Biting and Snapping Pony

How should I handle a pony that tries to attack people when they enter his stall?
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Q. We’ve been raising a Welsh pony for the kids.  At about nine months of age, he started with constant nipping at your arm and the lead shank, kind of playing with you.  We read on the Internet that this biting is a “colt thing,” and that it should go away with maturity. Our vet thought that gelding him as soon as possible would help.  After he was castrated, the incessant nipping and playing pretty much stopped, but he then started less frequent but more serious biting.  When you were leading him, he would make a quick turn of his head and bite your forearm, usually just your sleeve.  After he put a big welt on my daughter’s wrist right through her winter jacket, we decided to start punishing him by whacking him on the lips each time he did that. He tested each of us, but once we all had had a chance to let him know he couldn’t do that, he hasn’t really tried anymore. He has never gone back to the nipping and playing with the lead shank.

But now he has two new problems. One problem is that he has become pretty head shy–it’s like he’s got his eye on you all the time and can’t seem to relax when you are leading him or working around his head. He holds his head high and cocked sideways, looking down at you like he’s always afraid of being hit.  The second new problem is that he has a completely different type of attack. Every once in a while when you go to get him in the stall or pasture, for no apparent reason, he just lunges with his mouth wide open straight for your arm or shoulder. It’s just one quick snap of his jaws on whatever he contacts. If he misses you, it could be the wall or the gate that he bites, or he might just snap in mid-air.  After the one snap, he immediately retreats and quivers like he knows he was bad.  This morning he came at my shoulder, and when he backed off, he had the hood of my parka and a chunk of my hair hanging from his teeth. I was on my butt in the stall doorway.  He was cowering in the corner of the stall. I realize now that he is too dangerous for the kids.  Any ideas on where to go from here? He’s two years old.

—Gayle


A. Let me begin by commenting that you are not alone either in the initial problem or with the apparent complications, where attempts to eliminate biting seem to lead to head shyness or increasingly dangerous behavior. In most horses, correcting biting is easy and quick, but for certain individuals it can be very challenging.  The head shyness and the quick attacks you describe mean that the pony has failed to get the message that it is only the biting that is bad.  As you said, he is confused about what caused the punishment and is afraid of people. Now that he is truly dangerous, it becomes difficult to relax and behave normally, let alone respond effectively to his misbehavior

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Sue M. McDonnell, PhD, is a certified applied animal behaviorist and the founding head of the equine behavior program at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine. She is also the author of numerous books and articles about horse behavior and management.

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