Star Lake Ranch Equine

08/07/2025

Q🐎 I’ve said it many times — 𝙃𝙊𝙍𝙎𝙀𝙎 𝘿𝙊 𝙂𝙀𝙏 𝙃𝙀𝘼𝘿𝘼𝘾𝙃𝙀𝙎!!

And I’ll keep saying it, because too many still ignore the signs.

𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗼𝗿 𝗕𝗢𝗧𝗛 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱 🚩
𝗟𝗲𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗪𝗛𝗬 ⬇️

The general term head shyness refers to a horse that moves its head away when touched in certain areas — especially the ears, poll, face, or upper neck.

Yes, rough handling can create this behaviour. But I’m talking about the horses that give a clear pain response — and we MUST pay attention to the 🚩 red flags 🚩

Let’s break it down with some anatomy — including cranial nerves — and real-life examples:

🔺 If you have to take your bridle apart to get it on — this is NOT normal.
🚩 It’s a pain response! Likely involving the poll, the occipital bone, or surrounding soft tissues like the nuchal ligament and suboccipital muscles.

🔺 Soreness around C1 and the upper neck? 🚩
The atlas (C1) supports the skull and sits in close proximity to the brainstem — where cranial nerves originate. If there’s tension, compression, or trauma in this area, horses can experience headaches, vision changes, coordination issues, and hypersensitivity.

🔺 Ear shyness – Behind the ears lies a complex neural and muscular region. Structures here include:

CN VII (Facial Nerve) – controls facial expression; dysfunction can lead to twitching or hypersensitivity.

CN V (Trigeminal Nerve) – especially its mandibular and ophthalmic branches, which are often involved in facial pain and head-shyness.

CN VIII (Vestibulocochlear Nerve) – important for balance; tension near the inner ear can affect proprioception and make head movement uncomfortable.

🔺 Horse is poor to catch?
Many are not trying to be 'difficult’ — they’re avoiding the discomfort of the halter going on, which may stimulate the trigeminal nerve or cause tension in the TMJ area. 🚩

🔺 Can be brushed on one side but not the other? 🚩
Could be unilateral cranial nerve irritation, often stemming from fascial pulls, past trauma, or misalignment.

🔺 Foaming at the mouth under bit pressure? 🚩
This isn’t always “submission.” Bit pressure can impact:

the mandibular branch of CN V (trigeminal nerve)

the hypoglossal nerve (CN XII) — which controls tongue movement

the glossopharyngeal nerve (CN IX) — associated with the throat and swallowing
All of these nerves can be compromised by poor dental balance, bitting, or cranial dysfunction.

Summary

Refusal to touch the ears, poll, or head is NOT just “bad behaviour.”
It’s communication.

Horses with myofascial pain, C1 restrictions, cranial nerve irritation, or TMJ dysfunction will naturally protect themselves — pulling away, raising the head, tensing the jaw, or shutting down altogether.

💡 Signs of stress you may see when touching the head area:

Elevated heart rate or subtle sweating

Holding the head unnaturally high

Tight nostrils or pinched expression

Squinting or avoiding eye contact

Rushing to the back of the stable when a rug is taken from the door almost in a panic

Don’t ignore these changes. Don’t write them off as “just being difficult.”
Think about pull-back injuries, rope accidents, or even long-standing bridle or bit pressure. These can have lasting effects on the cranial nerves, cervical vertebrae, fascia, and overall comfort.

Not to forget the cranial sacral connections, got a a horse with SI joint issues ? Could be related all the way to the skull!

🧠 Pain is real.
🐴 Headaches are real.
🎯 And your horse is telling you — are you listening?

Reposting because it’s THAT important.
Let’s do better for them.

03/04/2025

I have addressed this problem so many times in the field and in my group that I still don’t quite know why it has taken so long to actually do a short article on F***l Water Syndrome aka “FWS”.

