My horse has bitten me and I've lost my trust with him

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sillyprune

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Up until now I had been able to happily approach my horse in his feild and kiss him on the nose, change his rug without putting his head collar on and have him follow me around etc but last week I was just re-adjusting and pulling his rug up to his withers after I gave him a carrot and he swung his head round and bit my leg. He didn't break the skin but he has made a huge black bruise on my leg which is very painful. When I went back later that evening to feed him I had lost all my trust with him. And it's getting worse now. I can't be anywhere near him without worrying he's going to bite me again. I'm worrying myself every time I'm in the feild with him and when I lead rope him anywhere I feel like I have to watch him in case he takes a swing to bite me. I really don't know how to boost my confidence and trust around him now. Please any advise would be welcome. No nasty comments please.
 
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It sounds as if he forgot himself for a moment, you probably pulled the rug forward and caused discomfort and he reacted as many horses will by swinging round to bite the source of discomfort, he probably was just as upset as you but unlike you will have forgotten all about it now which is really what you should be doing but with a few changes to how you deal with him, not because he is nasty but because you have been putting yourself at risk previously and have now learned why horses need to be treated with respect.

Stop kissing him on the nose, if he had bitten your face you would have been badly scarred, it is unlikely that he would but you have found out how hard they can bite it is just not worth the risk and serves no purpose as far as your horse is concerned.
When adjusting his rug don't pull it forward however easy it seems to do so it is not nice to have their coat pulled in the wrong direction and if it is going back beyond the withers it may be rubbing so check it actually fits properly, I have seen very nasty rubs happen overnight by an ill fitting rug, pulling it forward was the trigger to the bite so don't give him reason to do it again.

Treat him with respect and confidence, he will be confused as to why you no longer trust him, remember you are the leader and act like one, stop dwelling on one minor incident that you caused, make sure he is not in pain and if you still find it hard get someone sensible in to show you how to handle him, in all honesty if a bruise is the worst thing you have ever got from a horse you have got off lightly.
 
Is this the same horse you posted about showing signs of pain when being groomed? Did you get a vet or physio out to him?

As Be positive says - it sounds like you hurt him by accident and he responded exactly as horses do. That's not his fault. If this is the same horse and you have not yet got a professional to him please do so now. He sounds absolutely lovely to be putting up with pain and only just now to have responded to it.

Horses don't understand being kissed on the nose. It is probably better not to do that. They can't see you when you are that close to them. The nose is very sensitive and also the place where a predator would potentially bite. Leaving aside the risk to you having your face so close to his - he would probably prefer it if you responded to him in a way that he understands rather than one that is potentially threatening to him. Try a scratch where he likes it (usually withers is good - but perhaps not just now in case that is the source of pain).

You've lost confidence - that is understandable. But he did what he did for a reason and now you can understand that reason and act more carefully around him - especially if he is in pain. Its great to have a horse you can act in an unsafe manner around. But they are much bigger than we are (even if they don't really know it), they can be startled by things we don't notice and they can hurt us by mistake. We need to behave responsibly and safely around them - even when we trust them.
 
Thank you very much for your message. This is a different horse to my last post.
I think il try stroking him on the spot that may be an issue in case he is in pain. It was very out of character for him but now I'm worried he could do it again and it won't be so lucky to have just been my leg. Now when people stroke him over the fence I worry he might change his character again and hurt someone, so hopefully it is something I can resolve if he has a sore spot. Just feel really disheartened now like he wanted to hurt me. Hopefully I can get over it because I'm never nervous with horses usually.
 
Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. I'm going to see if it is possibly because he had a sore spot as you say. That would make more sense because he never usually acts like that. I hate the thought of him just doing it for the sake of hurting me. I will give him a brush later and see if he reacts to it in the wither area. Thank you for your help
 
It is very unlikely that he actually wanted to hurt you. Most horses don't. I've had horses so badly treated they will attack first - but that is rare. If he was like that you would have known it before now. As has been said - if this is the worst you have got from a horse you have got off lightly! Things happen. Obviously don't make the same mistake again or ever pull a rug forward. Check he is not in pain and act sensibly around him. He will have already put it behind him - you need to do the same.
 
Don't pull rugs forward, take off and readjust. If he's never done it before there must have been something wrong. Either he's sore somewhere or the act of pulling the rug caused him discomfort. My mare will turn as if to nip if anyone does that to her and she's perfectly trustworthy normally. Put yourself in his shoes. How else is he supposed to say "get off, that hurts!"? It's perfectly normal behaviour tbh.if he was in any way nasty, you'd have seen it before I'm sure.
 
Look at it logically - how many times has he NOT bitten you, compared to this ONE time that he did, and for a good reason (in his eyes)?

You probably either annoyed or hurt him by pulling the rug forward. You didn't do anything wrong and neither did he: he was just reacting in the only way he could.

You need to move on and forget about it though or you'll create an issue where you're scared, which makes him scared, which will make him more inclined to do these behaviours around you.
 
some horses will try to communicate with you by nibbling or even nipping, i have one who will do this, however in your case its probably because you gave him a carrot by hand, i avoid this at all costs with all horses, when giving treats it put it in a bucket, so try to see you have trained him to bite, take responsibility and untrain him, when you realize you are in control you will lose your fear, and try to think before you do something how he might interpret what you are doing for good or bad, and that all the time they are learning, thats how we school them.

please don`t be downhearted we all have times like this, but he is probably intelligent and paying attention to what you do, i also think taking off the rug and putting on again with the hairs slid backwards is better. my horses hate dragging the rug forward whilst still on them.
 
