This photo: Monty was one of the most dangerous biting horses I have ever come across and it only took one morning to turn him into a pussy cat. You’ll find his story and the techniques that we used to change his and Gina’s life, on the student forum under the this lesson heading.
2024 edit. This is one of the rare times I’m not keen on a lesson. I thought about removing it, specially the part about defending yourself – because these days I would deal with a biting horse VERY differently. But it came to me that someone might still need the idea.
The thing to remember with biting horses is that EVERYONE – horse and human – wants to be heard. Hear them first – THEN ideas on dealing with it are more likely to flow easily AND you’re more likely to have your horse’s co-operation.
Did you pick up on that? Yes you can have your horse’s co-operation to solve this and other problems. If you’ve got a horse biting, I’m telling you that they’re not enjoying what’s happening either, so opening up the channels of two way communication is a very powerful way of solving problems.
Again, don’t battle alone with this problem. No struggling allowed… 🙂 🙂 You’ve got some brilliant teachers / people to lead you into a different perspective/ support on the forum, some VERY intuitive people in our community too – just ask for help and of course, there’s the live seminars too. 🙂
Keeping yourself safe with a biting horse is the first action. The other side of the fence or the door is an excellent place for that. Understanding WHY they’re biting is the most important part – the problem solving meditation is an excellent support.
Fast Track – Find your best answers to any horse problem
If a bite is actually coming at you, using your elbow sharply to whatever part of the horse is coming at you to bite, in order to protect yourself, is a perfectly OK way to keep yourself safe.
However, especially if the elbow is applied AFTER they have bitten, it can set up a “tit for tat” action. The horse bites you, you slap them or elbow them in retaliation, they bite at you again and so on.
It can become a dominance competition where you have to be very hard on them in order to win. Or they can feel like they are playing with a herd mate – and I personally do not want to be on the receiving end of either of those situations!
Or if OUR elbow reaction puts our horse in their “Oh Shit” Zone – that’s not so useful in the long term either and nor is it the kind of problem solving that deepens the bond with our horse.
Horses don’t think or learn in their “Oh Shit” Zone and the only thing that takes place with an elbow to the horse’s head is a reaction – which may or may not be useful to you depending on your timing.
So AFTER you have protected yourself, it’s time to step back for a moment and think about how we can change this behavior in the long term. How can we explain to our horse that we don’t want to get bitten? How can we explain that biting us is not acceptable?
This lesson shows you a gentle way to do just that.
Later edit in 2019: Will is a Fidget horse, who bites when he’s out of his Comfort Zone – so backing off into a MUCH deeper Comfort Zone would have been even better – maybe even long before the halter even went on.
Biting horses, and techniques for helping to solve that issue, is such a big subject that I have put some more techniques and options in the Student Forum – go to Fast Track to Brilliant Riding Lessons Knowledge Base then Lessons 31 – 60 then Fast Track Lesson 47.