Biting, kicking, pinning me into the fence.

Question
I recently acquired a 3 year old Saddle bred that went through many hands...I don't know how he was treated but I have a good idea as the last owner is known to train in VERY cruel ways... He is a stud...He is crypt right now and I was hoping he'd drop as I don't have the money for a huge castration bill...I took him in so he wouldn't end up in the slaughter house...He will be cut as soon as I can get it done.. The main problem is that he will bite me when I try to make him do something...I have been working with him to show him "his" space and "my" space but he thinks after a little while of that that he can start to shove me around with his chest...If I keep pushing him he gets really bad...If I stop and walk away hell turn around and try to kick me or rear on his hind legs while still trying to push me around...I, for one, do not like walking away because to me it seems that he'll think its ok for this kind of behavior...When I take him out of his pen he does great walking but after a few minutes hell try to grab my shirt...The more I try to push him off or ignore it the worse he gets...When we go back into the pen he tries to pin me into the gate....I'm not scared of him and were both pushy and neither of us give in...I want to help him but not really sure how to do it...I've trained horses for myself for years including studs and I've NEVER come across anyone like him...I've tried working with a bridle on him too...It takes a good 10 minutes to get the bridle on ..He whips his head around to the point where I've had a bloody nose...When I take the bridle off as soon as its over his ears he flips out and tries to take off all while holding the bit...I don't know if his previous owners tried to yank it out of his mouth and it hurt him or not but he's very scared of it...He's a great boy but I'm not as young as I used to be...I will say that MOST of the time his behavior is NOT aggressive...He tries to treat me like another horse and he just gets playful.. But when I ignore the issue that attitude changes fast..

Answer
Hello,

Sounds like he's treating you like a high horse would treat a lower horse. He doesn't respect you enough to listen. Now, if he was "trained" with cruel methods, then part of it may be a survival reaction.

Stop trying to bridle him right now. He's telling you he's not ready for it. If you have experience training studs before him, then you should be able to train him the same way. You will most likely have to bring him back to baby steps. Treat him like a colt and restart him. Get him to trust you FIRST and then start rebuilding his confidence.

If ignoring the issue is causing worse behavior then start nipping the issues the second they arise. It's like a toddler.....if the behavior isn't getting the desired result, sometimes they up the ante. Your horse is trying to up the ante to get your attention. So when the issue begins, correct it immediately if it is undesirable behavior.

Feel free to email me back if you need more info. :)

Good luck.

Brittney