From: Brienne
Dear Jessica, my horse is six years old and a very kind and sweet horse, I think he has a charming personality. He has been mine for only four months, but I already love him very much. But he has one problem. He has a sort of flat whitish growth in his ear, two flat lumps about the size of a nickel, they are raised and look like lumps of light-color clay or dirt. They are not very pretty and I wish they were not there. When my parents bought Drover for me, they had our friend's vet (she runs the boarding barn where Drover lives) check him for his pre-purchase vet check. He (the vet) said that this was nothing to worry about, it was just "aural plaque" and he wrote it down for me so that I could look up information about it. But now I wonder if it could be something else, because in all of the information I found, and also from what the vet told me, aural plaque doesn't hurt. But this hurts Drover. Whenever I handle his ears, he gets very upset when I start to handle that ear, and when I touch the places with the plaque he tries to put his head up high where I can't reach it, and if he's tied and can't do that he shakes his head and his eyes get very wild looking. So I am sure that this hurts him, and if it hurts it might be something else like a cancer! I am so afraid that Drover is in pain and could die. Please is there something else you know of that could be wrong with his ear, because it really does hurt him, and aural plaque shouldn't hurt. My vet says I am too worried and I should just relax, but how can I do that when my horse is hurting? Please answer this! I am very careful how I put on his bridle and halter so I won't hurt those spots more, and he is good about having his bridle and halter put on him, but if I just want to touch or rub his ears he has a fit, but only about that one spot. That is why I am sure it hurts him. Thank you for answering this, dear Jessica. Brienne
The reaction you've described could be that of a horse in pain, so I do understand your concern. However, it could also be the reaction of a horse that is EXPECTING or ANTICIPATING pain, and I think this is probably the case with Drover.
If you put on the halter correctly, fastening the crownpiece LAST, there is no reason for his ears to be pulled or bent or even involved in the process, so I wouldn't expect him to resent that - and according to you, he is good about it. But when you put on a bridle, the ears ARE involved, unless you take the bridle apart and put it back together on his head each time you put it on or take it off. When the headstall goes over his ears, no matter how careful you are, you have to touch/bend the ears out of the way... and you've said that he's good about THIS, too! That tells me something about his ears - and what it tells me is that they do NOT hurt. If they did, he would not be as cooperative about being bridled.
The high-headedness and eye-rolling begin when you aren't bridling him, but you reach for the ear with the plaque, or you try to rub that ear. That tells me that he has a problem - not necessarily PAIN, but some sort of a problem - with those actions (but not with the bridle going on and off his head). So... I'm going to make an educated guess here.
You've said that you think the aural plaque is unattractive and you wish it wasn't there. I'll bet that Drover's previous owner felt the same way - and tried to DO something about it. There's a good chance that someone, not you, but someone else, has attempted to REMOVE Drover's aural plaque, either by hard scrubbing with a curry or grooming glove, or by trying to scrape it off. It might have happened a long time ago, or it might have happened just before you bought him - people can get very determined when they want to make a horse look its best for a sale! Either way, the scrubbing or scraping WOULD have caused pain - not to the plaque itself, but to the sensitive ear tissue around and underneath it. It seems quite likely to me that when you reach for Drover's ear and he becomes agitated, he's not actually in pain, but he associates what you're doing with pain in his ear. He's not really reacting to YOU and what you're doing, he's reacting to the pain he remembers - and anticipating that his ear will hurt again.
Keep on doing what you're doing. You can desensitize him to having that ear handled and rubbed, if you're willing to take your time. Handle his ears as much as he will allow you to, back off when he gets nervous, then handle them again. But don't get grim and determined about it - make it light, casual, part of grooming and petting and treats, not a Big Important Serious Project. If he knows that YOU are relaxed and at ease, he will be more relaxed and at ease, and eventually he'll realize that his ear isn't going to hurt when you reach for it.
Jessica
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