How do you teach a horse to stop biting?

Horses are not aggressive animals, but they do sometimes bite. We explain what may cause this behaviour and offer advice on teaching a horse to stop biting.

Why does a horse bite?

Horses are not naturally aggressive. As herbivores, they do not see food as prey that must be attacked and killed before they can eat it. They also generally have no instinct to defend themselves when threatened - they simply flee.

Nevertheless, horses do sometimes bite. Why? There can be various reasons. Sometimes a horse bites when it is terrified and has no way to escape. Biting can also be a sign that we are causing the animal pain. For example, if a horse has gastric ulcers, it may find it painful when the girth is tightened, so it bites to defend itself against this.

Biting also occurs in horses that have learnt that people are a source of treats and that it is worth persistently demanding them - initial nibbling often develops into biting.  Horses bite one another when establishing the herd hierarchy - so if a horse regularly bites a particular person, it may mean that it considers itself to be “higher-ranking”. Sometimes foals bite when they try to treat people as their equals and make them behave in certain ways - or they have simply learnt that they are allowed to nibble and nip at people.

Horses also bite and kick one another and push against one another with their bodies during play - so biting may be prompted by the positive feelings the animal has towards us. Horses do not endanger one another through this kind of play, and they may not realise how unpleasant it is for a person.

It is worth remembering that horses are not spiteful - if they bite, it does not mean they are doing it to upset us, but that there is a reason for this behaviour.

How can you teach a horse to stop biting?

Teaching an adult horse to stop biting is not easy, so we should prevent the animal from learning this behaviour in the first place. We must be firm - we should not allow a foal to nip us or an adult horse to search our pockets for treats or nibble at our sleeve to demand them. Usually, simply moving away from the animal or, if necessary, blocking its access to our sleeve or pockets is enough. Under no circumstances should we be aggressive, shout at the horse or hit it - this certainly will not help and may make the problem worse.

How can you teach a horse to stop biting? Changing the behaviour will probably be difficult. It is worth starting by identifying the cause - we may be able to eliminate it. If the horse bites because of an illness, we should focus on treating it, while avoiding situations that are painful for the horse in the meantime, so as not to cause the discomfort that leads to biting.

If the horse has learnt that it “can boss us around”, the situation is more difficult. Above all, we need to be firm, yet patient and careful, and devote plenty of time to the animal. It is also worth seeking advice from a specialist - an equine behaviourist who can point out our mistakes and advise us on the right approach.

It also does no harm to expand your knowledge of horses so that you can better understand these beautiful animals - for this purpose, you can turn to books such as The Language of Horses - the Language of People or What Is Troubling My Horse.