A week or so ago I came across this post on Facebook’s Equine Behaviour Interest Group. A woman asked what she could do to discourage her mare from acting like she was going to bite. She received some great responses, but she also received a lot of unasked for advice. (This is typical. Read my old post on How to discourage questioning in an online horse forum.) The woman had stated what she believed was the root of the behavior (a recent colic surgery) and that she was working with professionals to address any underlying issues. Of course people ignored that and speculated on all the possible problems the horse could have that would cause her to bite. Very few actually answered the question. For me it’s simple: If your horse bites, bite it back.
Jump to:
When a horse is most likely to bite you
What your horse may be trying to communicate
Why it doesn’t matter what your horse is trying to communicate
What to do when your horse bites you
How to prevent biting behavior
When a horse is most likely to bite you
All horses bite. They’ve all got teeth, and they use them not only to grab grass and chew, but also for many things we humans use hands for. Some of these things are easily classified as biting, some not so much. An angry horse will charge at another with its mouth open and knock it with its teeth without actually biting down. (It will also do this to a human.) For the purposes of this blog, that is biting. For the purposes of this blog, (almost) any time horse teeth come into contact with human skin (or clothing), it counts as biting.
The exceptions
If you are stupid enough to stick your fingers in your horse’s mouth when it’s trying to eat something, don’t get angry with your horse. It really didn’t mean to bite you. Of course, horses have very good control of their teeth. Most know very well where your fingers are. Still, it can happen. With no excuse, I have accidentally let my fingers get in the way through no fault of the horse. This is why it is a good idea to tell children and non-horse people to offer treats with their hand flat.
But my horse isn’t trying to hurt me! (or another horse)
Even when a horse is showing aggression, it might not be trying to hurt you. Horses actually don’t intend to truly hurt each other when communicating with their teeth. Only when fighting do they intend hurt, and that happens rarely. Of course they use their teeth with non-aggressive intent too.
Horses use their teeth to groom each other
Yes, sometimes horses use their teeth for mutual grooming/scratching. That’s affection… but if your horse does it to you, it could hurt you. I’ve had a few very gentle mares that would “groom” me while I groomed them. They would ever-so-softly touch me with their teeth. I allowed this because I knew the mares well, and I knew they knew just how fragile humans are. And I still kept an eye on the behavior. I would never permit it with most horses.
Horses also use their teeth to play
This isn’t something I want to experience ever as a human. Horses are rough when they play. They aren’t trying to hurt each other…. Most of the time! Sometimes, in fact, just as happens with children and pets, someome gets too rough and play turns into a fight. Playing with teeth counts as biting, always.
When teeth aren’t used for grooming or play…
Generally, horses bite to get you to move away from them (e.g., get away from my food) or to stop doing something (e.g., don’t tighten the cinch). They bite when trying to get food (e.g., give me that treat now). They also bite to verify or establish dominance (they will not bite an alpha horse or human unless in challenge). And they bite to show other emotions, such as jealousy or crankiness. Some of these bites may be called nips. Using the term “nip” implies there is less aggression…. but it’s still biting.
What your horse may be trying to communicate
Most of the time a horse uses its teeth to communicate. (As so many people pointed to that poor woman–who already knew this!) Such commucation falls in broad categories.
Get away!
When your horse bites you, it might be telling you to get away from its food, a part of its body, or just in general. None of this is acceptable behavior.
Keep that thing away from me!
Your horse might take exception to the girth or cinch, the bridle, or any other piece of tack, grooming equipment, blanket, etc. It might not like a smell. I had a horse that hated the smell of wine, and would rush at you with teeth open if you carried wine.
That hurts!
(This is really either one or both of the above: Get away! and/or Keep that thing away from me!)
Many people assume that if a horse bites, it’s because something hurts. Though not always the case, the root cause of some biting behavior can be pain. Ulcers are frequently blamed, because ulcers can make a horse sensitive to touch, especially along the girth area.
A quick note on ulcers
Most horses under stressful conditions (including confinement and/or not having 24/7 access to forage) are susceptible to ulcers. However, behavior is not a reliable indicator of ulceration. Many horses with ulcers will show no behavioral symptoms, and not every behavioral abnormality means the horse has an ulcer.
