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Why Does a Horse Bite?
A: Like most aggressions between horses, there are more bite threats than actual bites, because horses deftly learn to respond to each other’s subtle warnings. Generally horses at will, given enough space, will flee or avoid aggressions more serious than threats.
What we call bites can range from nips where the teeth are only slightly parted to grasp the victim to bites in which the teeth are widely parted and can result in both skin and crushing injuries when inflicted on a human. Reported injuries to people due to horse bites are less common than from dog bites and less common than other injuries from horses, such as kicks and falls.
Here’s a list by Dr. Bonnie Beaver (MS, DVM, PhD, DPNAP, Dipl
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Written by:
Nancy Diehl, VMD, MS
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