FWS typically presents in horses as an excessive amount of thin brown liquid being ejected from a horse’s a**s. This is different from diarrhea because it doesn’t have any f***l matter contained in the liquid. The horse’s manure may be on the soft side or may be perfectly formed.

In most cases FWS isn’t debilitating to the horse but it is messy and can coat their butts and legs with nasty smelling and irritating liquid. It is especially difficult during the cold winter months as you can see from the photo I used. The fluid clumps on fur and freezes while the cold temperatures make it difficult if not impossible to clean.

Obviously FWS is a gastro-intestinal issue but most owners miss the mark when treating FWS. Owners will throw expensive supplements at the problem and the symptoms will persist. I know this from personal experience with my mare, Flair. That poor mare had about 32 different supplements thrown at her and nothing worked.

Probiotics, prebiotics, biosponge, ulcer treatments, gut supplements and anything else I tried wouldn’t clear it up. Nothing ever even slowed it down.

Then while attending an equine nutrition clinic I was having a cocktail with one of the more well known equine nutrition PhDs and I mentioned my frustration to her. Of course she had the answer!

Just so everyone knows, it’s not that I’m really smart but I hang out with really smart people!

In the overwhelming majority of cases FWS is being caused by a mild case of a condition known as Right Dorsal Colitis. I got the full monty clinical explanation, and as I would do in any conversation with an extremely bright, lovely woman who is twenty years younger I sat at the edge of my chair in rapt attention while understanding none of it but all I needed to know was that it is a condition similar to Irritable Bowel Syndrome in humans.

IBS is something that most people in my age range (somewhere between classic and Jurassic) are familiar with. The cure for both conditions is simple: add easily digestible fiber. I began taking a tablespoon of psyllium each day and my IBS cleared up almost immediately.

Right Dorsal Colitis can become very serious and require clinical intervention in some cases. In severe cases FWS is accompanied by lethargy, weight loss, lack of appetite and colic. I am NOT a vet so you should discuss any concerns that you have with your vet and follow their treatment advice.

Many times RDC is caused by coarse hay. Mature, coarse hay is very high in fiber and can be difficult to process in the gut causing some inflammation resulting in the watery fountain of stench emanating from your horse’s butt.

My own experience with FWS is very much like what I hear from others. The FWS shows up in the fall when the horses are off grass and on hay. Whenever I get different hay. My horses are both easy keepers and metabolic so I feed mostly very mature low NSC grass hay ensuring that I am dealing with FWS for most of the year. Quite often you will find that it is worse during the winter and the simple explanation is that they are eating more hay which attenuates the problem.

The dietary treatment for both conditions is to replace some (or all) of the forage with a complete feed enabling the gut to recover by offering some easily digestible fiber.

You can also try using some psyllium but it’s expensive and it typically requires a large dose.

My personal go to and the advice that I have offered to hundreds of people as a first treatment is to simply add a pound of hay stretcher pellets per day to the horse’s normal diet and this usually clears it up. If the FWS doesn’t clear up in a few days I increase it to two pounds per day.

Any genuine complete feed will work as long as the crude fiber is over 20% and the fat level is low. I typically choose to use hay stretcher because it is very high in fiber, usually over 25% and it is not heavily fortified nor high in calories so I don’t really need to make huge adjustments in their diets. I simply toss a cup or two on top of their normal ration and call it a day.

For a 1,000 pound horse two pounds per day should offer relief of the symptoms but if two pounds of hay stretcher doesn’t change things it’s probably time to try something else and at this point all bets are off. Psyllium would be my next step along with a gut supplement.

It is almost never a lack of probiotics unless the horse had recently been on a course of antibiotics.

The long term solution is to feed better hay. If you can find some nice, soft second cutting grass hay it would go a long way towards drying things up.

There are a number of downsides to feeding better hay. Cost and availability are at the top of the list. Then there’s the horse. Second cutting hay isn’t the best choice for easy keepers or insulin resistant horses so this option has its limits.

