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THE HEADSHAKING SYNDROME

Editor‘s Note: ”Headshaking‘ is the term that seems to have become fixed to this syndrome, so it is the one used to identify the problem for the purpose of this section. However, headshaking is a poor descriptive choice and certainly not the most characteristic symptom of the syndrome. Head tossing or nose flipping would be better labels. Affected do not rotate their heads like a dog with ear trouble. The spasmodic movement of the head is a sudden elevation of head and neck in a vertical plane, not a horizontal one. Remember too that the word ”syndrome‘ is used in medicine to describe a number of symptoms occurring together and characterizing a specific disease. Head tossing is only one of a collection of symptoms caused most commonly, in my experience, by bit-induced nerve pain (). Other symptoms include muzzle rubbing, sneezing, snorting, head shyness, hypersensitivity to bright light, wind or rain, grazing on the fly, lachrymation, and excessive blinking. All these symptoms are most commonly triggered by exercise under saddle (in a bitted ) and exacerbated by warm ambient temperature (i.e. it is a syndrome that is much worse in the summer months). The syndrome is likely to be accompanied by any number of 90 other behavioral aberrations that horses exhibit as the result of bit usage. - Robert Cook ------

I have been delighted with my new Bitless Bridle. I bought it to try with my Intermediate endurance horse, as I have always wanted to go bitless but am also not mad on hackamores!!!! After 4 weeks, she is very relaxed & happy in it - far less head shaking and rubbing her face with her left fore, never snatches and even quicker to respond to voice commands. The physiology makes sense and it seems to work in practice … excellent product.

- Claire Shorthose BVMS MRCVS (Cheshire, UK) 10/15/04 ------

I purchased your bridle this summer. Then I did not get a chance to use it.

I have just this week ridden several times with it with my 14- year-old Quarter Horse and a 9-year-old Tennessee Walker

The Quarter horse I have had since he was two and he has always flipped his head. The weight of a hackamore, halter or any type of bridle always annoys him. No amount of discipline would break him of the habit and it was for this horse alone that I purchased the bridle. I have been using a mechanical hackamore and he tolerated it the best. The problem is, sometimes other people ride him and they are way too rough for such a severe piece of equipment.

I put your bridle on him, he flipped his head once, shook his head and never flipped it again!

I was concerned about the Walker as there were a lot of comments about whether a Walker would gait with this bridle. My Walker did not flip his head but was always trying to push through the hackamore. Halters and a bridle were like shooting off the starting gun at a race! I put your bridle on him and he was not quite sure what to do. After a couple trips around the pasture, some turns and

Headshaking syndrome Updated October 2004 10/24/04 www.bitlessbridle.com 2 www.bitlessbridle.co.uk USERS COMMENTS UCMC HS.doc stops, he relaxed and was very nice to ride. Then I went around a couple times with him collected and gaiting, it was heaven!

So Thanks. And thank you for offering the money back guarantee, as I would not have tried the bridle without it.

I send out information to a large number of local horse people about local events and other news about horses. I just sent out your web site and information on your product.

- Lani L. VanderBeek, 9/29/04 ------

My family purchased a horse in March -- a 5 yr old Pinto mare. Shortly after we got our new mare we named MARIAH, she started tossing her head and becoming difficult to control.

I e-mailed the previous owner and asked her what kind of bit she had been using. She said she used a full cheek rubber broken snaffle bit. So I ordered one. The response from Mariah was worse than it had been with the twisted wire snaffle we had been using. I returned it immediately. I decided to try the kind of bit we had been told was fairly mild called a Robart Pinchless Spinner ball snaffle bit. But one day while using this bit and riding Mariah out on the trail, her head came up so fast and high, she hit me in the face and made my nose bleed.

I knew something was wrong then. At first I thought it might be behavioral and tried different training techniques to get her to stop tossing her head -- riding the horse in circles, holding the horse's head up in air with your hand so they'll want to keep their head down, doing neck flexion exercises, etc -- all of which did not work. I even had her teeth floated and found out the previous owner had Mariah's wolf teeth removed. Then I began talking to my vet and looking on the internet and found out it could be a medical problem. If this is related to the trigeminal nerve in her eye which branches out and runs along her upper and lower teeth, no wonder she would be more sensitive to having a bit in her mouth than most other horses.

Luckily, I have a friend who owns a Bitless Bridle and asked her if I could borrow it to see how Mariah would behave. She was great in an arena but I knew the true test would be on the trail. A few days ago I took her out on the trail for the first time in months with the bitless. It was great! Hardly any head tossing at all. I was amazed.

I am definitely convinced the bitless is the way to go. I tried using a halter on her while riding on the trail yesterday and it just wasn't as good. We did tug-of-way with the reins almost the whole time.

- Sue Schedin, Eagan, MN, 8/25/04 ------Here is my day #1 Bitless Bridle story:

I have a very sensitive and sweet green broke Paso Fino horse four yr old "SHORTY." He has had basic "John Lyons" round pen reasoning training. He continued to work well in the round pen/saddling/bridling until about the fifth time I placed him in a snaffle bit. His behavior changed for the worse dramatically

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overnight … hopping around when trying to saddle, attempting to rear, not allowing me to mount, extreme head shaking and lowering of the head, attempting to buck or rear, turning in circles, refusing to move forward, clumsiness/tripping/almost fell, walking in a zig-zag fashion. The poor guy was just completely stressed and fearful. I also noticed that he began to rub his head on anything he could find after the bit was removed.

So, I decided to buy one of your bridles. I knew about the Bitless Bridle, but allowed others to sway me to use a "gentle" snaffle. I am not an experienced horse trainer and am just getting back into riding after a long time. The customer service staff was wonderful in stepping up the shipment to second day air. I needed the bridle as soon as possible, because I was not ever going to put a bit in his mouth again! My intuition and now my observations were telling me I really screwed up!

The Bitless Bridle arrived today and we rode tonight. I had to work with SHORTY for 30 min. to get the bridle near his head. I know he thought the leather smell was the bitted bridle coming at him! We finally got the bridle on him and he relaxed to let us make the proper adjustments. No problem fitting the bridle, the fit was perfect for his cob size head. He let me mount, though reluctantly, and we rode in the round pen for 20 min. The head tossing and lowering stopped immediately. He began to relax and moved nicely, no thoughts of bucking or rearing. I felt confident enough to move out of the round pen. SHORTY decided to head back for the barn, but we worked through that and he soon headed down the rode on his own accord. Yes, he a