Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Hey Melissa,

 

My mare was very head shy so I did a couple of things to help her out.  First of all, I taught her to drop her head.  You can do this by putting slight pressure on her poll until she moves her head down.  Even if she just moves it an inch at first, release the pressure immediately so that she knows she has done the right thing.  Continue this and she will catch on.

 

You can also work with a head shy horse by starting out by calmly approaching the problem areas, i.e. ears, nose.  the moment the horse moves away, then back off and move away and allow them to calm down again.  keep doing this until the horse sees you're not going to hurt her.  then, you can try to touch the problem areas softly, moving away with the horse resists, but always coming back until the horse accepts you touching her head.

 

Hope this helps.  It's just what I have learned to do over time.

Ashley

Melissa <melisamk@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Ed

My older horse is around 22 yrs old (not registered so not sure about bday) and I had been thinking about turning her over to my youngest son and grandson because she is so bomproof. I was only concerned about her age and whether or not she should still be competing.. so that's why I began the search for a younger horse.

Melissa

 

hi melissa,  so,  how old is your older horse?  why not just do endurance rides with the one you have, since it must be a horse that you are familiar with and can ride with no problems.   as for the question about the new horse, yes you can correct the head shyness, and bitting problems. it will just take a bit of time and patience on your part.  but do you want/need to keep and ride another horse?    ed

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