My Horse Is In His Bitting Stage And I Can't Get Him To Stop Bitting Me. How Do I Make Him Stop?

Let's think this through and use our heads.  There is no such thing as a biting stage in a horse's development. There can be more than
one reason for a horse to nip.  Aggressive behavior is only one, another could be  he was taught this by you. Maybe not directly but indirectly.  Such as by hand feeding him and not responding timely to him starting to nip to get more. You are the only person that can figure out why. Safety comes first, if your horse is actually biting you, attacking you that has to stop. How you address this is important. It is my feeling aggression breeds more aggression so I never strike a horse in anger but I will protect myself and make sure he understands I am the boss.  This takes very little effort.  For example a flick of a rope will work as a deterrent, not striking or beating. Then do some ground work with him so he understands if uses inappropriate behavior he will have to work.  (need to redirect his behavior).  If it is because he wants treats, stop hand feeding him put it in his feeder.  Now if he keeps nipping for more food then simply put up your elbow (blocking and protecting yourself from being bit)  and let him run into it.  Therefore he is poking himself, don't ever hit him in the face you will be creating new problems.  If he doesn't like being cinched and nips this could be for several reasons so lets give him the benefit of the doubt since he can't talk and tell you the problem.  Maybe you are not cinching him properly and are pinching him? So put your hand between the horse and the cinch and tighten slowly so you don't hurt him. Maybe your saddle doesn't fit properly and it is uncomfortable and painful on his back. Maybe he doesn't like to be ridden because of the way you ride or treat him. There are many possibilities.  You need to by process of elimination try to figure out the problem.  However, all horses have different personality just like people and if your horse is just difficult or you can't logically figure out why he nips when cinching I suggest you lay the lead line over the arm nearest to his head and if he turns to nip stick out your elbow and let him run into.  Resolving problems with horses requires someone who pays attention to their horses body language and tries to figure out how to solve the problem ...this may require you to try many options but who cares, what works for one may not work for another horse.  There is never a quick fix for any horse with a problem.

The only thing that would work on my horse was every time he bit me I would smack him up side the head. (hard) I know this isn't proper advice hitting your pets but when all else fails either get rid of it or start making it feel that biting you isn't worth it. Teach it that for every bad action there is a reaction.

Horse will bite each other - the horse that gets bitten has one of two responses, it will get out of the way or it will be aggresive back. You need to be aggresive back, this does not mean you need to hurt the horse. Horses use body language to comunicate, laying ears back etc. You can not lay your ears back but you can express aggresivness by eye contact and moving swiftly towards your horse use your hand open palm and push it towards the eye of the horse this will move it's head away from you and thus no bite will come. You need to be really aware of the few seconds before the bite and respond before it gets to actually biting you. Good luck remember not to make a game out of it as horse do love to play.

A REAL "Old Time Cowboy" says this is how!

First contrary to what the others said this RULE is IRON CLAD! And MUST ALWAYS be followed, and for no reason is EVER violated!

You NEVER Hit or yell at a horse UNLESS you are "IN THE SADDLE", And you people don't understand why your horse want come up to you, and stay there, without being tied, BUT MINE WILL!

I can call my horse and it will come to me and stand there while I brush and saddle it, and I use a hackamore bit! I can get off and walk away and MUCH later call and "Skeeter" will come and stand there while I get on her!
And here's some of the reasons, but not all!

I totally believe in genital breaking a horse, 100%! If you WIN their heart they will give you their SOUL! I start off with a foal, and cookie break it (no cream filled or chips either), and that MAKES them WANT TO BITE! Then I stop it BEFORE it starts!

HOWEVER this problem at a later age is learned from other horses OR SWEETS! So most of YOU are causing your own problems with those sweets your feeding them, and this biting problem HAS TO BE DEALT WITH, and most be stopped, FAST, too!

This is the only problem where I use pain in anyway!

This method was taught to me an "Old Time Cow Hunter and Bull Roper" Harry Costine of Kathleen, Florida, one of the original Cow Towns of Florida.

You can not Discipline the animal from the ground! So this is how to get around that!

You stand close to the animal's head and feed it cookies with one hand, and have a cigarette in the other hand, close to it's nose, too.
When you stop feeding it the cookies it will try to bite you!

Now this is SUPER important and has to be followed to the letter!

DO NOT make any fast movements or react in any way, but out of the corner of your eye slowly touch the cigarette to it's nose and act like you did nothing. The horse knows it HURTS when it tries to bite, and knows it's not you doing it either! So after a while it put the two together, AND WILL STOP after a while in training!
This is learned pretty fast, too!

The best way is when they are foals! And this is the only way I've seen without breaking that rule. Which will cause a lot of problems, and you'll lose their heart!
COWBOY 101

Put a nose band on him tight, every time your around him, even if your just mucking out his stall, brushing, tacking ect. Then start by pushing(nicely) his head away from you, when he tries to bit you and continue with what you were doing like nothing happened. You will do it over and over again many times. Don't make a big fuss, the bigger deal you make it out to be, so will the horse. Horses learn from repetition. After a few months he will forget about the biting. I broke my horse now 4 yr from the same thing, but he would lunge mouth open at anyone coming into his stall and bit. I start all my training babies with the nose band than they don't even get started nipping or biting at me. Treats are ok but they need to be put in the feed bucket not your hand.

Hello, Horses come will a variety of temerments, yours seems to have an honory streak (lol). You will have punish your horse for this action.

But I suggest you try to stop it before it happens. Example; my horse would turn his neck and bite my left shoulder - while was busy tightening the cinch on his saddle and again when I went mount the saddle. It became a game between us - I got so I could sense his movement and slapped his nose before the bite could happen. And eventually it got to where I could just tell him no sternly. But every so often he would have to try it again.

I have also heard of a horse biting just when you do something that irritates the horse. So I think you should endeavour to figure out when a bite is coming and avoid it actually happening. A correction just prior to the biting - can work much better than punishment after the fact.

A friend of my told me that he used black pepper. Just carry a can of pepper and when the horse is about to bite - a quick dusting of the nose.

Good luck, I think you can solve this one with some persistence and trial and error.

Pop him on the nose lightly.. He will stop..

You should try pulling at his whiskers to stop him ideally, he shouldn't know where it comes from!

Every time I get close to my 8 year olds mare and try to clean her back feet she cow kicks. She has been abused and I love on her take get care of her, but she will not stop. What Can I do? I sent her down South for training? She cow kicks anyway. What can I do?

Show your horse your not affraid and she or he needs to clean his act up