My young horse has started to nip at people but if I smack him on the neck he thinks it’s a game and bites back. I’m now keeping a lead rope on him whenever I’m around so when he tries to bite I do a sharp tug.
He’s very curious and smart, we are working on leading manners and not being pushy. The biting is not out of aggression or pain, there are no physical triggers and his ears are forward. He is very mouthy and will play with anything.
What would you do? TIA. 
For seriuos bitng I would keep a halter and lead rope on him, and if necessary carry a short whip. When he nips or tries to nip, send him back away from you fast by shaking that rope hard and add whip if needed.
Obviously do this in an area where there is room like a paddock not a closed stall and not if the horse is tied up. And not around other people or horses.
Biting is play but play is about asserting himself so making him lose ground makes him lose the game.
You might have to be selective about where you take him and work him for a few days.
One or two times doing this should create an attitude change.
If not so serious a sharp poke in the muzzle as he comes toward you.
Whatever you do try to time it so you react as he is striking not after.
Also be aware of where his head is arvall times and don’t let him nuzzle for treats. And don’t hand feed him while this is an issue.
It’s not that he thinks it’s a game and that’s why he is biting back. He is trying to establish some dominance over you or at the very least show that he is upset with your correction. And that deserves an even bigger correction. Backwards he goes a hundred miles an hour. Scribbler’s advice is excellent - couldn’t have said it better.
Thanks for the advice, I agree about him trying to assert dominance by biting.
When I try to drive him backwards by shaking the rope and using a whip he rears so I usually walk towards his shoulder and do short yanks on the halter towards his chest to back up and poke his chest with the dull end of the whip. He does back up, but not fast enough yet as I’ve only had him a few days. Do you think this an effective punishment?
Thanks, I agree he is trying to assert dominance. I’ve only had him a few days and will do groundwork until he respects me as leader before grooming or feeding treats.
What I like to do and has worked for me is while leading keep my elbow closest to horse bent and if said horse tries to bite me, he gets an elbow in the nose. I don’t hit them but let the horse connect to my elbow if they enter my space.
Being he is new to you, you might want to handle only with halter and lead rope and focus on making him work and pay attention to you, keep him so busy he doesn’t have time to bite at you. Then as you build trust and he drops that behavior you can loosen up a bit.
I wouldn’t even bother with treats with a mouthy horse unless he is super food motivated. I do like to spend time desensitizing them to me putting my hands all in their mouths, touching their tongue, checking their gums, looking at teeth. Makes them less mouthy.
Have you had him on ulcer treatment since the move since he is new?
With this type of horse do not feed hand treats. Put them in his feed bin.
Teach him to stand with his head forward. He is not allowed to turn his head.
Keep other people away.
Keep an elbow ready at all times he needs to hit that so as not a good idea.
The idea of pulling the rope is you have a long rope so you are not near him. He makes the decision to bite you step away and tug. You step back and praise him for standing.
To clarify when I said this kind of nipping is both play and dominance.
It’s play to the extent that no he isn’t angry or actually trying to kill you.
But like a lot of games, it is about establishing dominance. Young geldings are a lot like 12 year old boys. Left unsupervised 12 year old boys will often be wrestling and shoving each other around until the pecking order is sorted out.
So yes it’s a game and yes your horse is keeping score. Nip slap nip means he’s still scoring points in his mind.
If you are fast enough to intervene before he actually lands a nip he has not scored a point and it’s a lot less fun. And if you make him move his feet back and give way you have asserted yourself like another horse would.
When you do that, let him stand at a distance from you until he drops his head or looks away, and then let him come back to you.
Obviously you need to gauge the right level of response to his energy level and you need to have precise timing.
Also I would of course only recommend this with a horse who is already tame and unafraid and who wants to be with you. I wouldn’t send a horse away like this if it was still nervous of people or likely to bolt or spook or rear.
It’s for the pushy confident ones.
