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Horse Behavior and Training

Cured nipping - Spitfire Kirk

By:

JoHewittVINTA

Date:

2014-Jun-27 at 09:35PM

Spitfire Kirk was born on 18.03.2013. Like most colts he was more prone to nipping as he got older. I put up with his investigations of his surroundings until he was about 8 months old. I had to be interactive with him from day 1 as his mother, Bella, an excellent mother, had imperfect front legs & whilst the colt appeared ok in that respect I had the farrier trim him at 3 & 5 months old to ensure his development was as correct as possible. We built up a considerable bond. How to break this nipping habit & maintain the trust. Having given it due consideration I chose to try something other than bumping his shins. I waited until a nip was imminent, closed my lips & blew. In Britain it's known as "blowing a raspberry". The noise created is a bit farty - & all young males seem fascinated in this respect. His ears shot forward, his eyes were wide & bright. He completely forgot to nip. Over the next 12 or 13 minutes I kept this up every time he tried to nip. By that time he was 85% better & I needed coffee as my mouth was too dry to continue. This exercise was in the field with no constraint on the colt. He's now 15 months & Bella has a filly foal this year - her last. They are all together in the field with Humphrey, now gelded. I have a happy herd! Both Kirk & his little sister love having both parents to be with and the youngsters are starting to play together. Kirk was a gelding 2 weeks before he was a yearling so he couldn't have inappropriate relations with his mother. We have very little attempted nipping & lots of trust (and no one bumped anyone's shins).

MaggieF, Melbourne - Australia 2014-Jun-27 at 10:37PM

Great solution. Your horses all sound happy. Well done.

beryl 2014-Jun-28 at 08:54AM

Thats a very interesting one, well done you.
Bumping the shins certainly makes no difference to my mare when she gets nippy.
I do blow raspberries onto the soft side of her nostril or mouth - she loves it!!! She'll stay there for more, like you say, ears forward & eyes wide.

vicci - UK (North Wales) 2014-Jun-28 at 06:46PM