Horse biting

[2LittleSpeckledFrogs]

Oh help. My horse keeps biting, but only other people, never me. He has never shown even the slightest inclination to bite me except very rarely when doing the girth and he absolutely backs off if growled at.

He is a very dominant horse, with other horses although not usually with humans. He is generally very respectful to handle and ride. All bites (3 times now, 2 different victims) have been when he's been getting snappy around other horses and the humans have been in the way.

I'm worried he's going to get kicked off the yard at this rate!

Oh dear, I'm no expert, one of mine is occasionally a bit nippy but like your boy she backs off pretty quickly if told off.

All I can think is if the biting (of people) happens when he's actually being aggressive to other horses, you can obviously try telling him off for doing it but this may not work as he's only exhibiting natural behaviour and he may be confused or even stressed if told off for it. It would be better to get everyone handling him try to watch for his warning signs (ears back, tail swishing etc tends to happen before an actual bite/kick happens) and move him away from the other horses asap, but the very best thing would really be to try and avoid that situation happening in the first place - when have the bites happened? Is it mainly when being turned out/brought in - that always seems to be the trigger for bad behaviour around here? Certain horses you have to be really careful with in the field - they can't be left alone or with only one other when the rest are brought in, or have to be shooed well away if they are hanging around the gate when others are turned out, or one particularly naughty boy actually has to be caught and held even if not coming in as he's so bargy and rude it's dangerous for all concerned. Bit of a PITA for the staff but safety first?!

Basically can you make any changes to his routine to avoid him being anywhere near biting range of other horses whilst humans are around? If the aggression is really bad e.g. he goes to snap even if another horse is led past or in sight of his stable but nowhere near him, or it's recently escalated, it may be a sign something worse is going on an injury or illness, horses tend to get more aggressive with their herd when they are in pain or sick, horses are quite uncaring towards one another and will pretty quickly start to bully a weakened herd-mate, so they get better access to food etc. - not very nice but nature's way of protecting the herd unfortunately, which means a lot of horses do express pain as aggression as a defence mechanism - ill-educated humans can then respond with more aggression back which only causes a vicious circle so I definitely wouldn't listen to any advice which involves hitting him back or anything like that!

As a temporary measure can you put a notice on his stable door to warn people he can bite - my nippy mare mysteriously got very gobby with people's hands/pockets a while back when she moved into a stable near the office, where lots of kids and parents hang around before/after their lessons at the riding school, I suspected people had been spoiling her with treats - a big strongly worded sign saying 'don't feed this horse if you want to keep your fingers' or similar sorted that out!

Thanks @maxelly Yes, my suspicion is it's happening when too many horses are being handled at once eg 2 brought in together, or tied up very close together. I agree it's a PITA for staff, because my boy is on weekday livery so they have to deal with it except on weekends and I don't know that they'd take kindly to having to give him special treatment. But at the same time - I pay for a service.

He never bites me but then, I'm only ever giving him 1-1 attention so he is focused on me, not other horses.

He doesn't run at other horses in the field or stop people bringing theirs in or out past him. He is a generally grouchy sod though, has his ears back most of the time despite having regular back, teeth, saddle checks. I think that's just how he is. He enjoys a good groom though!

If it's a yard offering full livery then they really should be able to handle pretty much any type of horse. I have one on full livery and honestly they can handle ANYTHING. A horse being a bit bitey wouldn't even warrant a complaint although if it was out of character they would suggest dentist, vet etc.

If yours is known for being a grumpy sod and dominant around other horses then I'd be unimpressed if the staff can't deal with it.

If it's mainly a problem when being led in hand with other horses you could try getting him a "be nice" headcollar or asking the staff to use his bridle to turn him in and out to give them a bit more control?

The 'be nice' works great in experienced hands as a reminder of their manners in hand, and it's much kinder and better as a training aid than other methods I have heard of which involve whacking or otherwise frightening the horse when misbehaving - it works on a poll pressure/release system. The only trouble is you do need to know what you are doing with it and have good timing and while I totally agree with RatherBe that staff on a full livery yard should be experienced and well trained, I have to say there are some of the staff on my yard I wouldn't let within a yard of one of my horses with a training aid like that unsupervised - they are well meaning and do a good job within their own sphere (mainly mucking out, sweeping the yard, poo picking etc) but often very young and not yet very experienced - they are learning/training under the supervision of the yard manager and her assistants who are great and I'd totally trust to do anything with the horse, but they can't be there for every single bring in/turn out etc etc and I can only imagine that a horse who could only be handled by a senior member of staff would be regarded (at best) as a massive nuisance?

Reading between the lines 2Little, is it mainly somewhat inexperienced staff at your place that have gotten in the way of his bites? It's tricky if so because you don't want to come across as blaming them but the solution probably is simply that they take more care in handling him? Things like tying him up too close to another horse can very easily be avoided!

"It's tricky if so because you don't want to come across as blaming them but the solution probably is simply that they take more care in handling him?" @maxelly

I think this nails it. One of them was very inexperienced, the other not really. But I think both would have definitely been rushing and not taking a great deal of care about what they were doing. Think the situation of a dog handler walking 8 dogs at once to just get it done, it's kind of like that at times.