See this Kentucky Equine Research article: Gastric Ulcers and Behavior in Horses.
Other pain that could cause biting
Some horses have an automatic “Bite it!” reaction to any sharp pain. Some have a “kick it!” reaction. Most simply try to move away. Any sudden change in behavior warrants a close look. If your horse bites you (or at you, or threatens to kick…) when you try to do something with it that has previously elicited no negative response, your first thought should be “What’s wrong?” In answering that question, always check for pain.
If the negative behavior happens when you try to catch your horse the first time after a ride, ask yourself if there was something about that ride that didn’t work for the horse. Did you go too far or too fast for its condition? Is the horse sore? Could it have bled? (See this article on EIPH.) Did you overschool it in the arena? Did you lose your temper? All of these (and more things) can cause your horse to want to opt out of riding. Your first step is to check for pain.
All that said… even if your horse is in pain, it should never bite you.
I’m the boss here! (testing, testing, testing…?)
Yep, sometimes that snap of the teeth is just a test. If you think, how cute! Or, she’s just expressing herself! and do nothing, chances are the horse will escalate. Eventually the snap in the air will turn into contact with skin, clothing, or boot (if you are in the saddle).
I have a mare who likes to challenge me. She’ll start with a squeal and build up. I tolerate it to a point. After all, you can’t be on them on the time! (And it’s kinda cute.) But… eventually I have to bite back and then she stops it for a few weeks.
Above: River’s mildest form of challenge. This will build into side-kicks and bites if I don’t remind her I am alpha.
Why it doesn’t matter what your horse is trying to communicate
Horses don’t bite the alpha animal (lead mare or stallion) unless they are trying to challenge it. The alpha doesn’t bite anyone either… unless it has been challenged. Lead mares communicate all they need to with a flick of an ear or a swish of a tail. If challenged, they will of course do whatever it takes to put the challenger back in its place.
YOU should be the alpha in the relationship between you and your horse. This is for your safety, the safety of other humans, and the safety of your horse. (Why may be the subject of another blog.) This means your horse should never bite you. It has many ways of communicating that fall short of biting or any aggressive behavior. It is on you to pay attention and notice them before your horse escalates out of desperation. But even if you do not notice, you should still not tolerate biting.
If you tolerate biting, your horse will interpret this to mean it, not you, is the boss.
What to do when your horse bites you
If your horse bites you, bite it back! No. I don’t mean with your teeth. Although if you can do that quickly and make it mean something, all power to you. (I have been known to bite an ear of a rearing horse!) The important thing is to react immediately (within a few seconds) and appropriately. If all the horse does is make a wimpy, testing threat, you might just say “No!” and/or slap it gently on the shoulder. If its teeth connect with flesh or clothing, you might need to make a big deal about it.
Make a big deal about it…?
What this means depends on the sensitivity of the horse. With Fantazia, just getting tense and yelling at her is extreme punishment. Beroni, though eight years a stallion before I got him, was the same way. His feelings got hurt very easily, and any rough movement upset him greatly. (He never opened his mouth unless offered a bit or food.) Jazz, on the other hand, was entirely unfazed by a human making a ruckus. I had to pick up a (large) juniper branch and thwack him with it to get him off my foot once. And no he wasn’t at all scared or alarmed. The juniper just got in the way of his grazing.
Make no mistake, if a horse seriously tries to bite me, I will do whatever it takes to make it understand that behavior is entirely unacceptable. To date, my actions have included backing the horse up; turning it in smaller circles (when my foot was bitten in response to original small circles); hitting the horse with a towel, my jacket, or rope; throwing buckets, grooming equiment, a cup of coffee, my beer, various items of food, including carrots, and my helmet; shouting and swearing; jumping up and down; twisting the nose (foals); and other things I don’t remember.
