itchy feet, running backwards.

[tazanotabza]

theres a horse which as far as i know has nothing wrong with it in a field near mine and on several occasions ive seen it start running backwards with its head down biting its feet and rolling its eyes. it suddenly starts doing this then suddenly stops and is fine. anyone seen a horse do this before??

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Horses that have hairy feet can suffer terribly from feather mites. The mites burrow deep into the hair and superficial skin layers and cause intense itching that can drive the horse nuts. The horse will often try to scrape its itchy feathers on anything that will give relief. My horse used to stand one foot IN his empty feed bowl and try to scratch the other leg against the rim. Wrecked a few feedbowls! My gipsy cob mare lays down to frantically chew at her legs. I would guess what you're observing is a horse - driven doo lally by feather mites - trying to reach his hind feet to chew at them, but not quite managing it and getting terribly frustrated in the process. Feather mites can be controlled either by clipping out the feathers permanently or by 2 injections of Dectomax given about 10 days apart.

A word of warning though, if it's totally bizarre behaviour and there's more to it than itchy feet, end stage ragwort poisoning also produces neurological damage that shows as strange and distressing behaviour.