A:  A horse kept in a controlled environment is not blind to the fact that a person provides for its needs and wants. It soon knows that within an unchanging environment, the human brings anything new to it. The horse equates people – the handler – as the agent of change. So to pay attention and follow, or even taunt the one who controls the environment, is a smart way of getting things to happen. 
For example, the mare likely moved you around until you kept retreating or produced some type of reward. Could you be the button to press for something new or even a treat? 
No matter how needy the horse may become, it should not resort to biting people. If it were biting other horses, this would be easily resolved within their social structure.  
You have probably been more compassionate toward her because of the boarding situation and therefore, the mare is learning about you as more interaction occurs. Desirable and undesirable behavior will be the result. Why? Because horses are stimulated and then rewarded in deliberate and accidental ways for their behavior. Often a rider will emphatically say, “I don’t understand where my horse’s nasty habit came from?” This mare has probably learned to want something she doesn’t particularly need. The most effective and efficient way a horse is rewarded is by the release of pressure. I often say, “A horse simply becomes what it is released for!” 
Most likely, the mare developed her biting habit in two ways. The first is through the use of body language between the owner and the mare. The fact that the mare “would not let us out of her sight,” means that the owner was retreating or yielding to the mare’s advances. Secondly, the mare had to be rewarded using either body language and/or with tangible things for being so “sweet,” because a new behavior was formed over the last few episodes. It is even possible that the owner in her compassion for the horse, gave her physical rewards such as treats to compensate for her ill treatment. Both ways likely caused the mare to gain control over the owner and resulted in her biting, making the owner act immediately – or else!  
The mare sees humans as something to easily control. Nip and bite means “Give me something.” Now the question is, how do we change her back to the “sweet and mild” horse she was? Should we now punish the behavior? Should we bite back? What should we do?
Punishment when paired with pain will eliminate a response but it does not replace it with another. So you could bite back and say ‘No,’ but the horse hasn’t learned anything, except what not to do. It is better to replace the biting habit with another desirable behavior. In behavioral learning, this technique is called ‘pairing’ one response with another.
You could try a few simple approaches to handle this mare’s biting issue. If you systematically ignore the nipping or prevent it by not being in the position to be bitten, then the mare will not be rewarded for her behavior and it will diminish. At the same time, I would go one step further and set her up in a learning situation. Put her in a training rope-halter and cause her to do something. For instance, go forward one way, hind-end yield, back up, to basically use any responsive behavior she knows just as or before the nipping starts. Each time she attempts to control the situation, you now advance and tell her what to do and then also retreat; reward her for her response. 
After several trials the biting will diminish and become obsolete. Be patient, training a horse to do something responsive takes time especially when overriding bad behavior. The advantage to teaching what to do, versus only saying no, is that the new behavior will be a lasting and desirable one. Then, you can move onto bigger and better things with your horse.

confidence with cows

Q:  My horse and I were scared by a bad fall involving a cow that ran under my horse’s neck and tripped us. How can we gain our confidence back? John Swales is one of Canada ’s top working cow horse trainers. He is a two-time Calgary Stampede Working Cow Horse Champion, has won the Canadian Supreme Working Cow Horse Futurity twice and Open Hackamore three times. He is the esteemed two-time winner of Canada ’s Greatest Cow Horse Competition.

A:  I would begin slowly by working your cow in a closed arena from a distance. Over time you can gradually work in a little bit closer. While you are working, make sure that your horse is paying attention to your cow-side rein and cow-side leg, to ensure he is willingly giving ground – to move away from a cow when you ask.
Make sure your horse continues to pay attention to your rein and leg signals as speed increases. You may practice giving ground and moving in closer with your horse to ensure he’s paying attention. Also, ensure to continuously reinforce your horse’s stop, so that if you get into trouble you can pull your horse off a cow by moving away and