Youngster playing with his tongue

irish_only

irish_only

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Nearly all the time! He is a rising 3yo, and is constantly sticking his tongue either out of the side of his mouth, up the inside of his cheeks, and goodness knows what else he does with it. In the last couple of weeks he has started making some very weird noises, sounding almost as though he is choking, but he isn't. Vet came to give him his flu jabs and I asked him about it, and his thoughts were that it is just something peculiar to him. Have just started to work him, and with a straight bar bit with keys the tongue is over the bit, so will have to raise it higher and see if that stops it.
Failing either piercing his tongue so we can sew it down or having it amputated (only joking!!!) ANY IDEAS?
 
Absolutely none - but if you find the answer, PLEASE let me know. I have a home-bred, rising 6 year old RID mare whose tongue behaviour ranges from suggestive to plain disgusting!:D

She gets it SO far out of the side of her mouth she can almost scratch her ear with it. She draws pictures in the air with it, and beckons her friends with it! She's done it since she was about 3 - and it's most noticeable at feedtime (she's out in the field, but you can see the tongue waving at you when the tractor is 200 yards away!:rolleyes:)

We've had her mouth thoroughly checked out - nothing out of the ordinary. Vet thinks it's a stereotypy - but why on earth ......
 
if he plays with his tongue anyway the last thing you want in his mouth is a bit with keys as it will just encourage him to mess around even more with his tongue.

boring question i know, but i presume he has had his teeth looked at?

I have had a few with fussy mouths/overactive tongues and found the Hippus bits really good for getting a quiet mouth (I have one I had to put bit latex over for and it sorted him a treat).

my current 5yro is always messing with his tongue, even around the stable and in the field and has no teeth issues but his bitting issues have been totally resolved with a hippus, bit latex and a very loose drop noseband.
 
I bought an ex flat racer who did this, the dealer whose yard he passed through nicknamed him "Wobblygob". When I got his teeth done the dentist said he had atrocious teeth, and he was very sore in his mouth. Unfortunately, once his mouth was comfortable he turned out to be chronic windsucker, just developed the tongue twizzling as windsucking hurt!
 
It can be a sign of stress/anxiety. I've seen it in colts that are left entire and thus stabled pretty much 24/7, with no company. Are you sure you're not rushing his training and asking things of him that he either doesn't understand or isn't mature enough to deal with?
 
Alot of ex racers I have known do it, so did a riggy little pony I rode (only when he was by a mare). I assume that was a stress reaction, just a way of coping.

I know of a few trainers who used to tie the tounge down with a pair of tights....Don't do that haha.

If it's not his mouth/teeth, it's most likely in his braiiiiin, might just be his thing! Most horses have a thing...

Again with the riding aspect, find a bit that suits him, and try a drop/flash noseband (don't strap him shut, just encourage him not to open!)
 
Box_Of_Frogs said:
It can be a sign of stress/anxiety. I've seen it in colts that are left entire and thus stabled pretty much 24/7, with no company. Are you sure you're not rushing his training and asking things of him that he either doesn't understand or isn't mature enough to deal with?
Click to expand...

The tongue thing is ALL the time unless he is eating. No- not rushing, he's only had a bridle on for a few days, and is just learning to lunge, so no stress there, in fact I would say he is quite enjoying it.
Re stress. When stabled he has other horses directly opposite him so always has something to look at.
 
My boy does weird things with his tongue. Sometimes he looks as if he could clean out his ears with it!

He only really does it when waiting for his feed. He does have a huge scar on it, done before I had him. He is generally 'mouthy' with the bit and is brilliant at getting his tongue over it. He sees a good equine dentist every 6 months who says he has really good teeth.

Jane
 
goin slightly off here, but a youngster i had few yrs ago was all about tongue, was a dose for gettin tongue over bit (interesting for driving i long reins down the road...!) even after he was backed he kept it up. eventually i let the bit down about 4 holes til it was almost on his teeth, left it on him for an afternoon, and left it there for lunging and driving for rest of week. the novelty soon wore off and thankfully he packed it in.

also a mare a cousin of mine had was at tongue action round the clock and she turned into a brutal windsucker, so bad she didnt have to hold anything, just tense her tongue and suck. if hes making choking noises i'd keep an ear for any of that nonsense too.

(and thank god there are still people that start them at that age, i dont get this four and half and only starting them!)
 
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My horse does odd things with his tongue, have never seen anything like it. As soon as you turn him out, he sticks his tongue right out then goes up to the other horses in the field and waves it at them. It seems to be his signal for wanting to play. I've also seen him standing in the middle of the field with it hanging out, waiting for the other horses to play with him. The other horses bite it when he has it hanging out, then he gets upset *rolls eyes*

When he wants to come in, he stands at the gate with his tongue hanging out. RE ridden work - he is ridden in either a grackle or a drop noseband (he likes something under the bit to keep it stable but detests a flash, so have either of the above on fairly loosely). His tongue is generally always squeezed slightly out of the side of the noseband. I've tried him without a noseband and he plays with the bit and his tongue so much that he gets his tongue over the bit. With a noseband, he still plays a lot but works nicely and is soft. He has his teeth done every 12 months by the vet - he was doing the tongue thing so much over Xmas in the field that I honestly worried he might get frost bite so I had an equine dentist check his teeth (2 months after vet did them) but dentist said they were perfect.

I think it's just his "thing"!
 
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