My uncle had several horses that me and my cousins would ride and a couple of them were ornery cusses. They would bite alright. I used to think my cousins were mean for punching a couple of horses in the nose until my first bite - I learned real quick that a stiff nose punch would stop bad behavior. They also would find a tree with a low branch that they would scrape you off their back with - after the first time you learned to recognize why they would be ambling toward the trees. Been stepped on a few times too (luckily the ground was soft/mushy/muddy most of the time). I remember on Lonesome Dove that Woodrow got bitten real bad on the back early on in the series before they left Texas on the cattle drive.