Do horses get headaches?

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fathorse

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I remember once when I was plaiting my horse the night before a competition a fellow owner commented on the fact that you should not plait the forlock and leave it overnight you should do it on the day as it can give horses a headache? Anyone else heard such a thing?
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I've no idea about plaiting as my boy is hogged but he has sinisitus and that seems to give him a headache - he doesn't want me to touch his face when its bad.
 
<font color="blue"> Sorry, never heard this one!! .........
.......... But I suppose they could........ ever had your hair pulled back in a tight style?! Gives you a cracking headache. There is no reason why horses do not suffer with headaches...... although I would think it may take more than a plaited forelock to give an animal the size of a horse one!
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ever had your hair pulled back in a tight style?! Gives you a cracking headache.

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That can also give you traction alopecia - not nice.

No idea about the horse though. I'd imagine Gov would shake his head if it was bothering him - after all he's the sort of horse who thinks he's dying if he has a stone in his shoe.
 
yes, horses can apparently get headaches. i used to use a cranial osteopath on my top mare, and he told me that her skull bones were so wrong that she probably had a permanent headache.
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on the subject of plaits, i used to get terrible headaches as a child because mum would plait my hair tight so it would stay neat all day. :*(
 
I believe things like this is why we have 'bad days' with our horses. There would not be an easy way to scientifically prove it, but how often have we got up and had a niggly head ache that hangs around all day... Its not bad enough to prevent you from doing the daily chores, the painkillers don't seem to touch it, and so you get on with the day in a bit of a grump... Yet if a horse has a grumpy or bad day, how many of you all sit there saying 'b****y useless horse, did it prefectly yesterday and now cant do it' etc etc etc...

So yes I believe they get everything we get as far as general aches and pains go, and sometimes I believe they may just not feel up to, or feel a bit tired, and I think they are amazing animals for what they do for us.
 
I don't think we neesd to scientifically prove it. Physiologically speaking, we are made up in exactly the same way as horses, it's just our anatomy that varies. So, as above - there is no reason to believe horses DON'T have headaches. I can well believe that plaiting a forelock tightly would give a horse a headache. It's something I'm conscious of when fitting a bridle, too.
 
Physio I had to my horse..would always go straight to a horses head where their forelock is and feel the plates which are nearly always out of alignment.
She showed me on my mare and put them back in alignment..she said most horses she meets can have this and it can cause headache...she always does this to any horse she sees. My mare loved her physio!!!!
 
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