How can i stop a pony biting?

Question

we have a little pony and he does tend to nip every now and then, i don't think he does it in a nasty way, more playful. I don't want to smack him on the nose as ive seen this done to other horses and when you raise your hand they flinch. any ideas?

Answer 1

What worked very well on my horse was pinching his muzzle. In the wild, horses who bite or attempt to bite more dominant horses are bitten in return. Since you need to be the dominant one here, bite back. As soon as he starts thinking about biting or acting like he is about to, have your fingers ready. When he comes into your space to bite, pinch his muzzle. Don't grab a big chunk, just enough to fit between your thumb and pointer finger and make it QUICK, don't grab and hold. While you do this make a loud SHHHHH sound. Horses respond better to this noise than saying NO. Never hit a horse in the face, this will only make him head shy. Also, someone said you should NEVER feed a horse from your hand, I disagree. While it can promote biting and nipping in some horses, you need to make the decision based on your horse's personality. Once you have corrected his biting problem, if he never offers to bite again, you decide whether to hand feed treats or not. My horse has never offered to bite me again after a few quick pinches on the muzzle and I am able to hand feed him with no problem. Hand feeding can be a very rewarding experience that helps bond us to our horses.

The times your horse does come into your space and not offer to bite, reward him with lots of praise and rub him on the neck. That's what mares do to calm their foals....they will lick them on the neck, so it works the same way when you rub them on the neck. Also, find some of his favorite spots to scratch as a reward. My horse likes his chin, up under his mane, and eye area lightly scratched. Rub around on your little guy to find his favorites. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

first off a horse should NEVER be slapped on the face or nose as you are right this does make them flinch which through excessive face slapping causes them to become headshy which is a very bad trait in a horse.
First what you need to establish is does your pony bite randomly or at a particular instance - say when hes being saddled up or something? If its for a particular reason such as this he could just be in discomfort or annoyed - random biting is more of an evil streak!!!!
Any time he bites - give him a firm slap on his shoulder accompanied by a NO - never let a nip go past without the same treatement and over time he should hopefully associate a bite results in a smack for him!
xx

Answer 3

A: Biting is a very dangerous problem. Horses bite down with approximately 80,000 lbs. per square inch. What adds to the danger is that a horse cannot reopen its mouth to let go until its teeth touch. The only way a horse could let go of your finger is to pull away tearing the skin badly or biting the finger off. Sounds brutal doesn't it? Well it is. I saw the aftermath of a fight between two stallions. Both stallions looked as if they had been shot with machine guns.

Biting is natural behavior between horses. It plays a part of seeking their place on the social ladder or what we call "pecking order". A horse biting a human is a different matter altogether. It stems from poor handling habits by humans. Young horses will nibble and humans think it's cute. It's not so cute when the same young horse grabs you by the sleeve a few weeks later and almost drags you to the ground tearing your sleeve. The quickest way to start a horse biting, is to hand feed him. Never offer a horse anything from your hand.

Let's go through a few steps for prevention and caution:

Never allow any horse to nibble or even put their mouth on you.
Never try to hit a horse in the mouth or face if it bites you, as the horse is much faster than you are. You will only be teaching a horse a game you can never win.
Never use gimmicks such as a loop of wire around the nose, or tricks to catch the horse biting so you can deliver punishment. The horse will never understand.
So how do we teach a horse not to bite

Answer 4

A good method I have found is thumb tacks in gloves. We had a very lippy Hanovarian, and this trick worked like a charm. You take a pair of gloves (not leather, or good) and stick thumb tacks through the backs of them and put them on. End result should be spikes coming out of the back of your hand. A thumb tack is very short, and once you put it through fabric only a little bit is still poking out, so it will not injure the horse. And you just wear these gloves around the horses mouth, and wait for the horse to start nibbling. They will prick their lip on the the pin and won't like it. It may take a time or two for them to figure out that mouth on human equals, ouchie! This way you're not the one punishing them. They simply think that this action hurts for some reason, and will be more likely to not want to do it again. If you don't want to try this method simply remember that there are two types of disciplines: "not what I want" and "don't ever do that again". When your horse isn't doing what you want you discipline them into doing what you want by making the wrong thing uncomfortable. However actions like biting and kicking that are dangerous need a "never do that again" punishment. If the pony bites you instantly react with a very rough punishment. Punch him in the mouth (sweetie I promise you can't punch hard enough to hurt him, a man probably could though), or take the lead and slap him in the head with it repeatedly. If he starts backing up and flinching keep after him so he knows that you mean business about this. This is a big problem that needs to be corrected soon, before he bites someone else, and you could be liable.

