Cant find explanation for headshaking, HELP PLEASE!

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danniscott92

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After what seems like forever trawling through the all the forums I can regarding headshaking, I cant seem to find anything that is similar/helps me any further in my situation so here I am!

This is actually on behalf of a friend which I'm trying to help out.

She owns and rides a beautiful 7/8yo purebred Friesian and in the last 6-8 weeks he has started headshaking violently when riding out to the point where she has had to turn him round to go home because it starts getting dangerous. He headshakes from side to side and simultaneously throws his front end up, like he's excited. At the moment the majority of riding he is doing is road work due to the weather being crappy and riding off road isn't too great, so its not like he does it where he would go off for a canter. He has had his saddle checked, bridle changed recently, teeth done in October, physio done recently and ears thoroughly checked by vets on more than one occasion! So we are now fully out explanations! :eek:

If anyone has been in this situation before please let me know how it panned out for you and what you did to resolve or help the headshaking. If it has been down to excitement how did you defuse it?

Thank you in advance! :o
 
Has the vet seen the head shaking, actually or on video, what would be where I start. Then it's more a process of elimination, is his brow band too tight? does he do it same spot in same weather conditions same time of day ect that will tell whether it's environmentally triggered by something. You can then work out where is most effected by riding in a nose net or a face mask. If you google head shaking there is so much info out there. My old horse was diagnosed with neurological head shaking, it wasnt the nose effected it was the facial nerves, face mask 99% stopped it. I was able to get her nerve blocked by the vet once I had the info from the face mask/nose net trial. In the end there was nothing they could do for my horse other than the operation which I wasn't going to put horse through so I took LOU.
 
Did the bridle change coincide with the start of the headshaking? I would check that first, make sure that nothing is pinching or catching.

Trying to find the cause of "headshaking" is often a process of elimination, though "headshaking syndrome" is now thought to be an equine version of trigeminal neuralgia, which shows quite a distinct nose-flip type of tic.
 
Thank you Ossy. I don't think the vet has seen it no, so I guess that would be a good place to start, I normally ride out with her so I will grab a video. He doesn't really start doing it in the same place, its very varied when he starts and the intensity of it varies too. He normally starts very early on in the ride and sometimes he does it only a couple of times but the other day it got worse and worse to the point where she almost got off because it was getting dangerous! Im questioning a face mask because he doesn't do it any other time and its not consistent and also its not been sunny! The whole bridle has recently been changed to eliminate this concern!

Also thank you FrankieCob, I will have a read!
 
Mine did not coincide with sun either the face mask was providing protection to the middle facial nerves rather than the eyes, once the vet knew it was the face mask that helped they worked on nerve blocking to identity where exactly the problem was which in my horses case was the trigeminal nerve. She went to leahurst to be studied for 2 weeks and was diagnosed as actual head shaking syndrome, which has been linked to trigeminal neuralgia in humans. Definitely get a video of it it's really useful for trying to explain it. Mine still head shoot on a bute trail.
 
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A long shot, but considering the weather we've had recently...has it been raining when you're hacking? Mine headshakes repeatedly if water comes near his ears.
 
Regandal said:
Is the new bridle a conventional one? Could be worth trialling a Micklem.
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I have had that suggested before but he is already in one! I cant remember what bit exactly but he's in some sort of snaffle.

It rains on occasion when we have been out but generally we tend to leave it if its raining, cant be bothered to get soaked to the skin!

Okay, thanks Ossy! I will try and get a video next time we are out and he starts and I will also suggest the face mask, its worth a try as they aren't overly expensive!
 
I have had a few headshakers over the years so will put in a few ideas 1) it was feed related, he could not tolerate sugar, cut out all sugars apart from those in grass and hay, he stopped completely. 2) it was due to a poor fitting saddle, horse came to me as a write off, vets had failed to find a problem, I found he reacted to pressure on the withers, a new saddle and physio, he only headshook when he muscled up and required a wider saddle and went on to be a useful competition horse. 3) had a diastema which clogged up putting pressure on the sensitive nerves under his gum, he also had a tiny fragment of tooth left behind by the dentist when removing the tooth initially, this was removed and the diastema opened up a bit to allow the gap to be more open, headshaking stopped.

All these horses had been seen by vets, some numerous times, I think your friend needs to go through everything, the obvious and the less obvious, the one thing I have found is that there is often no set pattern and that the cause of headshaking can be the most unlikely thing you would think of, think of it as a symptom and look at everything to find the root cause.
 
