|
🐴 Case Notes Post #1
"Dougie" | 10yo Warmblood Gelding | 16.2hh | Showjumping & Dressage
Sound familiar? Big, solid, powerful warmblood horse who knows his job. Small petite Female rider. Strong at competitions. High head carriage in the canter. Fighting the contact. Flash cranked up trying to hold it all together.
This is exactly the horse that gets labelled difficult— when really, his mouth was telling us everything.
What we found in the mouth assessment:
Dougie had a very very short smile, cracked lip corners, wide lips with thick inner edges, a larger-than-normal tongue completely filling his mouth cavity, a narrow lower jaw, and canines that needed careful navigation. Not much room to play with — and zero tolerance for anything that moved around, created pressure on the tongue, or sat near those canines.
He was also presented in a snaffle bit with a tongue roller a full half inch too large, causing rubbing and bruising on the inner lip. The leverage bit passed along with him from his previous owner? Single jointed dutch gag also too big — sending conflicting signals of head up and head down simultaneously. No wonder he was running from pressure.
This horse wasn't strong. He was confused and sore.
|