biting

Question
I have a 10 year old greenbroke horse who lays his ears back and tries to bite me as if I were another horse.  I have tried telling him "No" with a firm slap on his neck but that seems to spur him on.  He as even stood up in my face as if to try to strike at me.  I tried a short pvc pipe against his neck and that only seems to make him more aggressive.  I don't want him to keep this up.  My older horse runs him away from me if he is near and that is about the only thing that works.  I have tried to be gentle with him and talk quietly while rubbing him and then tell him "No" firmly and that doesn't work.  I can't comb out his mane without a fight.  What can I do?  He is a doc bar quarterhorse paint.  I'm thinking it could be his breeding.  My previous farrier had to put a chain under his lip the first time he trimmed him and now I don't have a problem with the farrier.  I'm a 50-year-old woman and really don't have the strength to fight with him.

Answer
Debby,

You have a horse, I assume he's a gelding not a stallion, but is behaving like a stallion.  It's a dominance issue.  He's being very disrespectful which is unacceptable behavior and needs to learn to re-think your relationship with him.  

Round pen work would be the easiest, safest way for you to establish respect with him.  Probably not his breeding but his early upbringing.  I would guess that his dam was an alpha mare.  If you don't have access to a round pen then you can do this in a small paddock.  Round pens work better but if not available I have taken the wide, yellow caution tape (I buy it at Home Depot) and run it back and forth several times across the corners of the paddock to block them off.  The horses are suspicious of it so won't attempt to go through it and if they do there's no harm done.  If you aren't familiar with round pen work there are dozens of books by various natural horsemanship trainers out there - John Lyons, Pat Parelli, Richard Shrake, Curt Pate, etc.  Pat Parelli has some excellent videos available that are worth the money.  Watching the work done is so much more helpful than simply reading about it.  But working the horse through Pat's 7 games will go a long way towards getting him to realize that you must be respected.  In the horse world mares run the show, the lead mare determines when and where the band will go, the stallion follows and harries the stragglers and protects the rear of the band.  He has to acknowledge that you are the "lead mare" and stop disrespecting you.  

I can appreciate your feelings about not wanting to fight with him.  I'm 58 and definately don't want to fight with horses!  But round pen work is extremely effective.  The early sessions will take a while so forget about time when you start.  Be prepared to spend several hours with him the first few sessions while he figures out that the rules have been changed.  Horses all learn at their own rates and in some cases can be very slow to come around, but they all do.  Face it, they aren't nature's rocket scientists!  I love them dearly but accept that they have a brain the size of a walnut and rank on a scale with white mice.  Working with them is like working with a not real bright 2 yr. old child.  They can be sort of dense at times.  You have to out-patience them.

This is the best advice I can give you to accomplish the attitude adjustment that this horse needs without getting yourself or him hurt in the process.  I've seen and worked with a lot of tough cases and they always come around eventually, in some cases it has taken several months of daily work to get them to where I wanted but it did work.  They have to get it through their heads at their own pace.

Good luck and if I can be of any further help let me know.  Patience will be the key here for you.  If you just need someone to vent to or need some encouragement I'm always available.

Lyn