Head tilting?

S

Seahorse

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Long story,
Axel has been really hanging on to the left rein for a few weeks and if left to his own devices will happily go around with permanent right bend. I have had my 'magic lady' out and he was sore over his left hind and his right shoulder. I went into the school with him today and although he's now working through much better with his inside hind leg, and is now much straighter through his body, he is now tilting his head, so his nose is going to the right and poll to the left.
I really don't know what to do, He is so willing to work bless him but just can't seem to be able to stop doing it. The dentist is coming out next week and I'll ring the back lady in a minute.
What else would cause him to do this?
 
left your left hand up and out to get him to straighten his head - you might look like a retard riding around like this, but it works and will cure his tilt!! Thats what i had to do with Archie to get over his head tilt (once i had gone down the teeth/back/tack route)
 
Thanks, I'll try that tomorrow.
I just felt so sorry for him, he is such a genuine horse and he was really struggling today.
It wasn't until someone else rode him that I noticed
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Ths may improve after the teeth are seen to, but allowing this can lead to muscle stress elsewhere, as you have seen.
Are you able to ride bitless to see if the same thing happens - does the horse adopt this position in the field, when being lunged?
 
Often a sign that diagonal hind has problem (so left hind) Should improve as weak hind leg gets stronger if problems have been sorted. Agree with lifting hand or softening right hand to help correct for now.
 
Hi,
Had a horse with a head tilt a while ago and had a chiropractor out. He was out at the poll. Lots of young horses do get it as a habit though!

Probably best to rule out any thing physical, teeth etc. and then work on it by schooling.

Just out of interest if he does it more the more tired he gets it could well be habit!
 
Baron did this for ages and as far as I could work out there was nothing wrong with him at all. I started schooling him in a harbridge to lower his head and amazingly he all of a sudden stopped tilting his nose. His nose only ever tilted to the left and he only did it in canter.

I never worked out why, it may have been something to do with my riding as he was always a lot heavier in the left hand and I noticed I often dropped my left hand or hung on to him a bit more with him. Using the harbridge has helped more with self carridge and im not hanging on much now.

Sorry not much help
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ETA: This is a picture of the nose tilting at his worst (it wasnt usually this bad). As you can see my riding did not help. I find giving and taking the rein helps a lot now, and my instructor constantly screaming at me to carry my hands as a pair
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Now I'm more aware of this being the problem I can work on correcting it, I've never noticed him doing it before today.
I've always thought he was leaning on my left hand, and more bent to the right through his whole body rather than tilting just his head to the right.

I'll ring my lovely back lady!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Often a sign that diagonal hind has problem

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats really interesting coz my chap tilts his head and has had a problem with one of his hinds.....

Stupid question probably but how are they linked
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My horse did exactly the same thing last year - start carrying her head to one side and even started crabbing. Vet did her teeth (even though very little needed doing) and problem solved.

ETS - this was a QR to OP!
 
This is usually a problem with the right side not accepting the contact.

If you try to take a contact (which you will find strange as you must not be doing it!) firmly with your right hand, you'll find the horse goes with you and ends up nearly looking at his right bum cheek!

The great masters recommend, to go round like this as much as possible, (obviously not in a test!) so that the horse HAS to take the right rein, then at the same time, be softer with your left, the horse is leaning more on the left because he can, so he must get lighter and get "off" the left rein a bit. Twiddle the left.

Also hand him the whole left rein, intermittently, to the buckle, he will be surprised! The whole time keep him forward, work on this lot for a few rides and he will change.

Sorry to sound pompous, but I had this and now, finally after riding a few other horses, I can tell when a horse leans on a certain rein, and they nearly always do, and a very good classically trained instructor explained all this to me.
 
I agree, I started trying to get my horse to stop doing it by pulling him back with the opposite rein to try and straighten him. That didnt work, so I started bending him into the tilt, like really bending him to create a bend instead of a tilt. When he bent I gave I softend the contact. He still does it occasionally and doing this once will stop him.
 
Dublinbay - Not sure to be honest but it always works on the diagonal. Weakness in outside hind in canter usually backs this up as well (obviously rule out teeth etc) . Softening the hand that the nose goes towards will usually correct it until muscle builds up more evenly.
 
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