theprancingpony
01-10-2006, 03:19 PM
i just came in from working with my horse tez and i have no idea what to do. he has manners problems so i've been working with him on the ground to try and clean it up. his hugest problem is he has a mouth obsession/biting, and i thought it was getting better but apparently i wasn't addressing it correctly. usually he just tries to bite parts of me and i say "NO" and maybe give him a bump... but today he actually grabbed onto my sweatshirt sleeve and was whipping his head around and, consequently, dragging me with him. it was extremely hard to get him to let go because it was my right arm and i was on his left side, and he was biting down HARD. luckily he didn't get my skin.
this is really hard for me for a few reasons. one, i thought things were getting better. he was leading and backing up a lot nicer than he had been, and i thought he was respecting space *slightly* better. then all of a sudden it's like this. i work with him in the pasture, do you think maybe he gets pissed off because i won't let him graze? two, it really hurt my ego because i had a hard time regaining control over him when he was grabbing me by the sweatshirt.
usually when i work with him for the first ten minutes he's a charm, then for a bit he gets weird and really resistant to anything i try to tel lhim, then he goes back to being a charm. after he was dragging me around by my sleeve (at a walk, thank god) i somehow got my sleeve out of his mouth and got to the point where we were standing still, and i got him to back up about 5 feet and said "good boy" and gave him a scratch on the neck, just to end it on a good note.
i don't really know what else to say. what's a good way of telling him that he can't bite me? i've bumped him on the nose *lightly* when he tries to bite my arm, but usually he goes through it. i've said NO!, i've given him a whack on the shoulder... i'm running out of ideas. he seems to be worst when we're working, he's usually a lot better in his stall.
i'm going to try and post this on a few forums for as much feedback as possible... yours is greatly appreciated!!
...and i'm sorry for such a long post!!! PLEASE HELP!!!
this is really hard for me for a few reasons. one, i thought things were getting better. he was leading and backing up a lot nicer than he had been, and i thought he was respecting space *slightly* better. then all of a sudden it's like this. i work with him in the pasture, do you think maybe he gets pissed off because i won't let him graze? two, it really hurt my ego because i had a hard time regaining control over him when he was grabbing me by the sweatshirt.
usually when i work with him for the first ten minutes he's a charm, then for a bit he gets weird and really resistant to anything i try to tel lhim, then he goes back to being a charm. after he was dragging me around by my sleeve (at a walk, thank god) i somehow got my sleeve out of his mouth and got to the point where we were standing still, and i got him to back up about 5 feet and said "good boy" and gave him a scratch on the neck, just to end it on a good note.
i don't really know what else to say. what's a good way of telling him that he can't bite me? i've bumped him on the nose *lightly* when he tries to bite my arm, but usually he goes through it. i've said NO!, i've given him a whack on the shoulder... i'm running out of ideas. he seems to be worst when we're working, he's usually a lot better in his stall.
i'm going to try and post this on a few forums for as much feedback as possible... yours is greatly appreciated!!
...and i'm sorry for such a long post!!! PLEASE HELP!!!