Most horses have good dispositions, except for an occasional bout of sheer horse stubbornness, most horses are not prone to biting but if you happen to have one of the small percentage with a propensity for biting, the first thing you need to do is find out why.

Fear is the number one reason a horse will bite and that is usually because he feels cornered and biting is a last resort that means "Stay away!". Pain is another reason a horse may bite because she is feeling pain and is lashing out at anyone and anything because of it.

Association can cause biting. If your horse has been hurt when bridling or saddling by someone in the past he may associate those times with being hurt and bite out of self-preservation. Horses have long memories and nothing but gentle reassurance on your part and showing your horse that you won't hurt him by bridling or saddling will overcome this type of biting issue.

There are a number of soft discipline ways to discourage a biting problem. First try to just use your voice to give your horse a stern, "No." If that isn't working after a week, a swift but gentle squirt of water from a hand pump squirt bottle along with a sternly spoken, "No!" will usually get the biting under control.

Never hit your horse for biting. Harming your horse or causing him pain will make him lose trust and respect for you and chances are it won't eliminate the biting problem and in fact, it may escalate.

And be sure to protect yourself during the process of unlearning negative behaviors. Gloves will usually do the trick if he is going for your hands and many horses seem to go for their human companion's wrists.

Once you begin retraining your horse not to bite, don't waiver or stop or allow even one biting incident to go unaddressed, otherwise your horse will be left with mixed signals and your biting problem will continue.

Sometimes when you purchase a horse, he may come with a few bad habits that need correcting. You can blame the previous owners or he may have learned some of these things as a young foal.

Foals learn quickly from their environment and they are curious and inquisitive and unfortunately can learn bad habits just as fast as they can learn positive habits.

A foal that is left in a stall too much of the time because their owners either lack the time or knowledge to let them out can lead to stress and stress will cause the foal who grows into a 1,200LB horse to act out in less than desirable ways including head butting, biting and kicking.

Now and then, bad behavior is unintentionally reinforced. If you have a nervous foal that likes to nip, you might give him a treat of some sweet grass or hay to keep him busy. You just rewarded him for biting and this reinforces bad behavior.

Sometimes a foal will have a shy personality and shy horses need to be treated a little differently than a more extroverted horse. Some young foals are naturally aggressive and this aggressiveness will carry into adulthood. A spirited horse or a shy horse can be a equally good companion if you take the time to understand the horse's basic personality and train them with kindness according to their special needs.

Much like human children, foals need to be taught boundaries of good behavior so they can grow into well behaved adult horses and great companions.