Allergy or sun?

[shandy84]

Shandy has just recently begun acting very strangely when being walked in hand and ridden if it's a sunny or windy day she will pull the reins down and put her chin to her chest then toss her head t the side, it's nothing huge but looks like something is irritating her. Would you suggest a nose net for this, what type if so the sun or pollen protecting ones?

It's not what I would call misbehaviour because she does seem uncomfortable and doesn't use having a longer rein to her advantage to run off etc.

What do you think she suffers from mild sweet itch BTW :)

[Bebe]

I'd go for a pollen allergy as a starter, given that she's already got sweet itch (so immune system is compromised already) and it's the time of year when my hayfever starts up.

[cvb]

mmm - I seem to recall that some of the work on head-shaking indicates its to do with a nerve in the nose. So anything that sets the nerve off can be a trigger.

So could be pollen or sun or flies etc.

One of the dressage legal nose nets might be worth a try ?

One of the things that I've seen happen is that the horse learns to associate flies etc with pain, so if they've got that far they may not start "shaking" straight away when you use the net.

So it might be worth it to try this sooner rather than later.

Oh yes, and in some cases it gets worse as they work cos of the increases blood flow, sweating etc.

My guy gets sun burn if his nose isn't protected and it would need an itch when we were riding :rolleyes: So it could also just be sun - have you really had some this year !! Lucky you !

Doesn't sound like you have as severe a problem - but better to try and catch it now ;)