stallion shakes his head when his halter is put one

[solupe]

Head shaking in stallion, what can that mean, only does it when he gets to put his halter on and will continue when being led...Is this normal stallion behavior or can it be something wrong with his head?

 

[lyn_j]

[SIZE=14pt]That isnt normal stallion behavior. I would check all the pressure points where the halter hits his poll, cheeks, nose..... how tight is it? Also check inside his ears for bug bites.[/SIZE]

Lyn

 

[Dontworrybeappy]

I had an Arabian mare who did that - it was because she had (with her previous owners) often been haltered with halters that were too big, and when she shook her head, "sometimes" they would come off! So she just learned to "test" things and did it the rest of her life even though in the 10 years we had her no halter ever fell off!

 

[minih]

Could he be ear shy? If you are trying to put the halter on it goes over the ears, and if you are holding your hand near the ears while leading hence the ear shy again .....maybe? Just a thought.

 

[billiethekid40]

my guess is the halter either comes too far down his nose, or rubs his ears at the base in the back. Or, he might just like the floppy feeling, some horses are quite the characters.

: Try a few different fitting halters and see if he keeps doing it. Try a halter fuzzy on the poll piece if you think its putting pressure on his ears.

 

[Relic]

On the other hand we had a few stallions where there were no sore spots or anything else bothering them once the halter was on it was a habit they picked up and we didn't correct right away as soon as a halter went on they got frisky and had that l dare you to make me listen and do what you want head throw. a halter with a chain under the chin worked that out of them. We did have a mare with a sore tooth and whenever we put a halter on she'd fling her head up and down because it was putting pressure on the side of her mouth she was being led from. She was fine once the tooth was pulled and never did it again.

 

[bfogg]

Your stallion says he has pain over his nose.

Bonnie

 

[nootka]

My experience w/this was a horse with dental issues.

She had very sharp points in the cheeks along her back molars. When the halter was put on her, it pressed the raw spots (she had them from chewing) into the halter cheekpieces and hurt her. Same as when pressure was applied for leading her, she would rear and shake her head.

What we did was use a neck strap for leading her around til we could get her looked at by a dentist.

It is often hard to see these b/c the cheeks sort of press around the back and they are very far back there, but this may be your stallion's problem.

If there is nothing physically wrong w/him, I think you need to look at the fit of the halter as well as inspect where it sits.

My otherwise calm stallion would freak out if the harness he was wearing touched the backs of his ears (he had nothing wrong w/them, he was sensitive there). We had to find a longer browband to keep the straps over the poll from touching his ears at any time. Could be your halter is touching him at the base/back of his ears even if there's no inflammation or cause for discomfort, it may just be that he's sensitive about it.

Good luck w/your detective work and please do let us know what you find, if anything.

Liz M.