Head throwing.

   The one bad habit Udex has is the fact he throws his head. When I look at it in the big picture though I am pretty lucky that his only bad flaw is throwing his head.. It could be a lot worse!
  When I first got him every time he threw his head I would loose my balance a bit. Now since I am so used to the head throwing I hold against it very well and respond to it without loosing balance; like it never even happened. The head throwing gets worse when he is low on energy. When he has a nice large amount of energy he usually throws his head five times, max. However, on a day he is rather low on energy, the head throwing goes on and on and on. With every four or five strides I would get one or two head tosses.
  Well holding against the head throwing is not that difficult to do once you get in the hang of it. You just have to push him a bit more, and at the same time be hard with the outside rein and ultra loose with the inside rein! Of course there are a few other easier tricks to do to make the head throwing stop.. But being the sneaky person I am I would rather keep that a secret and let you figure out on your own what to do with a head shaker!!! hee-hee.
   The reason Udex throws his head though is from none other then the harsh training tool of rollkur! His lumbar spine is locked in place and you can imagine that it is hard for him to work on the bit after being behind it for so long and having a sore back. I wouldn't ever make Udex do something that wasn't good for him. I have a very nice gel therapy pad (that my trainer was oh so nice to donate to Udex for the time being.) so Udex's back is not taking so much impact! It is good though that I am riding Udex right so he can repair the damage that he has sustained to his back. I know the head throwing will stop once his back gets better. For now he just has to stay strong and get past the hard work so he can feel over all better soon!!!