I’ve known a couple horses that are very smart, curious and confident, and also super mouthy and busy. Not biting, no teeth are ever involved, not part of a larger tendency toward poor manners, just everything goes in the mouth, gets investigated, including me. Are these personality traits connected? I think I can tolerate being a human chew toy (slight exaggeration) if it’s just part of the personality that marches up to new things.
1 Like
I dont think you can generalize. I have a moderately mouthy mare, very confident and extroverted and dominant. She spooks very rarely and looks embarrassed after. She’s great on trails and did some low level eventing when young (not with me). She is a great trick horse with clicker training. This horse has learned not to mug, she is super soft taking treats from toddlers, but she will bite to draw blood if you piss her off grooming (she targets your butt).
I also am working with a project mare who is more mouthy. She is the herd boss of my mare and is confident with horses and on her own turf. But she has a streak of anxiety that she tends to internalize until she explodes. One sign of her anxiety is that she gets even more mouthy and starts nibbling and nipping at people. This horse will mug other people who encourage it, she will get over excited and nip getting treats, but has never offered to bite or kick me in anger.
You need to look at the other signs to see why the nibbling at any point.
I have found that some correct clicker training can reach naturally mouthy horses to back off in order to get a treat. A poke in the nose can stop food oriented mugging.
But if the horse is nibbling you from anxiety then you need to deal with the anxiety, too big a punishment will be counter productive.
My barn friend with a youthful minded but no longer young gelding also says he nibbles and nips when he’s anxious.
I would suggest a “no mouth on the human” protocol, clicker training to stand back, no random treats, groundwork on standing, backing, moving over, and some stall toys or food puzzle games.
A bold horse can easily learn what’s socially not OK, and if he is a truly confident horse he can learn manners without being cowed. Manners on the ground do not decrease boldness under saddle. Manners are indeed fantastic confidence builders because horses learn that if they behave in a certain way everything goes smoothly and they feel more in control. This is also true for humans, personal confidence and knowing appropriate good manners for the situation are a mutually self reinforcing cycle, while the opposite, social anxiety plus having been raised by wolves, can be a downward spiral :).
That’s why it’s important not to yell randomly at horses, and to have clear consistent boundaries. Maybe it’s because I’m almost always with mares, but mares really blossom when they know you like them and think they are good girls. They are like ten year old girls that way. They are way more confident and people pleasing when they know exactly what I want them to do and that they aren’t going to get in trouble.
So, I would say devise a plan for your mouthy horse that sets clear limits about no mouth on humans. Give him stall toys to play with. Be proactive about keeping good tack out of reach so he doesn’t chew through the leather or toss your helmet on the ground and smash it. Be proactive also so you aren’t always yelling at him. Don’t feed random treats or play wrestle with his mouth. If you have the focus and timing for clicker training you can reach him to stand back, and also play fetch, which is fun.
5 Likes
Nope. If he is smart, he can learn the no mouth no people policy. I have a smart young boy, not quite 3, due to age and inexperience he is naturally mouthy. If I need to in order to break the cycle of anxiety, I will hand him the leadline or brush, and then take it away when I want to, something he has also learned to be okay with. But, his mouth never ever touches me. He knows the boundaries and is happy with them.
I also don’t feed treats, ever. Mostly because the Big Boy was a nightmare about food when he came, and now I find it quite pleasant to have horses that don’t want to mug me.
2 Likes
My paint gelding came to me mouthy. Had lived with children who fed him treats. I don’t personally believe in treats for horses. Give them the best hay and grain, period.
He is bold and confident but rarely mouthy anymore.
He may have been gelded late, he did sire one foal.
1 Like
I’m not so worried about stopping the mouthing from a specific horse at the moment. I’m more curious if very confident, curious horses also tend to fidget and put everything in their mouths.
1 Like
No. Anxious immature horses fidget and put things in their mouths. It’s foal behaviour and its colt/gelding behavior more than mare behavior. Pushy does not equal confident.
4 Likes
All my mouthy horses have been geldings, but starting young mares they usually go through a fidget phase with the bit.
1 Like
I have one who might appear confident, bold on the surface that is mouthy. He is smart, curious, and mischievous. He will pick things up and fling them around for fun.
He’s actually very insecure. He’s not mouthy about food or treats at all, very polite. But definitely insecure.
2 Likes
I know what you’re talking about, OP. I bought a gelding as a yearling who was exactly like that: supremely confident, bold, curious, and mouthy as hell (but not a biter). I think it was just part of how he interacted with the world. You couldn’t set a brush or whatever on the ledge of his stall for 5 seconds or it would be in his mouth. He wasn’t a destructive chewer though.
