Head shaking help?

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YellowCaterpillar

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My little sister's mare is becoming s nightmare to handle. She's always been feisty and disliked having her bridle put on but it's getting harder and harder to tack her up/ ride. She runs away when she sees the bridle coming and is a real struggle to pit it on. When she's being ridden then she's constantly throwing her head around and rubbing it off her legs/ anybody close enough to rub her head off.
Her bridle/bit and saddle all fit correctly and her teeth are fine, I've had them checked.
I did some googling and found that headshaking syndrome is an actual condition so if anybody has any experience with this do you think its possible that she could have it?
She also has a long neck and back so maybe that is an issue? Shes fine having her saddle pit on though.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
 
I'd get a second opinion on her teeth to be honest.
What noseband and bit are you using?
Sounds like pain or severe irritation of she runs from the bridle.
 
I think the pony is in pain and you should stop riding her until you find out why.

. Try salt in her diet, a tablespoon a day, it can resolve some headshakers. If that doesn't do anything then I think you need a vet.

Is she worse in sunlight, cold, or wind? If so, she may have trigeminal nerve irritation which can be very difficult to resolve. The frantic nose rubbing would be a big worry to me in that respect. How fast does she blink?
 
Head shaking is a terrible disease, my eventer had to be retired as hers was so bad. I start keeping a diary of when she is good and bad, including weather, degree of light ect. And have a vet check and go from there. I tried everything bar the operation for my horse spend numerous weeks in horsepital being investigated but couldn't get round it. Trying the ride on nose bets and face masks is also a good place to start.
 
One of the most common causes of headshaking and largely overlooked is the browband being too short.
It has the effect of pulling the headpiece up onto the back of the horse's ears, irritating them.
To eliminate the browband see if you can get 2 adult sized fingers under it with ease when on the horse, if not sure remove the browband for a short while to see if it makes any difference, Oz (Saddler)
 
Thanks everyone for the suggestions!
In the moment she's in a plain cavesson noseband and a hanging cheek snaffle. We had her in a loose ring snaffle but she hated it and was pretty difficult so we switched to a copper mouth hanging cheek, she accepted it much better but she's getting worse and worse with the head shaking. I put it down to the poll pressure from the bit so I've bought her a sweet iron french link egg but which im yet to try her in. She does shake her head in the field when she's trotting or cantering. I always put it down to her being excited but it did get me thinking about head shaking syndrome.
Sorry for the awful spelling and grammar, I'm on my phone and it's autocorrectin everything wrong :P
 
cptrayes said:
I think the pony is in pain and you should stop riding her until you find out why.

. Try salt in her diet, a tablespoon a day, it can resolve some headshakers. If that doesn't do anything then I think you need a vet.

Is she worse in sunlight, cold, or wind? If so, she may have trigeminal nerve irritation which can be very difficult to resolve. The frantic nose rubbing would be a big worry to me in that respect. How fast does she blink?
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She hasn't been ridden in just over a week because she got really difficult in the middle of a lesson and it scared my sister so I wanted to try sort this out before she goes back to work.

She blinks normally and she only rubs when she's tacked up. It's not just her nose but along cheek pieces and if you're near her she'll use you to try pull her bridle off. Like she rubs the browband/ side of her ears against your shoulder.
 
If you get the vet out, maybe ask to have her tear ducts flushed out.

We have a pony who headshakes, he rubs the side of his face on his leg a lot when being ridden, making it hard to enjoy riding him. He had a slightly mucky eye one winter which I ignored at first, but when the vet came I asked if she could do anything about it. She flushed out his tear ducts and a load of gunk came out. Very surprisingly he then didn't headshake for months. When he started rubbing his face on his leg again after about 7-8 months I got his tear ducts flushed out again and he stopped. Vet said he had particularly narrow ducts and they weren't draining properly causing irritation which got worse when he was being ridden.

It's a long shot as I know horses headshake for many, many reasons, and it probably isn't why your pony headshakes, but it's a fairly simple one to try and it might work.
 
YellowCaterpillar said:
She hasn't been ridden in just over a week because she got really difficult in the middle of a lesson and it scared my sister so I wanted to try sort this out before she goes back to work.

She blinks normally and she only rubs when she's tacked up. It's not just her nose but along cheek pieces and if you're near her she'll use you to try pull her bridle off. Like she rubs the browband/ side of her ears against your shoulder.
Click to expand...

Have you counted her blink rate?

Does she have a fan of muscles or unusually raised blood vessels showing in her cheeks?

In my horse, these were signs of trigeminal neuralgia, which is a common cause of year round headshaking (as opposed to seasonal which can be pollen triggered).
 
ossy said:
Head shaking is a terrible disease, my eventer had to be retired as hers was so bad. I start keeping a diary of when she is good and bad, including weather, degree of light ect. And have a vet check and go from there. I tried everything bar the operation for my horse spend numerous weeks in horsepital being investigated but couldn't get round it. Trying the ride on nose bets and face masks is also a good place to start.
Click to expand...

