Hi ya'll,

I've got a challenge with my best horses.  She is a 3y.o. QH mare who I have been working under saddle for about 6 mos now. She has always been a bit of a drama queen and can tend to over react with other people. However, her and I get along real well and she remains calm w/ me.  We have been making great progress together, until lately.    

Well around 2 weeks ago, I noticed she hadn't consumed all her feed.  Then, while I was haltering her, she was acting kinda head shy. Anyway I longed her and she did fine.  Then I tied her up and proceeded to groom and tack her up for a ride.  When I went to put the bridle on, she kept ducking away from me, this was very unusual.   She wouldn't have anything to do with it.  This is when I noticed she was very sensitive on her right side, around the muzzle.  She wouldn't let me touch her right side at all.  She was getting upset and I decided at that point to just put her away and try to figure out what was bothering her.  When I went to slide her hatler off, she reared up and away from me in her stall, as if it was causing her pain.  She would only let me inspect her front teeth. Called the vet out, found out she was sheding one of her rear molars but it was not falling out like it should've.  Anyways, he went to float it, after tranqulizing her,  and it just came right out. That was a week ago today. 

Since then, I have been rubbing her face to ensure she is getting better.  She'll let me scrach her all over and seems about back to normal. The other day I haltered her to turn her out, no problems.  But when I went to remove the halter, after undoing the buckle, right when the halter slides down the bridge of her nose, she flipped out and pulled away again until the halter came off. By the way,  I just let her go when she does this because I don't want to be pulling on her face if it hurts.

This is very disappointing! I don't want her to get head shy so I am relucntant to halter or bridle her until I have a good plan to get her over this.  Putting it on isn't the problem, seems to be a problem when I go to take it off.    I'm actally scared to bridle her, I don't want her pulling away from me  with a bridle on.    I'm worried about her stepping on the reins or something. 

Should I give her more time before I try?  She doesn't appear to be in pain anymore, and she'll let me rub her all over the face.   As far as the halter is concerned, I was thinking of putting 2 halters on her, so that if she goes to pull away I can maintain control over her and calm her down, basically desensitize her to removing the halter.  I'm thinking she is anticipating the halter hurting her and reacting before she even gives it a try to see if it indeeds hurts her.  In other words, she has associated removing the halter with the memory of it hurting her. The bridle is another whole ordeal. I don't want her to learn to avoid benig bridled or to associate it with pain. But I want to make sure she accepts it no problem before I even try.  She is smart and has a good memory. 

Do you have any advice, I'm kinda stumped here, never had this problem before. 

I'd have her rechecked too.

If thats not a problem then you have to literally retrain her. horses seem to learn everything except what we want them to know. I had a older mare that got a bumped pretty hard with a bit when i was taking her bridle off ( accidents happen) but it took many slow and gentle attempts to her to forget the incident.

I would try this- slowly and gently, put the halter on, then slowly unbuckle and lower it ( lower it just a bit) but don't take it off. Lower it again, then buckle it back up. give her pats and rubs. try it again. Even if she flinches,just keep talking to her but don't take it all the way off. ( I'd also have another halter around her neck with a lead rope so she can't run off. you might do this in a stall to prevent her from taking off) it will also allow you to turn her in circles if she does want to take off.

She has connected one ( the halter sliding off her nose) to the pain. This is a powerful association.

Hmmm, that's wierd.  I posted a follow up reply on Tuesday but just noticed it didn't post.

Anyhow, she is back to normal. I just worked with her over the weekend, rode her in a rope halter and she was good.  I'll ride her again in the rope halter and then try the snaffle again.  She seems all better.  I'm very relieved. 

Thanks for the replies.

Thanks for the advice, nothing more irritating than when they pull or fly away once they feel the halter slip away. 

I had to work on her quite a bit to get her bridled up again.  But she's good now and back to her normal self.