Pedigree Query

Just turned 2yr old colt has started biting/nipping at 1st it was just when feeding but now he is doing it all the time...grooming is becoming impossible unless you hold his head away from you with one hand and then try to groom as far as you can reach with the other hand. I have threatened to geld him but he doesnt under English yet LOL. I have thought about maybe a chiffney bit? Any thoughts Thanks!

Time for the hot pepper spray, wait for the moment when the mouth is open, get it primed and hit that tongue and lips....

Really Madelyn? Does this actually work? My colt does this quite a bit too....if i let him stick something in his mouth he is fine.....I just thought he needed a soother.....or dummy, you know what they have for kids??

He already has a dummy if you are letting him bit you and doing nothing to discourage it.

griff

Way back in the old days we used a steaming hot potato and shoved it into the offender's mouth to discourage biting. These days, you can get hot pepper spray which is much easier. It works so long as you are accurate with it, and the biting is being caused by the horse trying to determine social status. If it is other than social status, it is more of a training issue. When grooming young horses, they should supplicate. If, instead, they put their teeth on your clothes and later into your skin, they are trying to gain superior social status.

I used to do the hot potato thing too and that was actually my 1st thought. I dont think its so much as he wants to be superior as he wants to itch me back the same as 2 horses scratching each others necks to itch...but I dont want to get into the biting habit. he wasnt a mouthy colt until this past month so I want to stop it as soon as possible. And yes it could be determining the pecking order so to speak but I had a terrible colt that wanted to bite all the time and we fixed that with a little visit from the vet, this one doesnt seem malicious just ticklish.

Does anyone think a bit may help?

The mutual grooming need is usually pretty easily handled by letting the horse know that it is not necessary. Gerry's colt sounds more like he is going for social status... if he bites the handler, he is in control because he effectively stops the handler from doing what the handler wanted to do. You could try a bridle with a tight flash noseband, put his halter over it and use a short trailer tie in the stall (like they do at the racetrack), don't know if a chiffney would help... I still think the pepper spray or the potato would be something the colt wouldn't forget, and then wouldn't need ever again. The clue is that the biting started at feeding... he learned that it caused a reaction, and now he is using it to control everything that goes on in his stall, so he is securing his social status as "above" the human. Just a thought.

Thanks Madelyn...I was working with him tonite and he was good for about 10 minutes and then got bored with me and you are correct he did stop me from doing what I was trying to do. I did put a chiffney in his mouth because it was handy and it seemed to occupy him a little but I am going to try the pepper spray. He is heading off to a trainer at Belmont in a couple of weeks so I want to break this bad habit here before they find another way of doing it. For the most part he isnt a bad colt but this is a new habit and its annoying.

Good luck, the pepper spray is pretty effective.. and if you stop it now he won't get headshy later from being walloped upside the head at the track for biting.

Wasn't that hot potato thing in a book... or maybe a movie... but I want to say a book. Someone wrapped it in a cloth or something and stuck it under their shirt sleeve, then ignored the horse while grooming until.... chomp!

Oh, please someone, help me remember what this scene is from because now it's going to really bug me.

Roguelet wrote:Wasn't that hot potato thing in a book... or maybe a movie... but I want to say a book. Someone wrapped it in a cloth or something and stuck it under their shirt sleeve, then ignored the horse while grooming until.... chomp!

Oh, please someone, help me remember what this scene is from because now it's going to really bug me.

Yes, it was in a book - namely, 'The Black Stallion's Filly'. That was how Henry cured Black Minx of her biting.

I read that book way too many times as a kid.

Dumb question...where do I buy the pepper spray ?

I wouldn't recommend it but my trainer's husband had a 2 year old gelding who would bite so he bit him back. That gelding has been a gentleman since then.

Ann wrote:Dumb question...where do I buy the pepper spray ?

Valley Vet have it, you can order it online (www.valleyvet.com)... they have pretty good prices on things... that's were I get Povidone Iodine for $6.20 or so a quart, no shipping if you order $50 or more... you can also use "Rap Last" or any other cayenne-based anti-chew product. They used to sell hot pepper spray in little canisters for keychains for self-protection but I haven't seen those in a few years.

Thank you Madelyn...will promptly order some.