I'm really sorry to hear that! I'm really hoping she doesn't have it but it's starting to look that way a bit. I will keep a diary though, thank you!

JillA said:
Contact Jenny on Calm Healthy Horses - she is up to speed on any research worldwide and often has some solutions to offer http://www.calmhealthyhorses.com/neuro/head_flick.html
Click to expand...

cremedemonthe said:
One of the most common causes of headshaking and largely overlooked is the browband being too short.
It has the effect of pulling the headpiece up onto the back of the horse's ears, irritating them.
To eliminate the browband see if you can get 2 adult sized fingers under it with ease when on the horse, if not sure remove the browband for a short while to see if it makes any difference, Oz (Saddler)
Click to expand...

Emma_H said:
Have you looked in her ears? Does she maybe have aural plaques? It can make the ears very sensitive.
Click to expand...

DuckToller said:
If you get the vet out, maybe ask to have her tear ducts flushed out.

We have a pony who headshakes, he rubs the side of his face on his leg a lot when being ridden, making it hard to enjoy riding him. He had a slightly mucky eye one winter which I ignored at first, but when the vet came I asked if she could do anything about it. She flushed out his tear ducts and a load of gunk came out. Very surprisingly he then didn't headshake for months. When he started rubbing his face on his leg again after about 7-8 months I got his tear ducts flushed out again and he stopped. Vet said he had particularly narrow ducts and they weren't draining properly causing irritation which got worse when he was being ridden.

It's a long shot as I know horses headshake for many, many reasons, and it probably isn't why your pony headshakes, but it's a fairly simple one to try and it might work.
Click to expand...

cptrayes said:
Have you counted her blink rate?

Does she have a fan of muscles or unusually raised blood vessels showing in her cheeks?

In my horse, these were signs of trigeminal neuralgia, which is a common cause of year round headshaking (as opposed to seasonal which can be pollen triggered).
Click to expand...

Thank you all, I will try/ check all of these things when I'm up at the yard later and I'll let you know how it goes. I'm definitely going to get a vet out aswell to see if there's anything there.
 
We have a mare that used to head shake and clamp her mouth shut when the bridle was being put on,she had wolf teeth and one was broken ,once the wolf teeth were removed she was fine .
 
shergar said:
We have a mare that used to head shake and clamp her mouth shut when the bridle was being put on,she had wolf teeth and one was broken ,once the wolf teeth were removed she was fine .
Click to expand...

We had her teeth done in August. They were really bad and she had cuts along her mouth because of them. They're fine now though and her mouth is healed but she could just associate mouth with pain.
 
Sorry if it has been mentioned but in view of all the comments relating to bits, have you tried riding her bitless (in a headcollar in a school maybe) to see if she does it as much and eliminate the bit as a cause?
 
There must be something causing discomfort for her.

Possibly try a grackle noseband- different positioning- it helped with one of my boys..
Also with head shaking its important to find the trigger- as with my other boy he only headshakes in summer, as midges are the trigger.

Maybe try lunging her in a lunge cavesson and see if she does it.... if it stops, it could still be a mouth/tooth issue

Hope that helps and keep us posted. Good luck
 
JillA said:
Sorry if it has been mentioned but in view of all the comments relating to bits, have you tried riding her bitless (in a headcollar in a school maybe) to see if she does it as much and eliminate the bit as a cause?
Click to expand...

See, my first port of call would have been the dentist, but as you say she's already had her teeth checked, this would be my next port of call, as well as perhaps trying different nose bands/checking bridle fit. If none of these things worked, I'd be getting a second opinion from a dentist and then moving onto the vet.

I do think bitless is certainly worth a go, though. I ride both of my geldings bitless since getting a 6 year old who seriously disliked his bit and tossed his head a lot even after having his teeth and tack checked. The difference in him has been phenomenal, and the little Welsh also seems to approve (although he approves of most things).
 
Rubbing Vaseline inside her nostrils is worth a try. Some horse get agitated at the sensation of 'snot' running down them. Doing this has helped two horses that I know of.

Also if she's worse in sun (and there has been some strong low sun lately) maybe try her in a fly mask.
 
I would definitely try riding her in a school or somewhere safe, in a headcollar. Also what about a nose net? We have a big lad who is dreadful unless he has his nose net on, with it there is absolutely no head shaking. Hope you get things sorted soon x
 
Update: My sister rode her for 20 minutes in her new bit and she went better than she has in weeks with no head shaking. The bit must have been the problem but she just got so unmanageable so quickly that I thought it was something more serious.
Thanks so much to everyone for your help. I hope she continues to go well in her new bit and if not I will give bitless a try!
 
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