What Is Photic Headshaking?
There has been a great deal of research on photic headshaking in horses and researchers believe that horses shake their heads due to the bright light that causes an abnormal stimulation of some of the branches of the trigeminal nerve, which provides sensation to the face and muzzle. The light stimulation of the eye causes an abnormal stimulation of some of the nerves of the face and muzzle and results in actual tingling or even pain sensation in some horses, which causes them to violently shake and rub their heads. The reason that these horses have facial pain resulting from direct sunlight is still unknown. One theory is that a previous facial injury has resulted in abnormal nerve transmission. For these photic headshaking horses, avoiding bright light, keeping them in dark stalls, even riding at night eliminates this behaviour completely. Other horses are helped by using eye protection in the form of a face net during the day. What Can You Do? So, you have a headshaker, and he does g
