Biting colt

Question
Hello Lisa

I have a question re. my 14 month old colt that I'm hoping you can help me out with.  He has not been gelded, as the plan is that he will be trained as a racehorse and will only be gelded if he proves that he needs it.  We would prefer to keep him entire, so that breeding is possible in the future.  The colt first came to my place at 10 months of age and he was extremely well-behaved for about two weeks.  He was (and still is) stabled at night but turned out into a paddock during the day and shares this with my gelding in the afternoon.  However, biting soon became a problem and in trying to eliminate this problem I have made it worse.  When he bit me I slapped him back and I now know that this just encouraged him to want to 'play' with me.  I understand that this is what colts do, but I don't want to let it get any worse.  Sharing the paddock with my gelding for a couple of hours a day seems to have taught him some manners, but he is still a problem with me.  I have tried a range of other approaches, such as making a loud, unpleasant 'buzzer' sound when he even starts nibbling, but he doesn't seem to be overly perturbed by this.  I also try my best to stay out of his space so that I'm not put in a position where he can bite me, but this is very difficult to do all of the time.  

Recently I have been taking a water-spray bottle out into the paddock and stable with me because I felt that I needed something unpleasant that would shock him enough to make him want to stop and would not be seen as a game.  This definitely seems to reduce the biting but does get him extremely worked up, which then makes leading him a problem.  Leading has been a problem for a while now anyway, and he obviously feels that he is the boss of me and is always moving into my space and pushing and pulling me around.  Therefore, in an attempt to fix this, I have been spending as much time as possible out in the paddock with him and asking him to back up, to walk on, to halt and to stand still on command.  He initially wasn't too keen on this but as soon as I brought carrot pieces into it as a reward for doing what he was told, he was much better.  However, whilst he will do all of this when there is a carrot as an incentive, the biting has now become more of a problem because he's looking for the carrot and is becoming very nippy again.  But if I don't use the carrot when I'm leading him, to make him stop and start again when he's being silly, then he gets out of control.

I feel that I need to teach him some 'treat etiquette', but I'm not exactly sure how to do this.  I am able to get him to stand still, but as soon as I give him a treat, he tries to eat my hand along with it and is extremely rough.  He will grab the treat out of my hand and then try to give me a good nip immediately after.  Then I'm concerned that if I reprimand him, he'll become confused because I've just given him a treat!  I worry that there's such a fine-line between being patient and being a push-over and any advice that you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thank-you,
Leisa.


Answer
Hi Leisa,
          Most likely your horse is biting for one of two reasons. He could either be trying to establish dominance or be trying to communicate with you. You need to teach him that you are in charge and that you make the rules. First off do not treat him from your hand. Drop the treat on the ground or inhis feed bucket. If he tries to bite you take your elbow,  a rope, or even a foam bat and hit him with it in the shoulder as hard as you can while yelling no. You want to do this within 2 seconds of the biting behavior. You will need to go back to the beginning to teach him how to lead.

One of the things I have found to help a horse that pulls is to circle them. Whenever they they to pull away I walk them in a circle. I just keep tightening it so evetually the horse gets tired of it and leads correctly. If he appears to get distracted when you are leading him then give a quick snap on the lead line so that he gives you his focus. Then try to walk him again in a straight line. If he again resists then circle him again.

Lisa