Sudden change in behavior

Question
Hi Caitlin,
I have a 18 yr old Arabian gelding, this guy has always been the sweetest thing and gentle. Well in May a friend introduced a mare into our herd of 2 mares and 2 geldings and my gelding just flipped out and decided he was a stud. So I called the vet she watched him for awhile and decided on putting him on Regumate to settle him down. Well it worked a bit, but when the girls would season he would attempt. I noticed after 10 weeks or so that he looked depressed and had dark circles around his eyes so I took him off of the hormones with vets ok. So now the problem.... out of nowhere he has started to bite me and yesterday he has started pinning those ears and lunging just his face at me with his mouth closed...thank goodness for that. I just can't figure why he has decided he dosn't want me in his space he was my buddy and I just don't know which is best to handle this. People are saying smack him for trying to bite, no never thump an arabian on the nose or near his face..... work the hell out of him. He ticked me off today when he did it so I threw my arms up in the air and told him to back up  whick he did then he gave me one of those...what was that for looks. I love this guy beyond words I watch Clinton, Parelli, Cox, Cameron and I'm just at a loss as to how to handle this guy. I mean he truly was the sweetest even tempered love now acts like the bad seed. When he see's the grooming articles he pins those ears and tells me to bugger off but I don't and he attemps to bite, I give him a good yank down on his rope halter and he will stop until he thinks I'm not paying attention then tries again. What to do with this guy, some idiot told me to get rid of him cause I obviously didn't understand my horse. I'm trying, I thought that maybe he's going through attitude changes because of the hormones, any suggestions would be helpful, I need to fix this.

Thank you Caitlin

Answer
Hello Bonnie,
That sounds like a confusing situation! I am glad you sought vet attention, but now that he is off the regumate lets take a look at the behavioral issue. Who knows if it was the introduction of this mare that changed your good friend into feeling like a little stud, but no matter what caused the situation was caused by, he can feel studly, he just has to be the best behaved stud in the world. When I work with tricky situations like this I think about how the horse is feeling, if he is saying "don't touch me", I wouldn't. I would start off with getting your halter on and getting to work in changing his attitude. Since you follow all the TV trainers I am assuming you have a natural rope halter with a lead that is at least 12 feet long and heavy. When you get your guy out of the stall or pasture, as soon as you have the halter on, you start working on taking up space around him. Think of how you send him around you in a circle and how you start politely and then follow through with your rope to get him to move his feet out of your space. If you have to get big, get big! If he looks at you like "what was that for?" stop. Let him stop and look at you with those ears up and you just focus on holding still and breathing deeply. If he pins his ears at you then he goes off to work again, until you can disengage him and have him look at you with that big focused look, stop and let him catch his breath. I find that if you don't think of it as good or bad behavior, just a choice he has to make between work and rest, it comes together pretty quickly. Once you have some more respect on the ground (meaning he has figured out that if he looks at you with his ears up he can turn off your energy) then at the end of your session I would groom. Keep the rope over your arm and know that brushing him comes second to his attitude. A grumpy face equals one bump on the lead line. Work on this and let me know what you run in to, then we will come up with some things you can work on with him while you are riding. Oh yes, one more thing, a horse cannot bite you if they are not close enough to do so. So if you want some horse cuddles go pet someone else when you are done working him, and soon, when he says he is ready, you'll have your old friend back.
I look forward to hearing from you again.
Best Wishes,
Caitlin Day Huntress