OK so I'd be looking at this and asking the question "what am I doing wrong here".

Firstly OP, you're feeding him from the hand, yes?? Which you need to stop doing right now! There are other ways of "rewarding" apart from giving of food, and if you're in a field with other horses milling about, and feeding from the hand, then frankly you are just asking for trouble. I do not feed mine from the hand, at all. I have a pony on loan atm, and her owner doesn't either, so I don't, and they don't miss it!

Secondly, you've probably been annoying him by the way you're taking off/adjusting rugs, so you need to think about how you do that. ALWAYS work WITH the horse's coat and not against it, coz if you imagine yourself to be your horse, that would just be hugely annoying.

I think the real issue here though, is that you need to do some good constructive groundwork with your horse, before this escalates any further. Your horse needs to respect you as his Herd Leader and that can only happen by you being a consistent & confident handler.

I would strongly suggest to get a professional (such as an Intelligent Horsemanship practitioner, PLEASE not Parelli!!) to help you with this, as mistakes made at an early stage can cost very dear later on.
 
Very sensible suggestions above.

I didn't see anyone mention tying him up, more so to help you regain your confidence in him, tie him short, or have someone hold him while you are changing rugs, or grooming etc, so if you do inadvertently do something and he reacts he cannot reach you, if he does react, take it as a sign that something isn't quite right. Tying does not have to be a permanent thing, just a precaution for now, you will be more relaxed if you are not worrying that he could nip you. :)
 
You didn't exactly set yourself up for success & I think you created that situation. Always tie up the horse before messing around with rugs - tie up short if you think he might nip.
Never feed from the hand, it makes some horses rude, aggressive & nippy.
Stop kissing him on the nose - please remember he is a horse, not a toy.

I imagine he was uncomfortable with the way you changed the rug but I've no doubt he would have given some warning signs before biting & you need to learn to recognise things like that so it doesn't escalate. I second the suggestion of getting a Kelly Marks recommended associate out for some groundwork sessions with you.
 
I don't really understand why you would just pull the rug forwards, as part of the routing should be to inspect the horse all over. Obviously you can't do that without removing the rug.

Have a look on here for what can happen if you do not inspect daily... http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/foru...fected-bite-infected-abcess-or-something-else

From now on I would make sure you have somewhere safe to tie your horse to do the routine for inspection, feet pick, re-rug and feed. Do you have a yard to take him to?

For what its worth many horses would bite if handled like this, so biting once in these circumstances would not mean to me that the horse is vicious.
 
Thank you! I have been tying him up just while I regain trust again as I'm nervous about altering his rug when he's just stood in the field now. I have been getting on better with him now that I've tied him up to do anything.
 
Never mind. It was one bite, which has served it's purpose of teaching you that horses canbehave unexpectedly. It sounds like maybe there was static or some hair trappedwhen you adjusted the rug. Not to worry, you're doing the right things by checking for pain and tying him up to do. Your confidence will return. X
 
Enfys said:
Very sensible suggestions above.

I didn't see anyone mention tying him up, more so to help you regain your confidence in him, tie him short, or have someone hold him while you are changing rugs, or grooming etc, so if you do inadvertently do something and he reacts he cannot reach you, if he does react, take it as a sign that something isn't quite right. Tying does not have to be a permanent thing, just a precaution for now, you will be more relaxed if you are not worrying that he could nip you. :)
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I completely agree. My horse is tied up to do ANYTHING with him. I insist others do the same when they handle him. I'm the boss and I expect him to stand still and behave. You have to instil respect and not be walked all over. As others have said it does sound like a one off, but if you remove the opportunity for them to misbehave as much as possible (by tying up, training etc) then that also helps.
 
I'm so sorry this has happened to you- it's always a shock when something unexpected happens. I'm going to throw another idea into the ring based on a recent experience I had. My boy, who I have had for years and trust implicitly, nipped me whilst I was doing up his rug. Of course my reaction was immediate and I raised my voice and sent him away. This was followed by a few days of groundwork and re asserting the fact that I was the boss, but when I thought about it it became clear. It was the first rug I had put on this winter and my gut feeling is he doesn't want to be rugged at the moment as it is too warm- hence the reaction. The bite was his rather unrefined way of telling me this. I've not rugged him since. Sometimes they have no way of telling us these things and physical reactions are the only way. I'm not saying this is the same for your lad - but maybe worth thinking about.
 
My horse bit ever since I had him, you could never ever assume he would not. I was just always very careful and the one time he crunched my hand and needed an operation I did lose confidence. For some time after this I always put a muzzle on him when doing anything at close quarters. He had probably been badly treated at some point (x race horse that had raced from 2 years to 7 years) he was also a big powerful horse so I can imagine some small lad trying to cope and resorting to a certain amount of violence to do so. To be honest he often frightened me but he was my responsability so I was careful and looked after him till the end. I don't think it was his fault but no way would I have flung my arms round his neck etc.
 
I wouldn't worry too much, it sounds like you accidentally hurt him. He won't have suddenly changed personality and has probably forgotten all about it. I will admit to rarely tying mine up for anything so I wouldn't personally blame that, though agree it might be worth doing things more carefully for a bit (i.e. catching up and tying up) till you get confident again.

If you mean you literally pulled the rug forwards then definitely don't do that again! I was taught by an old-school instructress who would have flayed me alive so I've actually never yanked a rug forwards in my life. I always take it off, fold it in half and put it back on correctly (i.e. do up the front, unfold and slide into position). Even if I am doing it in the field by headtorch in a gale.

I would also cut out any hand feeding as this is a common cause of biting.
 
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