horse biting sometimes

Question
Hi I stumbled across your email while looking up horses and biting. We have a 3? yr old gelding. We rescued him from a lonely half starved life of neglect. Fed him up, had him gelded (he was almost totally wild and never hardly saw a human) He now follows us around like a puppy and LOVES attention and all people! Problem area is my hubby wanted this horse and I have a certain fear of horses (you could say respect) and he is very well behaved at night when I bring him into his stall it's early mornings when I lead him out. He jerks and tried to nip me. It's not ears pinned back or anything like that, I believe it is excess energy.

He shares 6 acres with a mare who is approx 11 yrs old and very well mannered. We got her a year ago because he looked lonely. They get along great but he always goes to bite her in the butt and bite at her too, she just kicks him lol

btw, we have him for approx 1 1/2 yrs. He has times when he doesn't do this and this week, he is especially feisty early in the morning.

How can I stop this biting, as I said earlier I have a little fear of horses and my hubby wanted them not me.

My hubby is on the road during the week so has no hands on. I have to lead them in and out daily. He acts like a perfect gentleman when I lead him in at night. I don't understand this behavior and would appreciate any expert advice you could give. thanks

Answer
Hi,
      Horses bite to play or assert their dominance.  It sounds as though your horses senses your fear. There is also a good chance that when your horse was younger, he nipped and the prior owner thought it was "cute". There are several ways to stop him from biting, depending on your horse, one of them will work. You can slap him on the muzzle when he bites, if you do this make sure that the slap is within three seconds of the bite and that it is a hard slap. With some horses, the biting is cured after doing it once.

Another way is to use a lead chain on your rope. You put the chain over his nose, and when he bites, you pull on the chain.

You can also set it up, so that he punishes himself. Have a tack in your hand and when he tries to bite,allow him to make contact with the tack.  This will cause him to punish himself and to think that he harmed himself by biting. You never want to hand feed a horse as that encourages biting.   Biting is a very dangerous habit, that you want him broken of, before you get hurt.

Lisa