My mother’s method
I learned how usefull making a big deal about biting can be from my mother. When she brought her Morgan stallion, Carlyle Command, home from many years of training and breeding, she wanted to make sure his teeth weren’t a threat to anyone. Now, Carlyle was a very nice stallion, and had never been aggressive. However, he had been a breeding stallion for many years, and he had been very spoiled. He had bitten more than one person, including a beloved groom on the nose. My mother established a zero-tolerance rule: Carlyle wasn’t only not allowed to bite, he was not allowed to open his teeth.
If he opened his teeth, all hell broke lose. Yelling, screaming, jumping up and down, and throwing things. (My mother is good at all those things!) At one point when I was grooming him, Carlyle bit the cross-tie rope. When I did not react quickly and violently enough (this is after all typical behavior), my mother jumped up and down and screamed at ME as well as the stallion.
I was dubious, but lo and behold, within a few weeks, Carlyle never opened his teeth unless offered a bit or food. He stopped biting the cross-ties, his lead, his halter, and all the other things stallions love to displace their teeth onto. He did start biting his own tongue (gently one hopes). You’d see him start to sling his head to grab a cross-tie rope, think better of it, and stick his tongue between his teeth.
How to prevent biting behavior
My mother didn’t want her stallion opening his teeth because if he didn’t open his teeth, he couldn’t bite. She loved that horse more than anything, but–or therefore–she made sure he was safe for anyone to handle. Although he had not bitten as a baby (he left our place to go into training at two), he learned bad habits that needed to be broken. It may be that you have a horse that needs such measures. Most of the people reading this, however, probably are not dealing with a stallion that has stood for several seasons and been very spoiled in the bargain. Any biting is likely to start with just slightly challenging behavior that will escalate if not corrected.
It is easy to address the little challenges some horses will make once in a while. (Not all horses will challenge you. Fantazia, who is as omega as an animal can get, would never challenge a human or another horse.) It’s even easier if you avoid any potential challenges by telling your horse gently and consistently that you are the boss.
Prevent biting by being the alpha in your relationships with horses
I imagine many of my readers are protesting. You may think “being the boss” means being rough or unfair. On the contrary. Unfair herd leaders are much more likely to be challenged than fair ones (they are bad leaders). This too is possibly the subject of a future blog post. Here I’ll just say that if you can consistently control where your horse puts its feet, you are alpha.
The secret to being alpha is to control your horses feet
No, really. That’s all being herd leader is about. When the lead mare walks up to a water trough or hay rack, the other horses make room for her. She doesn’t even have to do anything. Similarly, your horse should step out of the way if you walk up to its feeder. You horse should move over at the grooming or washrack when you ask. It should take the gait and pace you ask for, halt, back up, and stand still when you ask.
A horse that does not question your requests to move its feet, no matter when and where they come, will not bite you. It will not even cross its mind to try. (At least, not when you are looking! Watch this hilarious video of Fantazia coming down a hill behind me. She would never do this if I were looking at here!)
Above: My childhood gelding, Capella Command (aka Punky), on crossties in our barn. If the proper length is used, cross-ties keep horses from swinging their heads around.
Prevent biting by making it more difficult for the horse to bite
1. Tie your horse up properly to groom and tack up
Much biting happens during grooming or saddling. This may be due to ill-fitting tack or ulcers or sensitive skin, and addressing these issues will help. But as I mentioned above, your horse should never bite you. It is also the case that horses may bite during grooming even when they have no pain; it’s just a learned behavior. (Possibly combined with a bid for alpha.) No matter what the explanation, it’s best to make it difficult for your horse to bite you.
The best way is to tie your horse so that it cannot get its teeth near you. This can be done with cross-ties, or by using a short lead. Remember that some horses prone to pulling back are more likely to do so when tied short. Using a blocker tie will help. Cross-ties are simply ropes that attach to the side of a horse’s halter. When I was a kid in the show horse world, we almost always used cross-ties. Now I rarely do, partly because I use rope halters. Cross-ties only work with nylon halters (although a rope halter with rings on the side, like a sidepull, would work.) Some horses that pull back with a single rope tie are much better in cross-ties. With others, it’s the other way around. You have to train a horse for any new way of tying.
