Is your horse a "head shaker"?
Have you got a horse that started off his career very calmly, gradually making progress over a period of time and then for some inexplicable reason turned into the total opposite? - a wild beast that throws his head around all ove the place, strikes out or does his best to ditch you? - or does this horse occasionally "break-out" in rashes, get a runny nose and/or swollen glands?
Now, think back over the times this occurred very carefully. does this happen for no apparent reason at all, or does it happen seasonally? If you have eliminated all other causes, such as infections, badly fitting gear and using every type of bit known to man-kind, consider the fact that your horse maybe suffering from ALLERGIES.
Head shaking is bascially about allergy (providing you have eliminated other causes.) It combines many of the aspects of human hay fever and asthma. The affected horse may have multiple allergies with symptoms ranging from a runny nose to extremely violent behaviour making the horse completely unsafe to ride; to a sudden flick of the nose as if an insect was irritating the horse.
Allergies may be related to pollens, food proteins, moulds, insects or other substances that have been contacted, such as wool or wood shavings. Each allergen causes the horse's system to produce histamine. When the total accumulated level of histamine from all the allergens passes the critical level, the horse reacts. The seasonal pattern of symptoms follows the peaking of the contributing factors, commonly grass and tree pollens.
Various medications, principally corticosteroids can relieve symptoms to a certain degree. Long term administration of cortisone is not desirable however, and is illegal for competition. There is also a three to four week lag in effect so it makes it difficult to follow seasonal fluctuations.
Two systems exist to allow the identification of allergens.
The first is by placing a small amount of suspect irritant under the skin and checking for reaction - much the same as is done in humans.
The most definitive method however, is isotope tagging of a sample of the horses blood. Once the allergens are identified, hyposensitisation treatment vaccines are given subcutaneously using very fine needles and about 0.5 ml of vaccine, so the horse feels little more than a mozzie bite. (Hyposensitisation stimulates the horses own immune system to make antibodies to the particles causing the allergy.)
These injections are given as a course of treatment with the strength of the vaccine gradually increasing over a specified period of time. A periodic booster is then given (varying in time span depending on the horses allergens) to maintain immunity. Most allergens appear to be environmentally based. Vaccines are not made for food proteins. The only answer to this is once you know that the horse is allergic to something you are feeding him, don't feed it!!! A common food allergy is lucerne which can keep histamine levels very high.
Hyposensitisation is not a guaranteed cure with probably about a 50% success rate, however, even if you only undergo the initial blood test, you will find out WHAT is causing the reaction and perhaps be able to do something about it, instead of putting up with your horses erractic behaviour and possibly sending a good horse with an allergy to the meat pen where he doesn't deserve to go!!
For more information on isotape tagging contact your local vet.
"Dawnies" problems with Allergies
I read the above "head shaking"article in early June of 1999 and thought it very interesting, little knowing that is was the beginning of finding out why my mare was doing some of the things that she had.
Dawnie has always had big glands behind her jaws. Early in the year (Autumn), a friend commented that she though these glands had gotten even bigger. She has never displayed any violent behaviour (for goodness sake, that would mean using energy!) or any symptoms other than the enlarged glands. Also, after riding her practically every day for three years, I had noticed that she seemed to go "off" in early Autumn and Winter - she gradually lacks the desire to go forward (even more than usual!) thus losing submission and becomes very unwilling to carry herself on the bit. In 1999 we had started working on a higher level of collection for our dressage and with her glands getting squeezed between the jaw bone and the muscles in her neck, she was only taking so much then would fling her head in the air. After thinking about this behaviour and reading the allergy article, I decided to get a blood test done to eliminate any low level infections ie: Ross River etc. If this initial test showed nothing then the next step was to do an ultra sound to try and find out if the large glands were due to lumps that should not be there ie: tumours etc. However, lo and behold the first test came back showing an increased activity in white blood cells which means allergies!!
