Hi Kim Thanks for sharing this. It is interesting and great that someone has done research on this (since the interview was done in 2002 it is sad more has not been written about it) because about 10 years ago in England we were working with a WB that shied badly and I noticed a couple of things. When he came towards us and was overbent I couldn't see his eyes so I figured that if I could see his eyes, he couldn't see either. It started looking at horses that shied and that were overbent - I noticed that it made a difference on the shape of the horse's eyed and the ones with a kind of 'hood' over the eye seemed to see even less. Another thing that may happen when horses are so overbent is that there could be pressure on the optic nerves, and the Eustachian tubes which affect balance. I also noticed that the horse's neck seemed very short - it is what I can the "turtle" neck effect when it looks like the neck has gone back into the shoulder.
With the horse I described above, we gave the rider a balance rein and she could then release pressure on the rein so the horse was not behind the vertical, his neck lengthened at least ten inches (her rein was that much longer and still had contact), we could see his eyes when approaching and voila he no longer shied. We actually pointed this problem out on one of the last videos Linda did, in 2000, - Solving Problems under saddle - with another lovely WB who shied so badly he would spin and bolt if a horse came towards him in the ring. He couldn't see the other horse and once he could the change was instant. Robyn Icelandic Horse Farm Robyn Hood & Phil Pretty Vernon BC Canada www.icefarm.com