I would get a second opion on everything!! to me the horse sounds like he's in pain and that his way of saying he's not happy!

My horse did the same before he went lame last year! your friend really doesn't want to risk causing the horse any unnecessary pain!

and to be fair, it took me 5 saddle fitters before I found someone that actually fitted it and made my horse comfy! so just because its been checked, it doesn't mean it fits!

Good luck, I hope your friend gets it sorted
 
Thank you guys for the ideas and knowledge from experience, its been really helpful! I think it will be trial and error for her and definitely a good starting point is getting a video to the vets and then they can see for themselves.

Thank you again for all the help :)
 
Some times if safe todo so it can be worth hopping on bare back that's an easy way tonsuss out if its saddle/girth related
 
danniscott92 said:
After what seems like forever trawling through the all the forums I can regarding headshaking, I cant seem to find anything that is similar/helps me any further in my situation so here I am!

This is actually on behalf of a friend which I'm trying to help out.

She owns and rides a beautiful 7/8yo purebred Friesian and in the last 6-8 weeks he has started headshaking violently when riding out to the point where she has had to turn him round to go home because it starts getting dangerous. He headshakes from side to side and simultaneously throws his front end up, like he's excited. At the moment the majority of riding he is doing is road work due to the weather being crappy and riding off road isn't too great, so its not like he does it where he would go off for a canter. He has had his saddle checked, bridle changed recently, teeth done in October, physio done recently and ears thoroughly checked by vets on more than one occasion! So we are now fully out explanations! :eek:

If anyone has been in this situation before please let me know how it panned out for you and what you did to resolve or help the headshaking. If it has been down to excitement how did you defuse it?

Thank you in advance! :o
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Try here

http://horse-care-and-advice.weebly.com/h.html
 
I had one that was caused by a sarcoid on the face roots through trimegial nerve, the head shaking started about three months before the sarocid showed on the surface. It is now gone- three months of Sarc X after three years of vets saying it could not be removed and an unrideable horse. He was much better in a Micklem with a nose net when he had it though and got much worse as his ears started sweating - sarcoid near his mouth though but nerves run up behind his ears so may have been the same cause. he is fine now the sarcoid is gone as long as he still wears the Micklem.
 
I am going to go whole hos here and say, ask them to scan him if possible. My cob had this, and had everything checked and NOTHING was showing up. It stopped as suddenly as it started and then his personality changed. The vet said it was likely a slow growing growth in his neck, on his spine, that was causing the behavioural issues.

I don't want it be doom and gloom, but I had wished I had found out sooner.
 
What is the fascination with miklem bridles?!? I have known 2 horses ridden in them, one I rode a couple of times myself in it and they both hated the darned thing with a passion! One head shook the other snatched like hell. It would be worth trying his original bridle back on him if he never did it in that.

Other than that and saddles pinching the best way forward is to involve the Vets.
 
alainax said:
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What is he like in a normal bridle? Is his forelock plaited?
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His normal bridle was too tight on him and just wasn't comfortable in it at all, he did have a spat of headshaking in that which is why she changed but he's been as good as gold in his Miklem since changing. Ermmm sometimes his forelock is plaited, would that effect him? Also I forgot to mention that she does normally ride with his ears on (fly veil) in all weather to eliminate flys bothering him etc.
 
A friends horse started head shaking at the age of 5. In the end we took him Derek Knottenbelt in Liverpool. He was there for 3 days having all sorts of tests. Derek said there are 100's of reasons a horse may head shake and sadly for my friends horse he could not find a reason or a cure and a promising horse was pts. He started to do it one day having never shown signs of it before. My friend bought him as a 3 year old, broke him on at 4, did a few shows then one day out hacking he shook his head for most of the ride, progressively got worse until he started running into trees etc.

Such a horrible problem. I hope your friend can find a solution.
 
danniscott92 said:
His normal bridle was too tight on him and just wasn't comfortable in it at all, he did have a spat of headshaking in that which is why she changed but he's been as good as gold in his Miklem since changing. Ermmm sometimes his forelock is plaited, would that effect him? Also I forgot to mention that she does normally ride with his ears on (fly veil) in all weather to eliminate flys bothering him etc.
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Try the link I posted as it is past and present comments and help from fellow H&H members
 
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