A few months ago I searched out a wonderful, well behaved horse for my husband (beginner rider.) I found Red, he hadn't been ridden in 6 months before the owner decided to sell him, but I rode him and handled him, and he seemed the perfect one. We brought him home and he did wonderful. He was in pasture 24 hrs/day, we changed that to about 4 hours/day with a 3-sided 12' x 24' stall. I already own a horse who's stabled next to him. My horse can be aggressive so we put up horse fence between the two (they can still see each other.) Red's age is unknown, but the vet estimated 20 . My husband rode him, he was very willing to listen, no vices except cribbing. In the past 6 weeks, he's changed his behavior from sweet & kind to always trying to bite us. At first it was little nips which we admonished by saying "No!" loud, we did not touch his face. Now he tries to nip harder. Within the last 2 weeks he's decided to go from a walking pace near us to run away/towards and kick out at us for what seems to be no apparent reason.

A few other things to note, my husband has been looking for a better saddle, and therefore hasn't ridden much in those 6 weeks. We have not changed the feed from when he first arrived, we've blanketed him when its gotten fairly cold (20's) and we still make sure to give him turn out. My husband hasn't ridden, so I don't think it's saddle related. The vet & farrier have checked him out, he seems ok in that department. Any thoughts as to what can be done to curb his newfound bad behavior? Any ideas what might be causing it? Any help is much appreciated! Thanks.

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