My newly-acquired 12 y.o. mare has an obnoxious habit of raising/tossing up her head when she feels me starting to dismount.  She'll also do this randomly as we ride.  I get her to lower her head by bump-bump-bumping the reins 'til she drops it again.  Last nite she again did the toss-up thing as I was dismounting and we spent several minutes starting to dismount and then bumping her head down.  This is an issue my trainer and I will discuss and work on.  Trainer's first thought was to put her in that piece of tack that discourages head-raising (don't recall its name at the moment).  Trainer hasn't actually seen Lucy do this, as she was injured in a car crash and has been away from the barn for a couple weeks.

Do any of you have experience with a horse that does this?  What did you do about it?  Were you successful in breaking your horse of this habit?

Thanks for any advice/info,

Mary 

 My daughter was having much the same issue when she prepared to dismount my mare Sambuca.  Once or twice I went & held the mare's head while daughter dismounted (she would stand stock-still while I held her), but we soon realized that this was not solving/correcting the situation.

What worked for us - first both feet out of the stirrups (mare knew this as a preliminary to dismount) - if head went up, then feet went back into stirrups & put the horse  back to work. This happened twice & she quickly realized that head up meant back to work. 

But the message wasn't completely through to her brain because as the rider put pressure forward to hop off,  the head would come up -- so feet back in stirrups & back to work.  This segment took a bit longer to register - took maybe 5 tries before she stood still - but clue in she did !

Next ride took only one 'reminder' - she's been fine since.

Hope this helps - usually if you make a horse work when they're not behaving the way you want , they quickly come to the realization that it is way easier to listen to your first request. . 

Thanks, Countrymouse!  Will give this a try tomorrow!

Mary

Because she is tossing her head throughout the ride as well as when you dismount, it makes me think she may have some sort of back pain- check her back and your saddle fit. She also may be having teeth problems that are causing her pain when you gather up your reins to dismount or put pressure on the bit during the ride. Before you break out the training gadgets, I would highly suggest that you have her checked out to make sure that her behavior isn't the result of something causing her pain. If everything checks out fine, countrymouse had some great suggestions that I think will solve your problem :) Anyways, good luck!!

Thanks, Phizzy, good ideas.  Lucy's getting her teeth done next week, and will have an adjustment by  the chiropractor at the end of the month.  At this point trainer thinks she's doing this because she's gotten away with it for a long time, and also because she's out of shape and can't hold a frame that well.  Plus, she's been in this barn only a month, I just started riding her last week, so she's got some settling in/down to do.

During today's ride I noticed that she'd raise her head when we were working on patience while under saddle, you know, getting her to stand still and chill.  Whenever I shifted my weight in the saddle, up went the head.  Trainer is going to work on getting Lucy to just mellow out, once she's able to  ride again.

I tried Countrymouse's suggestion and spent several minutes correcting/making her work when she raised her head as I tried to dismount.   She finally figured out what she was supposed to do and kept her head at an acceptable level during the dismount.  Will continue this routine 'til the head stays down!

Mary 

I would definitely wait to see what the teeth floating and chiro turn up before breaking out the martigale.

Check your saddle fit. You might even ask the chiropractor to take a look at the saddle on teh horse's back. It is possible that you pinch her when you go to dimount and she throws her head because she KNOWS you are about to pinch her. Try to pinpoint WHEN she throws her head when you ride. Is it when you go from the walk to teh trot? to the canter? from canter to walk? randomly? when you change directions, when you stop and then ask her to walk on? All of these could mean that she is getting pinched, has back paid or mouth pain...