Reptile & Amphibian Forums

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.

These are always hard to help with...

First, can he be turned out more? Especially if he's not being ridden, he needs to be out as much as possible.

Second, is he getting too much feed since he isn't being ridden or turned out? Most horses don't need much feed, if any, added to their hay/grass if they aren't having to work.

Other than that, I can give you a few pointers but don't know how many will help! First, don't be afraid to touch his face. That's one thing that drives me nuts is when people think petting the face or touching the face makes a horse nip. He should allow you to touch his face, period. As you learned, just saying "no" usually doesn't have much impact on a horse that is into mischief. Watch a mare with her foal...if that foal comes up and nips the tar out of her, a good mare doesn't just swish her tail and say "no" - she immediately sets him straight with hoof or tooth (that's not to say that some mares aren't more lenient but when they are, their "kids" are rotten...). Take her example. When he nips, or as it sounds like he's progressed to, bites, the "no" should be accompanied by something unpleasant, either having the lead rope jerked or a flat palm smacked (makes more noise than actually hurts..) against him. This needs to be immediate. We call it the 5 second rule here...when one does something - kick or bite - then I have 5 seconds to make them think their life is at an end! Many people will say you will make them head shy but its been my experience that head shy horses are a result of bad timing and/or straight abuse. I have raised many a baby, several studs, and they have all learned that biting was a NO WAY situation and we've never owned a head shy horse unless they came to us that way...and the one mare we had like that learned to trust us and was fine within a year of us buying her. When you dole out consequences immediately, they know why they are getting in trouble. And of course the other side of the coin is when they are being good, they get lots of head scratches, pats, verbal praise, etc. Again - its all in timing, never praise one for misbehaving. The worst thing you can do is stand there petting and cooing on one that is trying to eat you (or the vet, or the farrier) for breakfast - you are reinforcing the behavior.

Another thing I'd highly recommend is getting a good video made on basic ground work with horses, any of them like John Lyons, Clinton Anderson, etc. that address teaching the horse to respect you on the ground would be good ones. Just because this guy is 20 doesn't mean he can't learn - after all he has learned to take advantage of the situation he has before him

And of course the more he gets worked with, the more his new lessons will be reinforced, so even if you and your husband can only spend 10-15 minutes a day working with him, it will be time well spent!

Good luck with him-
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PH Cody
HorseHobbyist Site Coordinator