Bitten
Snip Snip
As if it wasn't enough that Snip Snip took a solid nip in my forearm today while I was talking to a neighbor, the little minx nipped me again while I was throwing hay into her stall. I had to come to some kind of decision about what to do about it while I was in the bath tub staring gloomily at my bruised arm.
I have two nasty bruises. I don't want her biting anyone else, especially her wee owner, so I am going to have to do SOMETHING.
Conventional wisdom has it that when a horse bites you, you wallop them thoroughly about the head so they won't do it again.
I won't deny that my gut reaction was to hit her, but I didn't.
I don't want to make her head shy. I don't like corporal punishment with horses in most situations. Because they are prey animals, physical pain makes them shut down their mental responses and concentrate on fleeing. The first thing I am going to do is to make sure no one on the farm hand feeds the little monster. Then I will have to trust my instincts on what my reaction will be if she bites again.