Wait.. when you say she is turning her head away, how is she doing it? Ok, I was on her left side when she turned her head away from me (she was standing facing forward). She seemed relaxed when I was tossing the rope up over her head and she calmly turned her head to the right. It was not in a spooked, or frightened way. Her ears were relaxed with no sign she was looking at something that caught her eye, was not pinned. Just relaxed.
Were you reaching to touch her? No, was tossing rope over her head. I had already tossed it over her head several times before she turned away. Also forgot to say she held it away from me until I pulled her back, looking forward.
Or is she just doing it randomly while your with her? When I went back out for her second lesson, about 2 hours later, she did not turn her head away from me again.
Is she looking at something else (like other horses)? No she wasnt, right now due to weather I am working in a 12x16 stall.
Why is she head shy? Head shy is probably the wrong term. She is not head shy, but this was our FIRST lesson ever with this. She threw her head up several times before she calmed down realizing it wasnt going to hurt her. When she would relax, I would rub her forhead with the excess rope still bunched in my hand so that it would be touching her face too.
How long have you owned her? I have owned this filly since she was 2 months old. I just never have done anything with her until now. In my opinion, I believe working with them, but I like my horses to be just that, horses until I am ready to train them. They just learn how to pick up feet, lead, tie etc.
How long has she been doing this? This is our very first time with desensitizing.
When i first got Dreamer, he would turn his head away from me because he would rather look at something else. In his case, I demanded his attention by pulling his head back. When i first got him he would also try to throw his head down to eat grass while i was leading him. Both of those things are a HUGE sign of disrespect and disregard for you as a handler/trainer/owner/friend. I dont know if she was really just wanting to look somewere else, or if she was bored. She only done it once, 2nd lesson 2 hours later she did not turn her head away.
And as far as this goes:
Whenever my horses are scared, they look AT whats scaring them, not away. I was desensitizing Charity about 15-30 minutes ago and every time she was alert/spooked by something she was staring directly at it... practically drilling holes into it with her eyes. This doesn't really seem like headshyness to me.. at least, not from reading the original post. I didnt see where she said she was trying to touch the horse's face, and thats why she turned away. From reading the original post it sounds like the horse just decided to look away on its own.
I think that advice would work better for an abused horse, but it sounds to me like this filly hasn't had a hard day in her life =) It really sounds to me like she is just looking around distracted.
I could just be reading the original post completely wrong though :p