I had him for 4 years until he sadly had to be euthanized due to DSLD, and I don’t think I saw him spook once. About a month after I first sat on his back I felt safe trail riding him alone in the woods because he was totally imperturbable. I took him to an obstacle course clinic once and he spent the whole time trying to stick his nose in weird things and pick them up. He drove me crazy sometimes but he was adorable and so safe.
4 Likes
My horse who I believe was gelded late is very mouthy. Not bitey at all. He’s the most curious, bright, people oriented horse I’ve ever been around. He will take my gloves out of my pocket and hand them back to me. He will lip the cross ties, the metal part quietly the entire time I groom him. He likes to remove his bell boots and place them outside his window neatly like. Look what I did. He also will walk around with a jolly ball like a golden retriever. 
. I think it’s all horse dependent and you have to gauge the intention. Are they pushing boundaries towards adding teeth? Mine isn’t. So I ignore it because in every other aspect of his handling he’s a freaking unicorn.
4 Likes
There is a little trick of sorts from trainer John Lyons and I know someone who used it successfully. Their horse was nippy. Use both hands to rub all over their muzzle, with some energy, until they stop.
My horse is a “licker” and licks me, or someone conveniently located, and licks, and licks. I talked to an emeritus at Cornell who has studied horse and dog behaviors for a long time. The person who referred me didn’t know she studied undesirable behaviors. She said that in 50 years I’m the second owner of a licker she has spoken with. It’s not undesirable but she had me fill out her form.
Mouthiness that involves behaviors like biting and nipping is different from licking the back of my red jacket on the way out of the barn all winter. Or my hand. Or your hand. He nibbles a teeny little 1/4 tablet of Previcox from my palm, then a few treats I cram in there. He does it for barn staff. He always gets his Previcox because there is always someone around to do it.
It has to be a different part of the brain. I moved to a new barn a year ago and now he is in a stall with a run out, free choice hay and 3 meals a day. I never soaked his grain which seemed to horrify the BO. He hasn’t licked me as much anymore. I thought it was a change of environment. One day someone put way too much water in the grain. He loves it. He licks the slobbery gloppy mess with head stretched out and eyes partly closed. A hormone perhaps? Then he licks the wall or stall door or part of the grill. He continues that routine until the food tub is shiny. There is no point in cleaning anything. He likes to nibble dry stuff off the wall. He likes to fling his hay around into piles and nibbles the crumbs on the floor. This barn is neat as a pin – everywhere else. He is in the first stall on the right. Everyone laughs along with the BO. They will pressure wash it, but not anytime soon.
I’ll find some photos.
3 Likes
I’ve had my young gelding almost 2 years now. He is just as you describe. Inhales everything in reach but is also brave, smart and terribly investigative and curious about EVERYTHING. I mean he misses nothing.
I have gently discouraged him mouthing me over time but in his case I believe it is all part of his personality. I have to say I adore him even when it is frustrating.
2 Likes
My first horse would on occasion lick my hands. I would stand there with an open palm and he would lick, and lick, and lick.
He was in a pasture 24/7/365 and I finally figured out that he might like the salt from my sweat. Salt blocks are made for cow tongues, and the horses do not get as much salt per lick. When I started adding a tbs. of trace mineral salt to his feed he licked me a lot less and limited it to the summer heat instead of year round.
I have a bold, mouthy, licky, horse.
He has salt available, that’s not it.
He is super super dominant in the field, super smart, and incredibly sensitive. Everything that can possibly go in his mouth has been at one point in his mouth. I bought special cross ties with pvc near his head so that he doesn’t chew on them.
I tried the John Lyons/Warwick Schiller trick of rubbing his muzzle vigorously and that just became a fun game - he loves it - but it doesn’t stop the mouthiness.
I think different horses have different reasons for their oral fixations. Some dominant, some anxious, some just didn’t outgrow their foal behavior.
3 Likes
i have three that are mouthy. One, a middle aged gelding, demands attention that way. One, a 4yr old gelding is just trying to stay a baby horse. And the third is the odd one…but then, he’a a muleboy. He wants me to put my hand in his mouth to prove my trust. He will lip me, try to take my hand in his lips…then he opens his mouth and dares me to do it. And, idiot that i am, i do. First i look him in the eye and tell him he better not be lying to me or i’ll kill him. Then i give him my hand. Usually he closes his teeth lightly, sometimes he just moves on in real close to me and lays his forehead on my chest.
1 Like
I had a cocker spaniel mix that relentlessly licked rugs, furniture, etc. I adopted her from the municipal shelter as an older adult dog so didn’t have her backstory. My vet told me that it’s a stereotypic behavior, like cribbing or weaving (my examples) that releases endorphins and acts as a soothing mechanism. For a horse that does it so continually, I’d bet it’s the same.
