Hi Busybee

It sounds upsetting for you when everything was going so well, but don't worry, with time and patience most things can be fixed :-) It is difficult to know exactly what is worong without seeing him but my first instinct would be tha this is a pain response. I know that I once accidentally caught one of horses hairs in the buckle of the chin strap on the Dually and I paid a price for it! And quite right too, it has taught me to be ultra gentle and careful when buckling up. It may be that when the headpiece was buckled up part of the mane or a piec of skin got caught or 'pinched' somehow and though the horse put up with it at the time he would have been relieved to have it taken off and now doesn't want it back on.

assuming that he is not injured (once vet has confirmed) and assuming he is willing to stand safely with the rope round his neck try working in Monty's 'advance retreat' method to desensitise him again to having hands around his head area. Then you can introduce rubbing the halter over him without putting it on and progress from there. Though I only use the rope halters for very well trained horses (I don't personally like them for training for leading etc.) they can be very good for re-introducing a halter as there are no 'clanking' noisy buckles and they can be slipped on and off easily. As with all things, your safety is ultra important so be careful! I'm sure you will get lots of sensible advice on here and I would be interested to hear others viewpoints, but it's a start! Good luck.

Busybee
Having a horse refuse to go through a puddle is a natural reaction since they don't know how deep the water is or what might be in the water. With my horse is has become a game with me trying to trick him into going through a puddle. We are about even as far as who has won. The fact that your horse now refuses to allow you to halter him is a different story. Something happened the last time you put the halter on him. The fact that the vet has checked him and did not find anything wrong tells me that it is fear that is operating here.
The first thing I would do is a join up. You need to reestablish your role with your horse. Right now he has no confidence in you for whatever reason. Don't take it personally, just start over. Once you have a good join up make sure you do a good follow up, then leave him alone for the day. Do another join up in a day or two and follow the same routine, but this time take a lead rope and put it around his neck and see if he will continue to follow you with a rope around his neck. Hold both ends so if he bolts you can just let go.
By the third join up and with desensitizing him to the sound and feel of the halter you should have no problem putting it on him. Remember to control your breathing and keep relaxed. This may seem like a big deal right now, but if you keep relaxed and just pretend you have all the time in the world to solve the problem you should be successful before you know it.

There is a horse net to mine and I handle him all the time. Put on blankets, take them off over his head, put the halter on etc. One day he absolutely refused to let me put the halter on him Not sure what his problem was but a week later is was ok and behaved like he always did. My guess is that something scared him during the night and he was hyper sensitive and did not want to be bothered with.

Cheers

Thanks - some great advice :) An update. I typed this at 4am having laid awake all night worrying about him! (I am in NZ hence the time difference) Went out to check them at 6am (after posting) and he allowed me to approach him, in fact took a few steps towards me. I noticed he was fine having me approach him and stroking his neck on the off side but would not let me go near his poll or his neck on his near side. This is the side his man naturally falls. After a few minutes of soothing him and playing advance and retreat I managed to get him to stay calm enough to let me lift his mane. Hey presto there was a long cord like sort of welt running from his poll, right down his neck and it was sore to touch! I then noticed he couldn't bend to his right very far to get a fly that had landed on his right side (normally this would be no problem) I rang the vet and they have just been. Seems it is a reaction to a nasty insect bite! So that's a relief. He is still very wary of me putting his halter on (just a regular one). It took me an hour of gently touching him with it, getting it just on the tip of his nose, taking it off, repeating etc to manage to get it on just so I could gently walk him up for the vet (using virtually no pressure on halter, I mainly used my voice to get him there). Vet has prescribed Bute and an antibacterial/inflammatory drug and said no work for 10 days. At least we know the reason now though. I suspect he will still be very wary of halters for a while - he seems to think the pain is their fault, rather than the insect that bit him! But I will leave him be for now, let him heal properly then take my time and use the above techniques to hopefully get him back on track. Anyway thanks for your advice, I was beside myself with worry this morning and its nice to know there is help out there!

*mane not man - sorry lack of sleep has effected my ability to type!!

Busy bee
This is great! Your horse was trying to tell you something was wrong and the only way he could was to refuse what would hurt him. Your patients was well rewarded. In my experience there are very few horses that will refuse a request of a human if they know that they will not be hurt. I had a mare that was bit on the end of her tail by a horse fly and the bit became very infected, but because her tail was so bushy I did not notice it. I called the vet and he drained the wound and I had to flush it out twice a day and inject antibiotics in the tail for ten days. She knew I was helping her and I could do all this without putting a halter on her because she trusted my. I think your horse has found that he can trust you as well.

Cheers

Busybee,
I am happy to hear you found the answer and that it is nothing a bit of medication can't cure.
Poor horse! No wonder he objected to any kind of touch. It's just too bad they can't speak, isn't it.
.
It's my firm belief that any time a horse suddenly acts up like that, 99 times out if 100 pain is part of the picture.

Buzybee,
That is exactly what they say, if a horse refuses to do something they have always done before it's usually pain related.
My mare is also very allergic to bug bites and has had to be put on bute a few times.
She comes out OK in the end, your horse is very fortunate to have someone so aware.
Good for you and I'm happy he will be OK.
Ronda

thanks, I have also learnt the lesson that sometimes these things aren't obvious to start with. When he reared up the first thing we said to each other was 'he must be in pain' but I checked his poll etc and there was nothing. So we then just thought he might have been rebelling to the halter especially as we were trying to move him from near some nice fresh green grass growth, back down to their 'diet' paddock (he is a very good doer and we struggle to keep his weight down) so I started to think he was just rebelling as he can be really stubborn once he decides he doesn't want to do something. But then when the welts can out the next day I felt so terribly guilty! Never mind lesson learnt and we will remember this for next time. But yes, I really really wish they could talk!! He is doing great this morning, trotted up to say hello and let me gently touch the near side and his poll, I also managed to adjust his nose shade halter without any issues so I think all will come good with a bit of time and patience..
Thanks again

Busy bee i have just read this story and i am glad to hear you found the problem was easy to fix! Don't feel guilty, these things just happen sometimes! When my last horse died of colic i was consumed by guilt because i thought i had fed him something that ended his life. My vet told me very kindly that there is nothing productive about guilt in these situations and he is right! If they could talk with words it would make life a whole lot easier but i guess he was talking...how he knew to, and good for you because you listened :-) Wishing you many great moments with him now..keep us posted hey :-)
Janelle

Aw thanks nelliebell! so sorry to hear about your horse and colic :( that sucks. I guess all we can do is try our best to listen to them and do our best by them but at the end of the day, things can still happen than are beyond our control. Thanks for the kind wishes - right back atcha :)

Janelle,
I'm so sorry about your horse.
I have story for you.
Maybe you have heard of Ian Miller and Big Ben. They were both near to where we use to live, Ottawa area).
Ian is a great person and true horse lover, Ben was huge and everyone thought no good for anything but Ian took a chance on him.
One year, after many winnings, when Ian was away Ben got into something and died of colic.
Ian was hear broken. You see he had the best care money could buy but it still happened.
Your vet is right but we as humans always question ourselves, if only I did this... or what if I ......
This is what makes us human and humane.
May we never loose this.
And may we never let it consume us.
Have a wonderful day,
Ronda

Congratulations Buzybee - well spoken from the horse and well listened from you! Keep On Equus!