I was watching Burghley on TV last weekend (you know, just to see how the experts choose to mis-time their use of punishments.... Also reminded me of Monty Python and the black knight "it's just a flesh wound".... as the horses fell into and over fences but were apparently all fine. At one point the commentator said "you can see he's ok" when the rider hadn't even led the horse a step forwards. And when he did, the steps seemed very tentative....)

During the show jumping I realised how naive I've been all these years. I'd always assumed that a horse wearing a sheepskin noseband just had a caring rider who wanted to reduce the pressure and/or rubbing on the horse's nose. So I was a bit confused when the commentator referred to these horses as being ones who had a tendancy to carry their heads "too high". Am I right in thinking the big fleecy noseband then reduces their ability to see along the length of their nose and so the horses will "choose" to drop their heads? That was certainly the impression I got, although I'd never thought about it before.

Interestingly, earlier on in the programme there had been a clip with some professor talking about how horses see an approaching fence and showed some computer-generated footage of how blurred and out of focus it is for the horse because their long range vision is better than their short range vision. So the professor used this as an argument for the wonderful partnership required where the horse just has to trust the rider and hand over all responsibility, ie be 100% obedient. But what wasn't mentioned was that horses can change their focus by raising and lowering their heads. I can't remember which way round it was though - would raising or lowering the head help bring an approaching jump into better focus? Certainly had me wondering about whether some horses, at some point in the approach to a fence depending on their eyesight, need to lift the heads in order to see the fence better and so the use of a sheepskin noseband might be detrimental to this.

Certainly, when I used to jump Jak "properly" all "held together between hand and leg" I think he used to have a higher head carriage than he does now. Now I try very hard to just not interfere at all and he seems to enjoy his jumping an awful lot more.

Of course, I guess that there are lots of other reasons why a horse might raise his head when in a SJ arena but I'm naively choosing to think that all of these top horses will have perfectly fitting saddles, balanced riders and vets/osteopaths on-hand for anything that's not quite right. Does anyone think maybe I never learn???? Or maybe the raised head is focussing on some distraction in the crowd?? Better get the blinkers out as well....

Catherine

"Am I right in thinking the big fleecy noseband then reduces their ability to see along the length of their nose and so the horses will "choose" to drop their heads? That was certainly the impression I got, although I'd never thought about it before."

Yes. I've heard of the noseband being used like this and you'll see it used a lot in showjumping and also eventing.

I did read an article yonks ago about a horse's vision when approaching a jump. I'm sure they said that the horse raises it's head to focus better. Something to do with the pattern of rods and cones and the shape of the retina/setting of the eye in the skull. Can't remember! I do know that Henry protests quite 'loudly' if I interfere with his jumping! We don't do much of it, but when we do, I simply let the reins go longer than usual and if I'm feeling nervous I take a chunk of mane! He refuses if I take a tight contact.

I must be naive as well because I thought it was just the caring owners wanting to stop any rubbing. Well you live and learn!

I'd rather see a sheepskin noseband used than some of the other alternatives.

If someone thinks that hanging a piece of dead sheep off their horses noseband will ward off the evil head too high god then I'll let them carry on in that belief, and not have them resort to other methods.

Catherine you ask abut the level of care an event horse receives it is as variable in that community as in any other equine community.

I cannot break confidentiality but I know there those who do care very much about the physical comfort of their horses.

The horses receive regular physio., legs are scanned after a 3DE as a matter of routine, the rider has body work, saddle fit is an issue for them.

Oodly enough the ones that I know do all this are also amongst the most successful ...

"But what wasn't mentioned was that horses can change their focus by raising and lowering their heads. I can't remember which way round it was though - would raising or lowering the head help bring an approaching jump into better focus?"

With the demise of the "ramp-retina" theory, I think it is more accurate to suppose that in this situation horses raise their heads in order to bring the fence into view rather than into focus. That is, it's more to do with where the blind-spots are than how near vs far objects are accommodated. In any case, if a horse has to raise its head and finds the view obscured by tack, it will suffer a perceptual disadvantage.

There's a chapter in Paul McGreevy's EQUINE BEHAVIOR which goes into this and includes some figures from Alison Harman that illustrate the issue rather well:

http://www.elsevier-international.com/e-books/viewbook.cfm?ID=932

Oodly enough the ones that I know do all this are also amongst the most successful ...

How strange - who would have thought it?!

Thanks Alexis, good to know they are out there.

Helen, glad I'm in good company!

Francis, thanks for that, interesting...