I agree with the folks who say back him up. I myself don’t shake ropes or anything; I just face the offender directly, holding him by the halter or lead if he’s fussy, and lean in till he lowers his head and steps back. (Unless your horse is really out of control, this shouldn’t be particularly difficult if your body language is decisive and direct.)
Keep it all as calm and boring as you possibly can, since you want the correction to feel like work rather than play.
If you want to keep the option of feeding treats (I do, since I use them in training all the time) teach your horses to stand immobile for several seconds to get one. This is a very useful skill to have on board, especially once you’ve installed a cue word like “Statue!” or “Hold!” Great for pictures, too.
Likewise. I do clicker training. That should have a built in component of teaching horse to back off, stand still, or look away for treats. But this only works if horse understands that click and treat is a clear reward for a specific behavior.
I find clicker training very simple and effective with my mare, who is an angry biter and pushy but food motivated. I can get her to stand stock still and even look away from me while girthibg up instead of taking huge bites out of my butt.
But clicker takes timing and consistency, and a resolution not to just hand feed treats randomly.
I think that a good clicker trainer could use treats with a playfully nippy horse to shape a different behavior and to redirect the playful energy.
But frankly I find most horse owners don’t have the timing or perhaps just not the commitment and consistency to make it work for their horse. So I always tell people with nippy pushy young horses to just skip hand treats altogether. In general if people are having trouble with a horse nipping them, my guess is they don’t quite yet have the timing for good clicker work.
I had a long yearling that went for women’s boobs. His was the first stall facing out towards visitors.
i think he enjoyed the reactions of women, especially the squeals.
He never broke skin and he grew out of it, once he got into serious training.
But he kept the habit of running his lips down your clothes, finding a button and pulling on it or lifting a hat off your head if you
weren’t paying attention.
He had a mischievous side
Put him out with some older mares to teach him manners around the ladies!
Make his life Hell going backwards for 3-4 seconds then walk forwards. Stop letting him run the show.
Feeding treats??? NO…NO…NO…NO…NO…NO… Did I say NO!
When he attempts to nip, your reaction has to be over the top, Tasmanian devil transformation…the horse has to think he will DIE!
Simple “backing up” is not enough…you have to send a BIG message that biting is a “hanging offense.”
I might not go for the total nuclear option on the first day. I have had luck with the approach of holding something heavy and sharp - a metal jump cup is awkward but works really well - so that when he nips at you hits that which hurts. You carry on as if nothing happened - no reaction from you plus discomfort makes this game totally unsatisfying.
If you take the most extreme option right off the bat where do you go if it doesn’t work? She didn’t say he was attacking viciously - that would be a case for you to go ballistic. You wouldn’t teach him to move off your leg by whaling on him the first ask.
If you don’t have a jump cup the butt end of a crop or a short stick will work but it has to be what he meets when he goes for you and it has to hurt a little.
She’s playing his game and needs to rethink all parts of how he’s handled IMO.
For a new horse exhibiting playful rather than vicious biting, I think this is overkill.
If you start with the nuclear option, what do you do in the event of an escalation - shoot the beast?
No. I’d say start with the calm, straightforward correction, be consistent till you’re sure the horse gets the picture, and then go nuclear in the event of a relapse. That’s fair play, I think, and it establishes a tone of calmness and cooperation that most horses pick up on fairly quickly.
I would agree on the highlighted part. The operative word being"start."
But based on OP’s post this has been going on for a while. So this is beyond the “start” of correcting a behavior and the horse still hasn’t got the point. So, same as horses in a field, they signal (ears), then there is an escalating progression of “correction” up to and including a double barrel.
I’m just saying OP needs to work on her version of making it very very clear that the behavior is not allowed…in a way the horse understands.
And having handled stallions, lips, toungue and teeth are NEVER, EVER allowed. No way, no how. I dont care if it is in “play.” I am not a horse and don’t allow my horses to treat me as one.
There is always the hot potato option.
I agree with the people who say “Move his feet”. The horse who can make another horse move is the dominant horse. You need to be that horse.
I view a lippy youngster as my opportunity to let The Crazy Lady out of her carefully locked back room.
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