Worrying the bit

dwi

dwi

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for the last few weeks Daisy has been what I would call "Worrying" the bit when we've been out hacking. She doesn't seem to do it nearly as much in the evenings as in the mornings and not at all if we are schooling so I don't think its pain.

She does it alot more in trot, poking her nose out and jaggling the bit up and down so that I have no hope of a contact or even any feel at all. Today was quite bad with the flies but even so she was doing it almost all the way on the hack, even in walk.

She has been very nappy in the past and we've solved that and are now starting to work in an outline. Other people on the yard have suggested that she's doing this out of protest at being asked to work more properly but its so inconsistent that I can't put my finger on what causes it.

Any ideas? Is she trying to tell me I'm doing something wrong? Is it just flies? What can I do to discourage it?
 
is she jogging at all as she does it? there is some evidence that this kind of snatching coupled with jogging can actually be a form of self narcosis in horses. in cattle it manifests itself as pushing their head off a wall or solid surface. if she is onlyy doing it out hacking then it could simply be a way of dealing with a stressful situation that she used to avoid by napping. just a thought...
 
no not jogging, she does jog though sometimes when she's on her own whereas this is in company. I would say though that she enjoys hacking. She is alert and forward going without ever trying to shoot off with me. She only ever napped when she was on her own or at specific scary things. This is constant and seems to happen more in company.

If it is stress related then presumably I just keep riding her through it and eventually she'll settle?

its interesting that you mention the cattle, if you leave her bridle on in the stable while you go to fetch something she spends her time rubbing her nose and mouth against the bars or her feed manger. Do you think that the two are connected then?

what is self narcosis?
 
self narcosis is basically where the animal in question causes the body to release a hormone which causes the same affect as a narcotic drug would have ie relaxation. in horses the hormone released is the same one which is released when a twitch is used. you could try just riding her through it with a calm firm seat and legs. if you have a quiet area in which to do it you could also try dropping pretty much all the contact so she has nothing to snatch against and then she has to focus on something else. the pressing of her head in the stable could be something similiar though at the same time that could be habit. i used to work with a horse that when left tacked up in stable he used to openhis lips and run his gums along wall of stable. if you stopped him doing it he became quite stressed. it was only when i did my animal behaviour course in college i realised it was most likely a form of this self narcosis he was doing!
 
Mine used to jab at the reins, and he was doing it as evasion or if someone was too heavy handed. He was resisting working whislt hacking. In the school he was fine most of the time as it he knew it was expected to work
 
thanks amage. she doesn't do it if you drop the contact because she likes wandering along with her head on the ground but it doesn't bring her schooling along

If its stress related then presumably if I ride her positively from my seat its something that should reduce with time as we continue to grow together
 
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