Extremely Ear Shy Horse - Experiences? Behavioral or Physical?

[ClassyRide]

I have an absolutely wonderful gelding who has one recurrent issue of being extremely ear shy. And it is so inconsistent of an issue that it makes me wonder if it doesn’t have a physical component. Let me explain, and then I’d love to hear from others if you’ve ever been around a horse like this, and what helped (if you were able to help/fix it).

I’ve owned this boy for a year and a half. I’ve had horses before that came to me as headshy, but admittedly never this bad. I successfully resolved it in the other horses, but I can’t seem to completely be rid of it with this one. What strikes me is that we have days; sometimes weeks on end where he’s perfectly fine with whatever I’m doing around his head (haltering, bridling, brushing). And then out of seemingly nowhere, the next time I interact with him it’s like a switch flipped in him and he does everything in his power to keep my hands more than a foot away from his ears (he doesn’t even want me to pet his face; something he can’t get enough of on the good days).

I don’t have suspicions of anyone abusing him; he’s kept at home and I’m practically the only person who handles him (mostly because of this issue and how it comes out of nowhere).

I brought this up to my vet last Fall. Of course, my gelding was having a normal/good day about his ears (isn’t that always the way?), so vet was able to play with his ears after only a couple minutes of “getting to know you.” So vet sincerely believed it’s behavioral. Since gelding was intact until 4 (he’s 8 this year), vet theorized maybe he was tough to handle as a stud and was twitched. But he came around so quick for the vet that he didn’t feel there was anything physical, so never examined his ears or surrounding structures.

I took that to heart, and have continued to work with/around this issue; I also have actual sessions with him from time to time focusing on this; relaxing and accepting touches and hand movement up there (in case that’s a trigger). But still, we continue to have random bad days that are always extremely bad.

Is that normal? Has anyone experienced that with a head shy/ear shy horse? What has helped if you’ve ever worked through this before?

[walkinthewalk]

I have a horse in similar vein but his issue is only his ears, not his whole head. He is 25 and has been with me since he was 2-1/2. He used to be horrible about me fussing with his ears, the left more than the right. I figure part of that was due to someone grabbing his ear and “pinning” him.

while I had worked him thru putting halters and bridles over his ears, I always have had trouble wiping the insides of his ears out.

He still is not as good as my other horse but I discovered an oddity on my part that, for some dumb reason, seems to work best. Don’t make eye contact with him. I had a bad accident some years back that left me with vertigo to where I couldn’t look upward for thirty seconds without blacking out. This horse is 16.1H so looking up to wipe an unfriendly ear wasn’t happening. Instead I kept my head down and reached up with my hand. Amazingly he tolerated me fumbling for his ear in that manner than if I were looking at him and reaching.

It took some time but he does let me wipe the insides of his ears with Vetericyn, then put a thin layer of ointment in there to keep knats out. He will not let me get deep in his ears to wipe near the ear canal like my other horse does – my other horse will push his head toward me, when he wants me to clean deeper:)

So the long and short is my horse’s issues were behavioral going way back to someone twisting his ear; he is not a forgiving horse like my other horse is, lol. Try NOT making eye contact. Keep your head lowered, eyes to the ground and see if that bizarre “thing” works:)

[Guilherme]

My senior mare (now 25) came to us as a coming 5 y.o. I had ridden her twice at the owners without issue, including bridling. I was doing routine grooming and reached towards her left ear. Both ears came back and she went STRAIGHT UP!!! Until she hit the limits of the cross ties and then surrendered to gravity.

I got out of the way and let her settle down for a min. I then talked to her and slowly moved my had up her neck. When got about 12" from the ears both came back and I got the “evil eye.” I called the prior owner and she admitted she forgot to tell me about that! Turns out she had been “eared down” when she was broke to saddle and it was badly done. You could stick a red-hot poker into the right ear and nothing would happen. Get within a foot of the left ear and you’d get a reaction.

For the next six months we worked on gaining the mare’s trust enough to touch the ear. Once she got the idea she wasn’t going to get hurt by me she relaxed and I could do all the routine grooming without issue. But for the ear. I could start working my way up her neck with a brush and as soon as I got resistance I’d back off a bit, let her settle, and then move up a bit more. It took a few times to get each small step but at about a half an inch a week (as I recall; it was 20 years ago ) I was making progress and was finally able to touch the ear without an explosion. Her ears were still pinned and her face was ugly but she didn’t do anything. Over time the ears relaxed and I could clean and groom as required. To this day when I groom the left ear I get the “I don’t like this” face but she’s mostly relaxed and doesn’t resist the touch.

“Earing down” is still practiced in some disciplinary traditions. You might try experimenting and see just what, specific action you take that triggers the reaction. Then start from there. Plan on the process taking a good dose of Tincture of Time as you will first have to find the trigger and then “disarm” it.

Good luck in your program.

G.

[IPEsq]

Yes sounds like one I knew that we all suspected had been ear twitched. But the difficulty with bridling was pretty constant. Haltering was usually a lot better. Didn’t help that horse is 18 hands.

[ryansgirl]

While in college years ago I worked in the barns there (big equine program) and we had three horses all out of the same mare. Two of them were horrendous about their ears and the third was bad (but not as bad as the other two). They were born and raised there so we knew their history. And all these horses were WB crosses and huge (two over 17 hands and one just under) so it made put on halters and bridles a challenge. Apparently it was a family thing about ears being touched.

[Cat_Tap]

My TB will not let me touch his left ear. I have owned him for 15 years and I still cannot touch his left ear. I assume he was ear twitched as a youngster. I have no problems putting halters on him or putting the bridle on. I decided there was no point of making an issue of this. He is otherwise well behaved but can have hysterics if upset.

