Biting Horses and What You Can Do To Avoid This Bad Habit
Horses are playful creatures by nature. They indulge in rough play with other horses, which often times includes head and body banging and biting. Therefore, when your horse starts biting you it may mean that they find you to be their equal, and that they want you to play with them.
There are hierarchies in herds of horses. The dominant horse in the herd is known as the alpha horse. Other horses in the herd never bite the alpha horse. Therefore, biting you may also mean that they do not find you to be dominating.
Other possible reasons for biting may be that there is something that is hurting them such as a pinching girth or a prickle under their saddle pad. So before you discipline your horse, it is important to assess the situation and find out what may cause this habit before addressing it.
Once you have a fairly good idea of what the root cause of the biting may be, and you determine it is a behavioural issue and not a physical issue, then there are a few things you can do to eliminate or lessen this bad habit.
Sadly, many horse caretakers want to punish the horse in a way that causes even more harm. Many horse owners would smack or hit their horse. This is not a healthy exercise and may cause your horse to become disrespectful and mistrustful. This will not aid you in your training. Patience with your horse is vitally important at this stage.
When you have established that it is a behaviour issue, then communicating directly with horse will allow you to quickly get to the cause of the biting and help you establish a more respectful relationship. Only then can you get back to the business of performance training. A horse won