Punishing biting horses doesn’t work

Biting horses – there’s gentle and effective solutions to even the most dangerous of biting horses.

If you have a biting horse I’d invite you to lift your shoulders up tight around your ears at the same time as taking a deep breath …yeah now… while you’re reading this… lift your shoulders up tight around your ears and drop them hard and suddenly.  Then read these next words and feel into the truth or not of them for yourself.

Let’s have a think about WHY our horse is biting and solve that BEFORE they bite instead.

Yeah the beginning of the end of being bitten is THAT simple – knowing that it’s possible for every one of us to solve our biting horse problem – gently and effectively – ourselves.

There’s almost as many causes of a horse biting as there are horses that are biting, but there’s one common denominator.  They’re all trying to tell us something.  Yeah I know, don’t groan!

Let’s start with the horse who nips at you.  A nip might not be a full on aggressive bite, but it freaking hurts!  Mannn… it hurts – I can feel the shudder even now while I’m writing this!

We call these nipping horses the Fidget Horses – that’s one of the 6 F’s in horse personality – Flight, Fight, Freeze, Faint, Fierce (the Warrior Horse I talked about in the last article) and good old Fidget.  They so often can’t stand still without getting into some sort of mischief.  They chew ropes and if there aren’t any ropes available they chew on people.

Here’s the thing. The Fidget Horse shuffles his feet or chews the rope and even nips at you when they are afraid or confused or under too much pressure.

That’s a very big deal right there folks hey.  They FIDGET when they are afraid or confused or under too much pressure and that’s often reflected in nipping when they’re afraid or confused or under too much pressure.

And yeah sometimes it’s a mischievous horse behind a nip, but mischief has a different feel behind it and solving that version of nipping can be as simple as sending them away from you (that you would have already taught them how to do beforehand) or some other way of explaining our expectations in a way that doesn’t feel like punishment. 

So what happens when they get punished for nipping?

When the Fidget Horse gets punished for nipping, we are adding more fear and confusion to the fear and confusion that’s already being expressed by their nipping.  We have escalated them into the Oh Shit I’m Dead Zone where they cannot learn anything except reactions, which are probably not useful to your relationship or your training together.

That’s one of my famous dry Aussie understatements right there folks! 

… Punishment is not useful to either your training or your relationship together…

If the brain pathways they established the first time in those Oh Shit I’m Dead Zone reactions was to bite again, then biting next time will be patterned in their brain even if it constantly gets them into trouble.  So you can get harder and harder punishing them and it won’t change the problem – it CAN’T change the problem – it ESCALATES it. 

If the brain pathway they established in the Oh Shit I’m Dead Zone back in the beginning was to fling their head up from being slapped, then they’ll pretty much keep flinging their heads up.  But they’re NOT thinking and they’re NOT learning so even if you’ve managed to change the biting, you’ve caused a defensiveness or resistance or tension problem somewhere else THAT WILL NOT DISAPPEAR WHEN YOU PUT YOUR FOOT IN THE STIRRUP!

I’ve seen some super, MEGA skilled horse men and women – usually trainers – change brain pathways in the Oh shit I’m Dead Zone, but it’s not pretty and it doesn’t add to their relationship with the horse AND – again – the stress and tension caused by the way they achieve the change of reactions, doesn’t miraculously disappear when you put your foot in the stirrup. 

You don’t have to be that good to fix a biting problem

The good news is that you don’t need to be one of those mega skilled horsemen to change both the nipping AND to change the brain pathways too and you don’t have to be that hard on your horse either.

It’s possible to solve any biting problem – even the Fight Horse aggressive biting problem which we’ll deal with in another blog – with gentleness and kindness and absolute effectiveness.

AND you’ll be developing a closer bond that will expand into everything else that you do with them

So how the heck do we do that?

If a horse is afraid or confused, by definition they’re out of their Comfort Zone.  So preventing nipping or biting is as simple as backing off and taking them back to their Comfort Zone BEFORE they bite.

But but but….  How?

The trouble is that vast… VAST… amounts of horse training takes place with chronic stress and tension, so that stress and tension has become normal and so many of these horses don’t even know what a Comfort Zone with a human feels like. 

And for some desperate horses, some or even all their training has taken place in the Oh Shit I’m Dead Zone and their Comfort Zone with humans is even further away.

You still don’t need to be one of those mega skilled horse trainers to fix this.  You just need to love them enough to: 

• To be willing to not blame them or think of them as a “bad” horse.
• To be WILLING to understand them.  Understanding can flood in when we do the connection and communication work that we do here, but it all starts with a WILLINGNESS to understand them.  And mannn… your horse LOVES that willingness!
• To be CURIOUS about what’s caused them to so far out of their Comfort Zone that they’ve gone into Fidget nipping or full on biting. 
• And if you want to do it easily, you can use your Feel for your horse to change something and take them back to their Comfort Zone BEFORE you get bitten.  Your FEEL for your horse is your internal guidance system – the connection and inner communication ability that everyone – EVERYONE has.

FEEL for your horse is not difficult – as I’m repeating EVERYone has their unique version of it – and we are masters at teaching it here.  I’ve never met anyone I couldn’t teach that internal communication ability with their horse and you’re not allowed to be the first! 🙂

More on HOW to solve biting problems easily

FEEL means that you know when the stress and tension is rising in your horse BEFORE you can see it with your eyes and you can take action to help your horse find their Comfort Zone BEFORE they nip or bite.

For the horses who don’t know what a Comfort Zone with a human feels like – sadly far too many of them – the fact that you are LISTENING to them with your FEEL, the fact that you are willing to understand them and take action to help them – THAT will help them to find a Comfort Zone.  It’s the foundation of being able to build a Comfort Zone.  It can take a bit longer for these horses, but the confidence, communication and trust you build together can make this the most valuable time you ever spend with your horse.

And the cool thing is, working like this feels peaceful, happy, exciting sometimes and even joyful for us too.

If you’re new here

Browse around the sidebar – on mobiles you’ll find it underneath this article.  Watch the Key to the Kingdom of Horses videos – free on that sidebar – you’ll learn about all the different ways that people uniquely experience their Feel for their horse.  If you’ve seen those videos before and would like to review them – email me and I’ll send you the link.

If you’ve already watched the freebies and you like the way we work…

If you have a biting horse and you already know you like the gentle and effective way we work, then your arm, your butt and your confidence in yourself suggests that it’s time to have a look at one of our on-line training programs.   You’ll find them here, with something for every size wallet.

Our Training Programs – Happiness, Healing and Horses

Today’s photo is my dear friend Sue, with her horse Will who is a classic Fidget Horse – caught in the act of nipping at her way back at the beginning of their relationship together.

p.s.

Here’s a biting horse success story:

There’s all kinds of reasons for horses to bite

p.p.s.

The five F’s of horse personality came from the wonderful Linda Tellington Jones via her very talented sister Robyn Hood.  I added the 6th F with the Fierce Horse – the one I call the Warrior Horse.