The Nipper

I continually get the question "How do you cure a Nipper/Biter?". Unfortunately my answer is always the same...there IS no cure...you can calm it down, but once a horse figures out what a "game" nipping is, they are hard to deter. Here's some things we've tried with limited success.

FIRST and FOREMOST - the best CURE IS PREVENTION, you can prevent nipping/biting by NEVER EVER feeding your horse by hand! Let me repeat that, NEVER EVER feeding your horse by hand! If you feel the need to give your horse a little snack/treat/dinner, stick it in his feed pan/bucket, this way your horse is not associating your HAND with FOOD!

Now for those horses that weren't that fortunate (I find this especially true with horses that had a halter career prior to their showmanship career) you can do some things to minimize it:

First have someone watch you, is your chain to long? Are you inadvertantly running/walking etc. with your hands or chain to close to your horse's mouth, making you or your hands a convenient target? When you do your crossovers is your chain hanging so that your horse enjoys playing with it? ONCE you've established that YOU're NOT the problem, here's some ideas to help you calm the nipping/biting down. Now remember these are things I've TRIED and have had SOME success, only you know your horse and YOUR SITUATION and this might not work for YOUR circumstances...with that said...

IS your horse young? Young horses are busy minded (typically), so if you've got a young one, change up your routine a little and be sure if there is any nipping, etc.. starting that you move their head away from you immediately. They need to know this is NOT a game.

Is your horse nervous? If you have a nervous horse, biting/nipping could be a sign of frustration, try lunging your horse prior to showing, also try showing it in halter first for a couple of trial runs...the more your horse sees the inside of a showpen, the more comfortable it will be in it.

Does your horse have to pee? Make sure your horse has a little "quiet" time in it's stall/trailer before show time.

SOME horses know the difference between warm up and show pen (we have one in the barn). After my client's horse chewed on her through two showmanship classes, I sent her back in for 2 halter classes, with the instruction that any nipping/biting/chewing needs to receive a well placed smack on the nose...and make it count. She didn't make it two steps to the walk to the judges in halter and she got her horse good...the judges giggled (they saw the alligator (her horse) had it coming from the previous showmanship classes), she made it to the trot phase and had to smack her horse again... basically she schooled in the class... she went back for the 2nd halter class and he was a gentleman...NOW we search out halter class before showmanship if we feel we need to schooling for him. You may also need to school in your showmanship class to get your point across. MOST judges understand what you are doing, but it's nice if you school and then apologize to the judge...so keep that in mind if your needing to do some schooling.

As far as nails/pins/cigarettes held in your hand and you "getting" back at your horse...it's a quick, temporary solution that doesn't yield long term results and typically it's stemming for the exhibitor's too long chain or inability to run without teasing the horse with the chain.

I'm not saying that a nipper/biter is a lost cause. I showed one to the Top Ten spot at the All American Quarter Horse Congress and most recently my client (above) was the Circuit Champ with her nipper...so yes they can be shown, you just have to be very thoughtful about the horse's mouth area and train YOURSELF as well as to minimize YOUR situation.