turns into a menace, biting everything, pawing anything because she's not getting mental or physical stimulation. When she's in full work, worked 1-3 hours everyday she's much more chilled out, doesn't bite and paw much, if at all. So increase the exercise big time!

Secondly, by running away, trying to jump over the fence you are being submissive to him and only reinforcing the biting. I do not hit my horses but I will not tolerating biting or sometimes my mare will lift a back leg to me, again not tolerated at all. If I was in an arena and my horse started biting me I would immediately send him away, clapping, waving and getting him moving constantly until he showed signs of submission eg lowered head, ear towards you, licking and chewing.. Once showing these signs I would allow the horse to stop and approach me, if he went to bite again I would repeat the process. I would also teach to back up n cue. My mare knows the back up cue very well also, she raised a leg once just through protest, I immediately back her up fast for quite a period of time then let her stand, she dropped her head, licked and chewed (she had thought about what had just happened and made the connection) and she's never done it since.

You need to control the situation not the horse.

 

[Nugget La Poneh]

Mine when through this and the one thing that helped was a Jif Lemon. I got this from Richard Maxwells' book about youngsters and it has been invaluable with Nugz. Hold it in your hand and when the horse goes to take a bite or mouthful you aim the Jif at the mouth and squirt. I started off while leading as this was when it was worse with nugz. Only took about 3 squirts and he stops. Everynow and again he starts again and out comes the lemon but I rarely have to use it, just having it and him seeing it is enough now

Nugz will take the leadrope and chew, but this is a nerves thing with him and will only do it when he is unsettled or is in a mood. He only normally chews on it for about 10 seconds then stops. It's almost like a blankie for him

ETA: While I agree with ImmyS and using the natural horsemanship techniques you do really need to at least have the basics taught by someone that has the experience of this method otherwise you run the very real risk of a horse that will learn to retaliate, and will learn to just completely disrespect you or anyone else handling the horse

 

[hippo-horse]

My horse used to do this, she wanted to taste everything. She picked up ropes,bags,whips,mucking out tools,buckets,phones, jackets, just about anything she could reach. She still likes to bite the rope, that was one battle I had to give in on, it makes her happy (odd horse) and ropes are cheap enough to replace when they start to look like a dog chew. I had to stop hand feeding her to stop her nipping me, and always made sure to tie her up short and never give her a chance to missbehave. She isn't nippy with me anymore, allthough sometimes she bites the stable door, and I know she wishes it was me!