Many times FWS is linked to insulin resistant horses as a sure sign that they are insulin resistant. The conditions are not related except that most IR horses are on j***y, low starch, low calorie hay.

Please allow me to head off the naysayers and negative comments. This is not by any means a sure fire cure for FWS. It is, however, a very inexpensive treatment as a first go to attempt and it does work in most cases. If not, then try all the whiz bang supplements that probably won’t work either.

In short, if you have a horse with a squirty butt go buy a bag of cheap hay stretcher pellets and run some through the horse. If it works, you got off cheap, if not at least you know something that isn’t going to work.

As a final reminder and a more serious tone, if the FWS persists and the hay stretcher doesn’t work I would strongly encourage you to please consult your veterinarian and have all the appropriate diagnostics done.

Thank you for reading this article.

I am retired and write blog articles to try to make horse owner's lives easier and horse's lives better.

If you found this article to be helpful my horses would be very grateful if you would consider buying some hay for them by going to:

https://buymeacoffee.com/jimthefeedguy

Of course your contributions are not required, nor expected but all are very much appreciated.

Cheers!

01/09/2024

You may wonder why we pull back into the syringe when giving injections in the vein. This picture explains why. We don't pull back to make sure we're in the vessel, we do it to make sure we're in the RIGHT vessel. Today I went to give an injection and pulled back and saw blood brighter than I wanted. I decided to go and get a new dose of sedation and once again pulled back and then gave my dose of sedation. The syringe on the left was my first injection and the syringe on the right was my second injection. Does anyone know why I shouldn't have injected that first syringe? And had I injected that first injection, what would have happened?

12/03/2023

Did you realise that your horses kidneys move?
That with each breath, they move approximately the length of a vertebral segment?
That in a single day, with your horse breathing normally, they will move on average 1.6km?

Why? Because they are connected to the diaphragm (as well as other things) via fascia and ligaments.
Look where they are located.. right under the back of your saddle. Poor saddle fit, unbalanced riders (any rider really but unbalanced is worse) will put pressure on this area and because where they are innervated from this can cause the restriction.

A classic sign of kidney restriction is the fidgety horse, that won't stand still. They are reactive and sore to pressure over the tops of the last ribs and it's firm, no give.
Combine that with restrictions at TH 15, 16, 17 and 18, and a change in pelvis angle.. and you will have issue with movement and attitude.

That sore back may have nothing to do with the muscles....
Something else to think about....

Photo: Merck Veterinary Manual (not motivated enough to draw my own tonight sorry).

02/26/2023

Cold hosing hack 🙌🏻 Bell boot to secure the hose in place

PSA: this mare is a middle aged show horse who stands quietly in the crossties. She is not spooky and was supervised during this cold hosing. Don’t strap this to your feral 2yo please! 😂 The bell boot pictured here is a fabric one with velcro. The velcro isn’t strapped tightly so if the mare did walk or paw, the velcro would pop right off and the hose would be free.

07/21/2022

A handy diagram for those who give shots

06/29/2022

What a great group of kids to work with. I taught them some easy stretches they can do with their horses and we worked on riding around a barrel with one hand at an equal distance around the barrel.

03/18/2022

10/05/2021

Kahlùa went to her new home today!

06/15/2021

"HOT" TIPS FOR SAFE SUMMER RIDING

As you prepare for fun in the sun with your favorite equine, make sure you understand how the combination of heat and humidity can take the fun part out the equation — and potentially even turn into a dangerous situation for your horse.

When riding in hot weather, remember to take precautions and use your common sense. Remain vigilant for dehydration and for signs of heat exhaustion, as the situation can quickly escalate into heat stroke. If your horse looks hot and tired, it's time for a drink, a cold bath and a break in the shade.

Consult your veterinarian for more information, or learn more about the signs of heat stroke on our website at https://aaep.org/issue/heat-stroke

05/15/2021

Summer is almost here! Get your horses feeling their best with an Unwinding session! $50 a horse spring special until June 1st