[beowulf]

If TB, he may have been twitched at the track. Even horses not on the track can get an ear twitch, if they are being particularly difficult for vets, etc.

Have you ever been able to get a good look at the ear itself? Check for sarcoids, aural plaques, or anything else abnormal.

I have a TB with aural plaques. It has made him protective of his right ear. Whoever had him before me tried to blister them off, and even six years later he is very suspicious of any new object that comes near his ear. Brushes, haltering, bridling is fine - but he definitely remembers. Considering he has no issues with haltering and bridling, I don’t make a big deal out of it either, but I always give him a treat any time I inspect the plaques just to make sure they are not getting bigger.

[LookmaNohands]

This can also be related to pain in the poll area that makes it seem like they don’t want you to touch their ears. Instead it is more of a Chiropractic problem of temporal bone and atlas and axis vertebrae being out and painful. Something to look into anyway.

[cayuse]

I have/had several smaller ponies just like this. Usually always the left ear :(. Some of them came around faster than others, but with all of them the time frame was years, not months. My welsh pony was particularly bad about the left ear. I have had him for nine years and he still has the occasional lapse once in awhile if I move too fast towards that ear. He does much better if I clip/brush/clean the right ear first and then do the left.
Time and treats won them all over for the most part.

[hunterprincez]

My current horse has random periods like this after a bad experience at a horse show. He is very particular about his whole tack up routine. He likes you to do everything very softly and quietly. NO SUDDEN MOVEMENTS or flapping things around. I am the only one who tacks him up at home and noticed after we went to a few shows he was always really bad about getting the bridle put on for about a week after we came home from the show. I finally figured out that while the grooms were not being rough or mistreating him in any way when tacking up at the show they definitely were not catering to his nuances of going slowly and calmly. Plus I saw that they were attempting to put ear plugs in which is a serious battle and something I will only do out of sheer desperation if we are showing indoors and it starts raining rally hard. We talked about it and since then they don’t try to put in ear plugs as well as make sure to go slow and have a zen attitude when tacking him up at shows. It seriously makes all the difference to his easily stressed TB brain.

[Jackie_Cochran]

I am riding a 22 yr. old QH gelding who was extremely ear shy when I started working him, both of the times I started working on him with about 6 months off in between. Sudden giraffe, head flinging, rolling eyes and trying to back up in the cross ties.

I finally found out that if I started with his right ear every time he was not quite as bad with his left ear. Slow hand movements, never approaching his head from the front–in fact I have to bring my hand/brush up behind his right eye at first, and patience, patience, patience.

After a few months both times he calmed down enough so I now can clean the insides of both his ears which he seems to enjoy though I have to approach his ears slowly.

One thing that MAY have helped is me using the Fenwick Face Mask with Ears before I bridle him (made of a fabric with titanium in it). At first it was a total struggle to get it on, but with patience he improved. This time around I still have to start putting it on his right ear in order not to trigger anything, though when I rode him earlier he ended up letting me put it on from his left side also. If I forget the Fenwick face mask he makes cutting “remarks” (starting with “hey dummy!”) and he tends to relax when I finally get it on. He APPROVES of his Fenwick Face Mask with Ears once I get it on!

[candyappy]

After 9 years I can finally get the clippers over the outside edge of our little mare 50% of the time I try. Maybe in 9 more years I will get the whole ear.

I can also deworm her without rearing and snubbing her head to the post.
Baby steps.

[ChunkyMonkey]

Baby steps, baby steps, baby steps. My now 17 y/o, who I’ve had since he was 3, used to be appallingly bad about having his head & ears touched. Like violent, terrified reactions if you got anywhere near his head. I always assumed he got the shit beat out of him being imported to the US.

Regardless, it took an insane amount of persistence to get him to the point where he’d let me even touch his ears. I used to have to dismantle his bridle before putting it on, because he would panic if I’d slide it over his ears. Every time you’re out, I’d bring a high reward treat (apple, carrot, etc.), and if your horse lets you touch his ears, for however short a time, give them a treat. Longer amounts of touching, more tolerance to being touched, more treats.

I know how frustrating it can be, but keep a positive attitude, and keep working on it!

[SuzieQNutter]

A fly veil with ears or those head things that have ears when riding can really help with a horse that doesn’t like their ears touched. I have a mare who let me put the bridle or halter on and nothing else. I put on the head thing to ride and after that she didn’t care about her ears being touched immediately afterwards.

The gelding I have know for 10 years at the local riding school has always been head shy. When given to us we took him to our chiropractor and told him he had been to their chiropractor 2 weeks prior. He said that his poll was out and it was extremely sore as the other chiropractor had made it worse.

The next time he went his jaw was out.

I did stand on a hill and gave him a training session. He would lower his head and let me brush his forelock after that. I think it was about 3 times after that at the chiropractor that they finally had everything right with the previous treatments correcting slowly.

The exact second after the hit to his poll, his head dropped and the chiropractor was able to stroke his whole head and ears.

I took him to the float and I was able to do the same thing. We took him home and hubby was able to stroke him all over. You could not believe it was the same horse.

[Equisis]

Agreed that it might be related to pain in his jaw or poll. Could explain why it is intermittent.

Honestly, the best success I have seen with anyone overcoming ear shyness has been through positive reinforcement training (clicker training). You don’t need a clicker, you can just make a click with your mouth. First train him on the marker signal (click, then reward) and then add in hands near his ears. Do it slowly and progressively, and anytime you get close, immediately mark (click) and reward (timing is very important). It helps if your horse is food motivated- use his favorite treat.