Head help please

[shandy84]

At the moment Shandy is ridden in a grackle noseband and running martengale.

I think the reasons for her evasion are that she had to keep her head high to avoid the pain her saddle caused her, however I am concerned that I cannot ride her safely without these things when I have tried she has thrown her head up crossed her jaw and bolted, I swear it's because she is expecting pain.

Shandy also has problems being girthed up which I also put down to the saddle poorly fitting. To anyone who doesn't know her saddle has now been changed to a good fitting one it is just the residue memories that seem to be affecting her now.

I would like any suggestions as to how I can wean her SAFELY :rolleyes: off these training aids, we do tonnes of inhand work and she is ridden two-three times a week for a short time

Any ideas?

[shirley]

I am no expert on this, but hope this may help.
A person at our yard had a real lot of trouble with her horses back and getting a saddle to fit was a true chore. Now she has it sorted out she has had to deal with similar situation as yourself. So she went back to basics, started lunging her with her new saddle on, long reining her several times a week and also was ridden on the lunge and in the school menage one or twice a week. This has taken her literally monthes to deal with, but she has gone slowly, not over faced her mare and she is now hacking out on her own, mare is fully under control , no bucking , no bolting etc. She has needed to be patient and just help her horse remember that her saddle does not cause her any pain any more and to adjust and get on with her new one.
Hope this helps and good luck

[shandy84]

Thanks for that I will try more lungeing/longreining in tack unfortunatly she can't do circles very well at all, so a rider would really unbalance her on the lunge so we'll have to work around it, but I'll see how she goes