No pattern that the barn staff have identified. It didn’t start when he got solo turnout (and he was still next to other horses, so not totally alone). I thought maybe it could be stress, since it’s a high-activity barn, and he came from a low-activity barn, but it doesn’t seem to increase or decrease on riding days. It seems very random. When he arrived, I did notice some wet patches on his sides, but thought maybe he was a little colicky from the long trip.
What I will say about him that does lead me toward self-mutilation is that he is a high high activity horse. He isn’t afraid of things per se, but if he were a kid, he’d be on Ritalin in a moment. He must move all the time. There is no “hangout and chill” in this horse. He is in constant motion. He dances on the cross-ties, not in mean way, but in a feet constantly shifting way If I stand next to him in the pasture, he’s never content to just chill, he has to be doing something, whether it’s licking my hand (yes, licking), or trying to explore my pockets. He carries cones around in the indoor. He’s SUPER sharp, and learns super fast, so I can’t do the same thing twice without it being the behavior that he does for all time. I’ve had quirky horses, but he’s uber-quirky that way.
He is a saddlebred, and some of those behaviors are pretty normal for the saddlebreds I’ve encountered, so I didn’t think much of the behaviors initially, but are they connected to this side-biting behavior? I don’t know.