Above: River tied short with a blocker tie to prevent accidental biting. I’ve found that most horses do better with a long lead, but River is more likely to behave with a short lead. This prevents all sorts of problems!
2. Lead your horse from its shoulder
Horses also tend to bite when being led. Sometimes they are bored. Sometimes they are playful. Of course, they may be testing your leadership. Or they may be jealous. One of the mares my mom bred would always try to bite me when I led her to the barn if I had worked any other horse before her.
If you lead your horse from its shoulder, it will have to work harder to bite you. It’s always safer to lead from the shoulder anyway. Your horse cannot strike you are easily there, and it is less likely to run over you. Mainly, you can see your horse when you are at its shoulder. To see a horse that is lagging behind, you have to look back… and that encourages more lagging.
Above: The safest way to lead a horse is from its shoulder. This is the Morgan filly Abacus Aurora (aka Peanut) being led my me in the summer of 1990.
Prevent biting by avoiding actions that encourage a horse to use its teeth
3. Do not feed treats indiscriminately or on demand
Many horses get nippy (aka bitey) when handfed treats. I am not a big feeder of treats in any case, with the exception of carrots. I give carrots for nutrition (best source of vitamin A), and to make my horses stretch. That’s generally about it. But if I do want to give a treat, or someone else does, I want my horses to take it gently. Most horses can learn polite treat-receiving behavior, but there are a few who turn into pushy pigs after one treat. These ones should only be given treats in their feed bin, never by hand.
I know that many people ascribe to various training fads such as clicker training or “+R”, which I recently learned is internet speak for positive reinforcement. I am not a fan and I never train with treats, but if it works for you, go for it. Just make sure your horse isn’t training you with negative reinforcement. And if your horse becomes pushy asking for treats, it might be time to rethink your use of them. If the horse is asking for something to be put in its mouth, it’s entirely natural for its teeth to become involved at some point.
I’ve seen a lot of well-trained humans. Humans trained to give their horses a treat to get them to hold still in the grooming stall. Humans trained to give their horses a treat in order to get the halter on. Humans trained to give a treat to get their horses to take the bit. Nothing instrinsically wrong with any of these practices, as long as the horse is asking, not demanding, and treating the human with respect.
4. Do not tease your horse
By teasing I mean offering and withdrawing food or “bothering” your horse with gestures or taps/pokes/tickles. Teasing may be interpreted as play or as a challenge. An alpha doesn’t challenge. You are alpha (or should be). If your horse thinks you are challenging it, it will think it may be alpha (or at least above you in the pecking order) because you clearly need to challenge to take its place.
5. Do not hit a stallion around its jowls or reach down to “grab” its forearm
Stallions play and fight by biting each others’ jowls and forearms. It’s always, at some level, a challenge. Don’t tell a stallion you’re one of his kind by doing the same. Chances are he’s a lot bigger than you.
You’re probably not dealing with a stallion, and frankly, stallions (especially if standing at stud) do require a slightly different approach in some cases. But in general it’s a good idea to respect the teeth “fighting” zones (jowls and forearms) of all horses.
Prevent biting by respecting your horse
It’s not only about your horse respecting you. It’s also about you respecting your horse. This is particularly important with alpha horses, and even more so with stallions. Just because you are alpha doesn’t give you license to make unreasonable demands. Don’t tease your horse. Never ask it to do something it cannot do calmly and without pain. Don’t punish your horse for something it doesn’t know is wrong. In fact, do not punish your horse at all unless its a behavior you want stopped. (Remember, positive and negative reinforcement increase a desired behavior, punishment decreases an undesired behavior.)
Yes, you must punish biting, but make the punishment fit the crime. And trust me, your horse knows biting the alpha is wrong. It will expect to be punished.
Listen to your horse. If it suddenly shows its teeth when you reach for the girth after months or years of never protesting, assume something is wrong. Yes, tell your horse no biting allowed (calmly), but then consider the possibility of ulcers and check your girth area carefully for wounds.
Horses aren’t that much different than humans when it comes to interpersonal (interequine) behavior. It’s all about mutual respect. It is impossible to truly respect someone who doesn’t respect you, and that goes for all species.