Headshaking-best course of action?

badgerdog

badgerdog

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I've posted a few times recently about my new horse being irritated by flies but after a lot of reading I'm convinced he's a headshaker as he displays so many of the symptoms. I bought an Equilibrium nose net which has helped but after about 45 minutes of wearing it he starts to shake his head up and down, pulls my arms out of my sockets trying to rub his nose all the time, carries his head in a strange way and keeps striking out a foot in an attempt to rub his nose. If doing faster, more exciting work this happens earlier. I'm absolutely gutted as it took a long time to find him and buying him stretched me financially. I was hoping to compete him but I'm worried his behaviour will prevent this. I didn't buy him to sell on but if I did need to sell him I'm now thinking that no one would buy him.
Has anyone tried any supplements with any success?
His main problem seems to be that he gets a very itchy nose. I thought the nose net may have irritated him but he's worse without it.
Any advice on what I can do will be most appreciated.
 
You might want to keep checking with the hayfever post below. Also, I'm not overly keen on the idea but i cut off my mare's whiskers as they seem to irritate her more while wearing the nosenet.
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Thanks, I've just read your other thread. I have an inkling it could be pollen related because of his itchy nose. I think I'll look into NAF Shake Relief as this has magnesium in. If I phone them up I think I get a free sample! I'll have a look at his whiskers today and see if they look like they might irritate him, I don't like taking them off but if it will help I'll give it a go.
 
My horse is a seasonal headshaker too. Like yours, the problem is worse when you up the speed.
I found a Dr Cooks bitless bridle made a difference, and I use a nose net too.
Best of luck at finding the key.
 
My mare used to start headshaking slightly in February and in mid summer it was awful although a net relief did help a lot. I think it is much more prevalent nowadays, had a friend whose horse suddenly started doing it one day and got so bad nothing could be done.

I am sure there are various things that work for different horses, so you might have a bit of trek to find the right thing, but I do hope you can. Good luck.
 
sounds like my chap does the same as yours. I use a nose-net on him but i have noticed this summer seems particulary bad.

Anyway just wanted a to pass a tip - I found that when we were doing faster work the net would flap up and let nasty pollunated air into his nostrils.
I now attach the nose-net to the noseband like you are supposed to and then I put a flash over the top of the net. This hold its down really well :-)
 
Thanks for your comments, it's good to know I'm not the only one! SDH - I'll try the flash and see if that works.
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I sympathise - I had a mare who had allergic rhinitis, caused by flower and tree pollen, and rape grown in the fields.

No supplements helped, but I did change her over to rubber mats and a sprinkling of shavings, and I soaked her hay.

I used a nose net ( not a flappy one, more like a grazing muzzle shape! ) and that did help, but particularly when she was doing fatser work, she would headshake until she fell over, or would stop dead in the middle of a canter to rub her nose on her leg, at which point my poor daughter would sail straight over her head.
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We advertised her for sale, being very open about her problem, and we were so lucky because she went to a lovely home where the livery yard was set in water meadows, so there were no trees, or crops growing, and her head shaking stopped!

Good luck, its a tricky one to deal with.
 
The other thing which worked for my headshaker who displayed exactly the same symptoms you're describing is bonjela. I smear bonjela in and around his nostrils and it seems to numb the itching sensation for him which then eliminates that desire to drag their nose along the ground. I can ride 99% of the time without any problems using the nosenet & bonjela combination.

Headshaking is so frustrating, it can be heartbreaking. I think it's largely a question of trial & error to try to find out what works for your horse & what the particularly triggers are in his case.

Good luck.
 
We had someone at the last yard I worked at (many moons ago) who had problems like this and was convinced that the nosenet mesh just wasn't fine enough, so being the imaginative person she was, she robbed a pair of her grannies stocking, lopped the foot off and put that over his nose first, with the nosenet on afterwards. The stockings were quite thick (1,000 dernier? I'm not sure) but with both that and the nosenet it actually reduced the headshaking quite a bit, though it didn't totally cure it. My main concern with this was if the horse started doing harder work would he be able to get in enough air fast enough? It's something I'd test and think about first and make sure it's readily breathable, but it's something else to try too.
 
A nosenet made my headshaker worse.
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I haven't yet found a supplement that helps either. However, I'm just about to try the NAF one with fingers crossed.

I'm really interested in Jumpforfun's bonjella suggestion - I shall be giving it a try!! I always use a good fly repellant (I prefer a 'people' one) on his face and chest and some lavendar cream on his nose which seems to soothe him.

Our stimuli appear to be strong sunlight, flies, cobwebs and, to a small extent, grass pollen.

I have found that he shakes less earlier in the day (light less bright and less flies maybe?) and I avoid damp bosky tracks or those with nose height grass (he's only just 15.1hh)

The other thing that seems to help is working properly! Ambleing along on a loose rein is much worse than being on the bit, working through and doing something to mentally distract him (such as a bit of shoulder in) from the sensations. When schooling properly on the menage we get the odd flick but he's generally much better.

Good luck. Headshaking is such a nightmare.
 
My horse has a pollen allergy. I cant use a flash on him in summer, we school in no noseband and use a grakle if in need of more control, a flash makes him worse and I cant use a drop at all. We skoosh human hayfever spray up his nose twice a day, its definately got it under control and he is much happier, I use Tescos own brand, its about £3 and has lasted over 2 month so far.

I agree that with nosenets you need to trim the whiskers as the do seem to get annoyed with the net after a while.
 
My boy's a seasonal headshaker and i find Global herbs shake free summer edition brilliant, he's been on it a couple of weeks now and it's really helped control it. Quite pricey but well worth it.
 
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