> I'm curious. When a horse is ventroflexed harshly, is it possible > that the mouth is opened as a reflex reaction? Are there muscles that > would cause that to happen when a horse is forced to 'star gaze'??
That could be. Let's think about this: The gaited horse has somewhat loose tendons and ligaments. This can be a good thing, and it can also be a bad thing. When the horse ventroflexes, if too much, he can have kissing spines. That would hurt. Would he open his mouth because of it? If he ventroflexes because of the weight on his spine, that's one thing. If he ventroflexes because the rider is pulling him into that position, that's another thing. Forcing the neck into a crammed position may also force the head to squash all of the organs and glands in the neck. That could cause the horse to open his mouth. If there's not enough room for his tongue to lay flat because his throat has been compressed from constant or too much contact, he may have to open to relieve the tongue. For the horses that may have opened their mouths with a sidepull.... the above may also apply. Too much contact, too heavy contact, constant contact, there's no relief, bit or no bit. The sidepulls may also be too tight, if fitted by the icelander-style method of fitting a noseband... also if the sidepull is fitted normally with room, that room gets taken away with heavy contact, and the sidepull can dig into the skin, and probably doesn't feel very good after a while on the bones of the nose and jaw (not to mention any points of wayward teeth) (and this would be worse with the sidepull fitted tightly in the first place). Judy http://icehorses.net http://clickryder.com
