After a little encounter with my new Mustang this morning, I thought “hey, this would be some good info for people to know and prevent some future mishaps between horse and owner”. So here we are!

Horses bite for many reasons. Sometimes its playful, sometimes it’s not so playful. Sometimes it’s even loving; like during a grooming situation. Sometimes it’s because they’re asking for those treats you’re always giving them. In this particular situation, it was to “test the waters”.

Nova, my 7-year-old BLM Mustang has been with us for a couple months now. She is getting into the routine, trusting more, and is getting more comfortable. With that, she is trying to see what her role is in my herd. In the wild, horses are testing each other every day to work out the pecking order in the herd. Why should it be any different with people?

It was a normal morning. I gave her a handful of her ration balancer, filled her hay bag and put it under her run in. When I went in there to put her fly mask on she was just calmly munching on some hay. Just as I had secured it on, she turned her head towards my lower belly and just did a little “I’m kind of annoyed you’re here” nip. She didn’t do it aggressively (no laid ears back, no real effort put into it) but I did feel teeth through my shirt.

Now, if I had…moved back, even a little bit, like the normal person would if they got startled. If I had ignored it and walked away out of the ring (like I had planned on doing after I put her mask on)-this is something that could have turned into a bigger problem. This is a situation where a little annoyance nip could turn into an “ears back, full on grab flesh” kind of bite.

This is because, this is horse language. This is how horses communicate.

Through body language, even if its ever so subtle. If Nova had done this to the lead mare, or a mare above her in the hierarchy-she would have gotten the crap kicked out of her. For real. Look at horses in the wild, they aren’t gentle, and have a system in place for a reason.

Nova said to me “hey can you get out of here, you’re kind of annoying me” and I said “NOPE BUT YOU CAN”. This all happened within less than 3 seconds. I didn’t beat on her; I didn’t scare her. But instead of backing up when she did that, I immediately slapped the side of her neck, drove her out of her area where she was eating, pushed her around the round pen with only body language, and I didn’t let her come back into where the hay bag was until I said she could. When I saw that she understood I wasn’t messing around, and she was respectfully and calmly waiting outside her run in-instead of trying to barge by me; then I let her in. And I walked away.

Biting is just something I do not tolerate with my horses or any horse I am training. It is one of the only situations you will ever see me aggressively “hit” a horse. Even then, an open slap on the neck is nothing compared to what they can do. I have gotten bit, that has drawn blood, and it’s not great. It is a very small thing that can turn into a very big and dangerous thing, fast. Which is why I “nip” it in the bud, just as fast.

A friend said to me “with horse training, 85% of the time it’s connection and butterflies and rainbows and the rest it’s having a “come to Jesus moment.””