I decided to have the further samples done to identify the allergens. After waiting a nail biting three weeks the results finally came in - 27 positive allergens plus 5 borderline plus 6 allergens to food proteins. The highest reactive allergens were Melaleuca and Capeweed, which is a winter weed. Capeweed grows prolifically in my paddock at home but not at the farm where she resides 90% of the year. Dawnie comes to my place for a week or so when we have lessons and subsequently fills up on Capeweed and whatever else she finds in my paddock.
The third highest allergen was Linseed - which I have never fed deliberately but is present in some commercial feeds which I had stopped feeding two years previously in favour of mixing our own feeds. I had also been stuffing her full of oats due to all the work we were doing and yes, she was allergic to them as well as the bran, lucerne chaff and sunflower seeds I had been pouring down her neck!! Other allergens were mosquito's, sandflies and barn dust. There were 10 different moulds that she had reacted to which are usually present in hay. While never ever feeding mouldy hay, most of these moulds are apparently present in the best quality hay. Only miniscule amounts can cause the allergy symptoms.
I changed her diet immediately eliminating the lucerne, oats etc. and started her on the vaccine about a month later. I noticed a huge improvement in her attitude about six weeks after changing her diet. I continued the whole course of vaccine which took nearly twelve months but did not continue with the booster shots as I believe that the change of diet was enough. I don't really know whether the vaccine worked or whether it was the change in diet but I believe the exercise was well worth while as at least I had found out that I had been feeding the completely wrong things. Most people seem to think that just because it is a horse, that they can all eat exactly the same feed - humans have allergies, dogs have allergies so why not horses!!?
Most horses would have allergies of some description or another. A reaction or symptom will only appear once the "bearable" limit has been passed. One or two more allergens loaded on top (usually due to seasonal fluctuations ie: pollens, weeds etc.) can be enough to "break the camels back". This was so in Dawnie's case; once her diet was adjusted and she was taken off the high protein levels that she had been on, she became a much happier horse and now the only time I notice a change is if she spends quite a few days at my place lunching on capeweed. The glands swell up but now where as much as they used to and they go down again as soon as she's back at Mum's place.
Finally, my vet assured me that the horses he has treated have never experienced any reactions or side effects with this programme and the cost is reasonable and not prohibitive. So, if you have a horse displaying some inexplicable attitude problems, consider getting him tested for allergens and you might be surprised!
UPDATE - SEPTEMBER, 2004
Following on from the above story, I had an ultra-sound done on her glands to check the situation as she had been objecting more and more to working in a collected frame. The test showed a lot of old scar tissue which had formed from the periodic infections in her glands. There was no possibility of surgically removing scar tissue as it would only make it worse.
We also had a second allergy test done this year, just to see how she 'scored' compared to the first one done in 1999. The interesting thing is that while she still has many and varied allergies, the levels had been reduced in most cases ie: as she no longer has access to capeweed and is no longer fed high protein feeds, the positive results were not as high.
I decided to try her on a herbal diet to see if this would help - she also had about 5 weeks off when i was on holidays and was only lightly exercised on the lunge and free jumping (which she loves!). I brought her back in slowly and she seemed to be working well, with only an occassional 'lift' of the head. However, as soon as I started increasing the workload and asking for more collection and roundness, she couldn't cope - she would go along for a few minutes and then just completely fall out of what we were doing.
Dawnie was always to be retired this year (12 years of age) to commence her career as a broodmare. I will say though, with the herbal diet I noticed a major change in her attitude; although she has always been a very 'marey' mare, she does seem a lot happier in herself. It's only that scar tissue that is causing the problem with her work - she really did try but physically couldn't manage it so at the end of October she's off to stud.
I would love to know if we had started the herbal diet and identified the allergies a lot sooner, whether we could have prevented the scar tissue and infections happening. If we ever come up with this problem again on future ponies, I will definitely get allergy tests done and go with a herbal treatment first.
For information on how herbs may help your pony, check out Catherine Bird's web site at