Answer 5

Whenever he does that, rub his muzzle briskly (not hard or abusive), just enough so it irritates him. Do that enough and he will stop.
You are right not to smack him on the head - that can cause more problems than it solves. Once a horse is headshy, it is hard to get them back to where they trust you around their head. However, you can give him a quick smack to the neck or another body part. Horses will nip or kick at each other when one of them takes it too far. The only thing is you have to be quick with it, so he knows why you're doing it.

Answer 6

my horse used to bite but shes got a lot better now. i simply made her realise that it wouldnt have it. full stop.
i dont smack her on the nose or the face if i can help it, but if she is being very threatening or malicious i will. one thing i have found as a good tip is biting back. what you do is when the horse bites at you, say no loudly and firmly, and use your fingers to 'pinch' him on the neck. not a malocious pinch, just a hard squeeze, hard enough so that he feels it.
it may be just high spirits now, but if he grows up and still thinks its cute and ok to do it, he will be able to cause some damage! a youngsters teeth will only get longer, and its far harder to get an older horse who's set in his ways to stop, than a youngster who simply doenst know.
you need to show him his boudaries, and to do this, its easier to simply become a horse. the 'pinching' thing works because its how horses say 'NO!' in the wild, so the horse will soon get the message!!
good luck!

Answer 7

I have a thoroughbred gelding, and he is a bit of an alpha male, so tends to get a bit rude sometimes. I found a while ago he was nipping when i groomed around his belly. I ignored it at first as it was just a teeny tiny nip when he got irritated, but then, i let him get awya with it and it got worse. Finally, he bit me on my back.
I have been told that you have to reprimand them for their behaviour, otherwise a little problem becomes a big or nasty one (i.e. taking out the side of someone and just beign downright nasty).

Horses have short memories, so you have to reprimand them immediately. If it's a bad bite, a smack on the neck hard, will not hurt (obviously make sure they are not kickers or vicious). You smack them, they might freak out, run to the back of their stable, pull their ears back, be upset, but you dont' go to them. Let them come to you. So you smack them, they react, then you just leave them, and wait for them to come to you. They will know not to do it again. You need to reprimand them severely enough so they know not to do it again, otherwise, they are testing your boundaries and will eventually progress to full on biting.

it's ok to smack a horse if it steps out of line, plus, you only need to do it once if it's properly done. I'm not saying kick it or beat it up. No need to smack their heads as this will make them head shy, just smack their necks, but important is that they come to you, and not vice versa.

My horse has stopped biting consequently, but anytime he gets cheeky, he knows that he will get smacked. it's like with children, if they are naughty they should get smacked. Otherwise, they will keep pushing the boundaries and you'll have a behaviour problem. Also, horses are big animals, if the behaviour problem persists, it can get dangerous.

Good luck. Don't let him bully you!! It will stop if the right measures are taken!!

Answer 8

I know that it sound cruel but yes you have to smack them on the end of their nose . Horses have to be treated like 4yr olds , your pony needs to learn boundries. As long as you continue to show him affection and brushing him out he should not shy away when you bring a hand to him. There are several sites that you can visit. Equine training , ect.

Answer 9

Punch him in the face

Answer 10

When my pony bit me i use to pinch him hard on his shoulder and shout no,he soon stopped after a while. I have also heard that if you feed your pony alot of treats it canmake them a bit nippy so maybe cut back on the apples and carrots if you do treat him.