Horse not liking neck/withers touched

[Jayde]

Im asking this on behalf of a friend.
She got a new horse just over a week ago. She's great to do in every way. The only thing she has found is she doesnt like her neck (top bi where main comes out of towards bottom of neck) and withers being touched. Its not all the time an mainly if she's got her head up. You can see she has had a badly fitted saddle at some point as she's got white hairs.
Just wondered if anyone had any ideas what could be the problem.

 

[SillySausage]

First impression is that being touched in those places reminds the horse of a bad situation/s in the past.

 

[samstar]

My mare who I've owned a year now used to hate you brushing her neck and mane, she used to pull away, but now she is fine, can only consider her previous owners weren't that kind

 

[beckieswann]

Has she had the horse checked over? back/chiro out to check that there's still no underlying pain? If there isn't any underlying pain then it's a matter of building up trust and desensitising the area by using repetition and reward. My horse was head shy, and through repetition of touching the area he realised that it didn't hurt, and at the beginning I backed it up with rewarding such as an affectionate rub - he soon learnt not to be scared and that having his head touched didn't mean he was going to be beaten! Also I had a chriopractor out and he did have a lot of pressure in his atlas area.

Definitely worth getting her checked over first