What do you do if a horse bites, kicks, or threatens to?

[Chinchilla]

but in that situation (as described) the horse was spooking and acting defensively, no point in punishing him for it-that would be confusing for him? and hitting previously for kicking wouldn't necessarily stop him from lashing out when spooked would it? colts/bargy/high jinks behaviour needs addressing but as people have said, if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time or trying to punish defensive behaviour then its counter-productive. Handling has to be fair.

Yes I know As above hitting him for that would have been totally inappropriate because he was terrified - not being naughty - and it would have just increased his fear.
Response to behaviour depends so much on context and in the context that resulted in me being booted, a smack was not the right thing to do and therefore wasn't done.

 

[AmyMay]

The horse in question was actually lashing out because he was spooked by someone screaming/shouting and had not been hit at all. MY point was more about how powerful they are and why misbehaviour therefore shouldn't be tolerated.

So very unfortunately you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[Chinchilla]

So very unfortunately you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Yes, exactly. It was much more my fault than the horse's.

 

[oldie48]

Lol So I've noticed - so your horse doesn't bite but did bite the farrier, gotcha.

But happy to agree to disagree on treatment of same, I wasn't actually going to respond any further to the thread but you asked me directly and now you've got me on my soap box lol

Haha caught out! Little Fatty is not mine, he's a rescue, on loan, getting better but not to be trusted. One to tie up and definitely not to give treats too! (still got last worditis, I'm afraid!) And yes if he tried to nip me he's get short shrift too but he doesn't get the chance.

 

[ozpoz]

My horse is well mannered. last week he swung his neck round and showed me his teeth when I was putting on fly cream. My first thought was "what is hurting?" and discovered a painful bite in a skin fold..

I agree with polite manners, but how can they express pain? Sore backs, girthiness, remembered pain need more input from the owner than punishment. IME kicking and biting usually mean something is hurting.

Greedy,rude, bolshy threatening is, as oldie48 says, something that needs considered handling.

 

[Velcrobum]

Sadly there are horses out there whose temprament is plain nasty, they tend to end up with professionals if talented or PTS. Same as humans there are some very nasty people and there are very nasty horses, dogs, cattle, rams etc etc. Animals tend to be culled and humans tend to end up in prison. I knew of a GP dressage stallion that after his ridden career was used for breeding he was so nasty a dummy had to be used as he tried to kill the mares. He was always handled by 2 men and all other people remained behind gates, stable doors etc . He was only used for certain mares and did not pass his aggression onto fillies but colts tended not to remain colts for very long. He is long dead and left no entire offspring. He had been a difficult stallion but this escalated dramatically after he started having semen collected.

I have also seen what was left of a groom after a stallion had attacked with his teeth, they were in resus and did not live. Watch herd behaviour it is quite brutal until the pecking order gets sorted. If a horse/pony feels it is more dominant than the handler then trouble will quickly follow, the handler has to be herd leader.

 

[Tiddlypom]

I agree with polite manners, but how can they express pain? Sore backs, girthiness, remembered pain need more input from the owner than punishment. IME kicking and biting usually mean something is hurting.

Greedy,rude, bolshy threatening is, as oldie48 says, something that needs considered handling.

No one is suggesting that their horses are not allowed to express pain. The wise owner will still pick up on subtle, maybe nearly invisible signs of unhappiness early on and act on it. The bottom line though is that kicking and biting whilst they do so are not allowed.

Funnily enough, though I have cheerfully posted about throwing rubber feed bowls about in the past, the rescue charity that I foster from can send me their shy nervous ponies knowing that I will do a good job with them. The worst mistake I made with the second one was to pat her neck as a reward after a good grooming session. It took a while to get her confidence back after that.

 

[milliepops]

No one is suggesting that their horses are not allowed to express pain. The wise owner will still pick up on subtle, maybe nearly invisible signs of unhappiness early on and act on it. The bottom line though is that kicking and biting whilst they do so are not allowed.

this is my line too. If I had the same from one of my horses, I would hope that they might pull a little face, or move away to tell me that they had a sore spot, *not* launch at me with their teeth as a first line of communication.
What they might do to each other in the field is their business. I expect mine to know that come what may, they don't bite or kick people - no negotiation on that. It takes very little (almost nothing ) in the way of repetition if you are 100% consistent on that all the time and the horses are crystal clear on where the boundary is.

In addition, all of mine tend to show subtle signs if they are hurting, eye wrinkles/nose wrinkles, their posture, ears etc. I'd be annoyed with myself if I missed one of those signs so I would not expect things to escalate to the point where the horses had to boot me to tell me it was hurting.