hiya, Ok needa little help advice here as yo may know i have a 3yr old gelding Chester well his abit of a silly billy bless him and hates his ears being touched! since ive had him almost 12wks now he has got use to me touching his ikkle ears but now comming to bridaling accepts the bit no problem but its trying to get the headband and brownband into place. I have tried to do it in pieces but he hates that too and its abit fiddly when you only have one pair of hands specially when one hand is holding the leadrope any ideas on this matter would be appreciated as im trying to back him at the moment saddle is no problem and once all tacks on he accepts it its just the phobia with the ears and brial/headcollar its just way too scarey for him!

Many Thanks

You can buy attachments to go on headcollars to attach a bit, that may help you. If you e-mail me I can e-mail you where you can get them from.

that would just be avoiding the problem though :-/

Honestly Becky, if it were me I'd forget about putting the bridle on for now. Unfortunately us humans can be rather too goal oriented and it would be a mistake IMO to focus on the goal of getting a bridle on, when perhaps a more valuable, and practical goal would be to overcome his fear of having his ears touched. I'd suggest the advance/retreat method of gently getting him comfortable with you brushing him on is neck, then near the top of his neck, then on his forehead if thats not an issue - and every time, always backing off before you get to the stress place. Effectively, his reward for accepting what you are doing is backing off and stopping before he gets stressed and reacts, with every session taking you closer as his tolerance and trust build up - how fast this progresses is decided by his tolerance, but its critical that you always back off when he is good and not when he is reacting negatively. If you have advanced a little and he fidgets then you must hold your hand there until he stops, but you must remove it the second he stops pulling away. So reward for standing still is remove your hand, consequence of pulling away is you don't back off. That doesn't mean chasing/harrassing - you must set things up so you both can succede. Does any of that make sense? I think Sarah Weston is back from her African 'jaunt' soon so it would probably be money well spent to get a visit from her if you are local to the forest. Or if not, check out the Intelligent Horsemanship website for an approved RA in your area who will quickly help you sort the head problem. Sort the head/ear issue and the bridling problem will vanish too!

Oh forgot to mention the obvious, which is check there is no physical problem such as ear mites, aural plaque (like a fungal infection in the ears) etc. Even teething problems can cause ear sensitivity at certain ages.

The Peasants Are Revolting...

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my Lola used to be terrible with her ears. everytime i played with her i made a point of scratching around her ears in the end she realises it was quite enjoyable. it did take quite a while though as she was very skitty

You asked for ideas!

I however agree with Tina. My dad had a horse which you could never touch his ears as he had an accident when he was young and all his life you had to take the bridle apart to put it on. May be just one of those things you'll have to live with unless you try to resolve it now.

I would totally agree with Tina, i've got a horse who is extremely head shy due to previous severe abuse and it took me about 6 months to get her to happily accept a bridal and even now (9 years later!) she still has to have a clip on brow band! Charm was an extreme case and i'm sure your boy hasn't got all the mental issues Charm has but i would definately take it slow and gain his trust so as not to cause more severe problems in the future, i would definately recommend the intelligent horsemanship methods as Tina recommended this was the only thing that worked for my girl, before going down this route the decision was made to have her pts as she was considered dangerous, she is now a healthy, happy, trusting little lady

OUr pony has aural plaques and you just have to build the bridle on her. I can touch and groom her ears and put cream in them but you cant bend them to put the bridle on.

This is definitely a problem that can be solved - first of all by using the technique that Tina has described so well and then putting the bridle on in a sympathetic way. I have found that by gently pushing the ears forward under the crown piece using a flat hand, as if she were a donkey, works very well and going round to the other side to put the right ear under. For a particularly worried horse, I would consider clicker training. I worked with an Argentinian polo pony that had horrendous scarring from its original training and really hated having her ears touched and her bridle on. By using clicker, I got her to "ask" me to put the bridle on. Given that her owners was pretty traditional (in the nicest sense of the word) she was pretty sceptical but it worked like a dream.

Ring me if you get stuck. Time and patience are great but time, patience and technique are even better and work much more quickly. Every time she has a fight about having her bridle on it could reinforce her fear.

welcome back Sarah. did you have a fun and productive time away?

Yes, thank you very much. I think we worked with 42 horses directly including Ethiopian wild ponies and not forgetting the rescue donkey that had had half an ear cut off and notches cut out of the other one (???**!!). We also saw a lot of wildlife and some not so wild wildlife including a hartebeest that preferred someone's garden rather than the bush (even though it could come and go as it pleased). The funniest thing was when we were long reining at Loisaba and their pet Thompson's Gazelle kept chasing the long reins.

Hello When i first got my boy he was rising 2 and the first youngster i ever had so i was needing alot of advice,
After having Buster for about a year and a half i decided i wanted to move on (I wanted to something big) so i decided i would introduce the bridle..I made him aware of it...But to say the least he didnt want to know, He was having none of it, Some people told me not to let him get away with it but after just watching his reaction he simlpy just was not ready, nothing more, nothing serious like we have a fighting battle every time the bridle comes out he is fine now, Please dont take this personal but it took me over a year to understand the small things with Buster let alone the big things (to him)
Did you say you have her/him for 12 weeks and he/she is 3? i would personally wait a while yet before intoducing the bridle. There is plenty other work to do other things to introduce, some more fun things I just wouldnt rush with the bridle.

all as above, but a good place for fun things to do with a youngster that takes you on the way toward the reward of a riding pony can be found in both Sarah's book and also Kelly Mark's book - Perfect Manners. You can back at 3, but you need to assess both yours and the ponies mental and physical readiness, and personally I would advocate turning away for the winter, or returning to inhand or long rein work - depending on how far you proceed in the first place and the youngsters need for a complete rest and growing on). Please do try and find the early stages fun. Getting to know your future mount is so important. We have done 2 now and have had different ups and downs with them both, their personalities being as important as ours!!