Head-throwing

Question
Hi!

I have bought an OTTB who is usually an absolute sweetheart. He tends to be a bit of a "difficult child" at times, but this is only in unusual situations or new places on the property he hasn't been before and that is to be expected of the breed and horses in general.

I have had this horse, Sky, for about a month and have been working on ground manners and he is really progressing nicely. The problem is when lungeing/riding him. He is fine at the walk, but as soon as you ask him for a trot (free lungeing or riding) he immediately throws his head up to the point that I am afraid he is going to rear up. I had him checked by my vet for soundness, and he is 100% sound (he has old bowed tendons). I thought the problem might have been his tack, but I've changed his bit from a D-ring to an eggbutt snaffle and have had his saddle checked and it fits fine. Because he is throwing his head when I am not in the saddle too makes me think that the problem does not lie with his tack.

I want to try a standing martingale with him, but before I do so, I want to make sure that this head-throwing is a sign of a behavioural problem and not a possible health issue. Or if there is anything else I can try with him to stop this dangerous behaviour. I'm not interested in showing him or anything, I just want to be able to ride him for pleasure and feel safe.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Thank you!

Shannon

Answer
Shannon,

First off, the standing martingale is a real problem in and of itself.  I would never use one, they are extremely dangerous.  If you feel you have to use one then use a running martingale.  It will help keep the head down without putting the horse in a situation where he feels overly restrained.  I've seen horses go over backwards with these.  

You've had him checked by a vet but I suspect this is not something a vet would find.  I would get him checked by a chiropractor and also get him worked on by a massage therapist.  Racehorses off the racetrack, both TB's and STB's have a lot of issues left from their race days that will affect them afterwards.  He's indicating that he is having a problem trotting in a circle.  He may be fine trotting on the straightaway but not on a circle.  That says to me that he's probably got something going on in the front end, could be a shoulder, withers, or someplace in his neck that is out and is actually physically causing him discomfort, hence the head throwing.  He could also have some very tight muscles that are adding to the problem.  Horses just don't misbehave in this fashion for no reason.  But, most vets are not trained and don't know how to recognize either muscle problems or skeletal alignment issues, unless they do chiropractic work too.  


I assume you've also had his teeth checked by an equine dentist.  If not you need to do so.  Just changing from one type of bit to another doesn't mean a thing of any bit is uncomfortable.  I've worked with a number of OTB's and have found they work well in a bitless bridle to start with.  Their mouths tend to be sort of "dead" and the bitless bridle enabled me to establish better communication with them.  They were able to be switched back to bits (one horse went on to be a show jumper) once they had learned to respond to the rider differently.

In any event you need to find out what's going on with him physically so get him checked out.  OTB's can be wonderful horses but need a lot of work to re-train them.  

Good luck.

Lyn