can a horse hate a certain color

I think my daughter's horse hates purple. I have a jacket I wear to the barn that is purple. She bites at it the whole time I am out there. Any time we wear purple she does that. (My favorite color) She has some behavior issues but she doesnt in general bite that much just that color. She bite a man for touchng her goat when I sold them. She bite him and slammed him into the wall for picking her up. Thankfully that is the only time she has bitten someone and he had a thick insulated jacket on and it did not go thru it. We got her for free and she had not been messed with in over a year. She has gotten out of alot of her problems. How do you break the color thing or can you.

well you may not be able to break the color thing..but you can break the biting. A horse biting a person is not acceptable..for any reason. My mare bit me once. She never bit me again. My daughters mare bit me one time, she never bit me again. I don"t care if I was wearing horizontal stripes and they made me look fatter, and they didnt like it. This behavior shoulld have been stopped in the first bite. There are a tons of ways to stop it. I personally smack em pretty /real hard . shout for a second, then go about my business. Others use nails or hoof picks to let them punish themselves. As for slamming someone into a wall...me thinks your horse lacks respect and some ground work is in order. good luck

Hubby is working on ground manners. My brother in law is giving her what I call manners teaning this summer if I am lucky. She was given to us and had been neglected. She has some more work that is needed. She hates a bit in her mouth so they are trying a hackamore. My son (the4 year old) can ride her all day with me by his side and my hubby leading her in circles. She rides with hubby on her back. She just doesnt like me and my daughter is a little scared of her since the biting incident. I have slapped her nose. Someone told me to tie her out to a tree on a short lead. Give her water every hour and leave her tied up a few days and her manners will change. I have just been being nice to her and it is working. Today she was going to take a biscuit from the chicken pan no matter what I was going to do about it. Hubby shouted at her and she backed down. This former city girl is having to get use to this and pushing around a big horse is not what I am use to.

Amy, I doubt that the mare doesn't "like" you, she just doesn't respect you ...yet. But she will. A very simple way to get respect is to remember one important horse rule: "Whoever moves their feet first is the loser." Simple simple lessons for YOU to do (not hubby, not BIL, YOU need to do this): Put her halter on her, lead her out to an open space. Stand facing her. Put your finger on her chest and push HARD, telling her to "back." She SHOULD step back, even one front foot moved back a half an inch is a victory for you. If she does that, IMMEDIATELY stop the pressure and reward her her with "good girl." A horse's reward is to stop pressure, so as soon as she even thinks about moving that foot, stop. Now do it again, press one finger into her chest and repeat, "Back." This time she will probably give a little quicker. IMMEDIATELY stop pressing and reward her. If she challenges you and won't go back, shank her (yank very hard on the halter downwards) and this will result in two things; her head will pull up and she will step back. Immediately release the pressure from the halter and reward her for the step back. Try this a few times and the next step is to get her to yield her hindquarters, but try this first basic step and let us know how it goes! If she bites you, "make her think she is going to die." IMMEDIATELY scream, smack, step into her, hit her with whatever you have handy at the time for all of about 3 seconds, then calmly return to whatever you were doing. NO HAND FEEDING TREATS, EVER. This leads to a nippy horse looking for treats. Treats can be dropped in a bucket.

Now, I would love to take some purple stuff out there and see if it is your jacket in particular, or everything colored purple. I had a horse that freaked whenever he saw a cowboy hat on a man, can only suspect he was abused by a guy in a cowboy hat.

Let us know how it goes!