Headshaking or am I paranoid?

[J&S]

My New Forest mare used to do this when a bit annoyed, she had a lot of Arab in her breed line.

 

[SEL]

When the microcob was struggling to breath last year she had a proper head shake under saddle - I think she was trying to dislodge that soft palate or something. Believe me if you've got a head shaker you'll know it! The vets were keen on keeping her in work then (we were still investigating) but it got so bad I got off and walked her 2 miles home because she wasn't concentrating on where she was putting her feet she was so distressed and I thought we were both going to hit the deck.

Ridden bitless now we still get the odd head toss, but that is usually you are making me work hard and I'm a bit tired / hot / fed up. It isn't the incessant flicking up and down that she was doing last year when she was obviously distressed. She will also do the sassy head toss in the field and I was paranoid for a while until I realised it was either when they were being bouncy or my dominant mare was moving her on.

 

[SatansLittleHelper]

My boys do this and it's definitely my Shitland's equivalent of flipping me the bird ??????

 

[supertramp]

My boy does this when he's full of it, or some poor blighter is trying to catch him, we call it " doing a Lawrence " as in Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen flicking his hair to the camera !

 

[LadyGascoyne]

Yours all look so elegant when doing the diva head toss.

Mine has the enthusiasm but lacks the grace.

 

[ycbm]

The local Highland stallion did that all the way up a 300m fence line the first time I rode each of my horses past his field. A running L'Oréal "because I'm worth it" advert ?

CI, easier to say than do, take a deep breath, thank your lucky stars for a healthy mare and a lovely foal and stop looking for problems to take the place of the ones you were worrying about before he was born. I mean this from a good place, I understand what it's like to have a need to worry forward.
.

 

[Caol Ila]

Yeah, happy now after your posts. I'd written an article for HHO about headshaking a few years ago, and I've been wondering about this behaviour for a wee while, to be honest. I've never seen a horse toss its head as much as she does. Googling "head tossing" or "head flicking" or whatever just takes you to a f*ck ton of websites about trigeminal headshaking, which isn't reassuring.

 

[spotty_pony]

Out Friesian does this - and it just shows his attitude as he can be stubborn. It's completely different to headshaking.

 

[Lois Lame]

In that video, she only does it once. Would you guys worry if it's fairly repetitive (under certain conditions)? I've never seen a horse do that as much as she does. It occurred more frequently a few days before she foaled, and she does it more often now than in pre-foal days.

I believe she is asserting herself.

 

[Caol Ila]

I don't want to know what she's putting on her Tinder profile. We might need to have a conversation.