Split personality
I have ridden three horses today. No I haven't bought another or borrowed one! I suppose it would be more accurate to say that I have ridden one and two halves. The thing is, all the time I was riding Tia (who is perfectly sound today without boots) her back end was pulling out to overtake us. Her bum was moving faster than the front and it was like an impatient motorist edging out to try and get past on a road that's too narrow :-) :-) :-)
She has been a real wench yesterday and today. Hanging back, refusing to walk out. I think she is in season because Tetley is trying to kiss her neck - aaaaaaaaahhhh. Anyway, I put a prolite front riser on, then I took it off, then I tried her old saddle, then I went and groomed Tetley and left her alone so I didn't get completely mad with her and we could both calm down a bit. She trotted round the barn in anxiety at being left alone and I could see some fantastic paces through the crack in the door - so she gave the game away by doing that! After that I knew it was her and not the tack or her feet, so I just quietly insisted and we got some smashing work, if still with some periodic head throwing.
I gave her a very strong toe bevel to try to help her soundness. I found that she has a little pink in the white line at the toe of the foot that was off yesterday - just less than an inch. Last time it was 3 inches, so her foot is clearly strengthening up, just a bit less robust than the other four.
Tetley is great today. Bounce bounce bounce all down the road. Insisting on trotting everywhere - a bit off at one point on a rough road, but when I got home and checked his feet he had a lump of sole near the bar pressing on the floor so I think it was that. But you could just feel how happy his was right through his body. We saw a lovely heron out on our ride, standing in a fast moving stream scanning for fish being brought down to him for breakfast :-)
Muriel I do agree with you about breeding for performance. But one problem is that if you breed for performance and you also breed in weakness and sensitivity. I know of a number of continental warmbloods with horrible allergy/skin sensitivity problems and they are also renouned for foot problems here in the UK. I've been hearing bad things too about how long the big moving ones stay sound in the joints for. You can't beat a Heinz 57 - dog, cat, horse for toughness. I know I'm generalising here folks, but on the whole crossbreeds are much lower maintenance than purebreds.
I would also hate to lose our freedom that we have here. I don't see why breeding for performance cannot be done perfectly well alongside our current freedoms, and in fact people like Sam Barr (Welton) and the Primmore people are already doing it very successfully. But if we had to, I would trade that for keeping our freedom and letting you on the continent breed great horses that we can just pop over and buy, like we do in droves now! Best of both worlds as far as I can see :-)
I'm uncertain about my WOW today. The gullet does not seem to me to be wide enough for Tetley. His spine is pressing up into it and it is pushing in hard on either side. I have a call in to the person who fitted it to see what she says, but right now I'm a bit unsure whether it will need changing. I'll let you know what she says.
We are either going cross country or showjump training if Tia is sound tomorrow. An update in due course, of course.
C.
posted by cptrayes @ 8:43 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
i think i rather agree with you on the breeding front, caroline - so see it so much in e.g. dogs as well, certain breeds having got e.g. hip displasia, and so on. Whilst I do rant on about Molly not being registered (waste of a perfectly good bloodline! especially as her dam is the last of the timber kings!) I think there's a lot to be said for a bit more freedom.
Of course, we can breed the good of one breed to the good of another, hence all those amazing TB crosses, ID crosses, etc.
Interesting about Tia - they all do a good line in fooling us when in fact they just don't want to work!
You make me smile when you speak of liberty in the UK. I lived in the Uk for 7 years.
I had first a feeling of freedom of choice, but then I realised it was not true. For example, you have no ID card, but there are so many CCTV that the Uk is a Big Brother island LOL! It does not seem that the governement has lost of rules, laws etcc for controlling the different part of life, ..but then your insurance companies control everything!
The same illusion of freedom and choice, when shopping, but then the marketing is quite agressive, the consommation of goods is huge, everything turns around shopping in England !!
Do not get me wrong. I love England. I love your food (si si si it is true), your tradition, and your spirit of conquest. But In my foreigner opinion, the freedom is just an illusion, the level of control is identical than the one on the continent.
Regarding horses, they all have the "papers', and can compete, but that does not mean they win!
I agree that pure breed creates weakness. But then they cross-breed, Linda is Holstein X SF. Except the Holstein side seems to be a TB line (Ladykiller). TBH, I would have do without the TB divaness....
I am glad Tia and Tetley are fine. I find very interesting your feedback about the saddle and its fitting.
P.S. I will not trade my son. Nah. He keeps telling me "je t'aime Maman", Okay he is only 4 yrs old, but so much admiration is nice. I know it WON'T last LOL!
I'm very interested in the saddle, as I am thinking about spending £900 on a treeless dressage saddle, but I am not quite convinced yet. (I think you will know the make I mean).
I am worried about following a fad, because I have already had one expensive try with a Balance which I had to sell as it was unstable, and I didn't find my horse went any different in an "ordinary" saddle. However, since the Balance people came on the scene, saddles are fitted much wider and all those narrow gullet ones are only fit for the dustbin.
Anonymous the problems I found with Tetley and the treeless did not appear until after months of constant and serious use, unfortunately! Other people are now also reporting them though - see Funkymeerkat's description of how her numnah on her jumping saddle (treed) is the same thickness throughout, but the one on her Fhoenix(SBS?) is thinner under the stirrup bars. I do know that I am not the only person who has had SBS saddles with collapsed gullets changed for Fhoenix's without charge by Nursey's. If you do go for a Fhoenix I would certainly not buy anything but the Suber version myself, because the back of the prolite version still does not fit on any horse without a dead flat back.
Having said all that, if you do try it and not like it, they fetch a terrific price second hand so you won't lose like on a treed saddle. And if you have no problems with it, then it's a real boon not to have to keep having it adjusted or restuffed and to be able to slap it on more than one horse.
Muriel, certainly compared with France some of our freedoms are illusion. Switzerland and Germany are a bit more "restrictive" feeling to live in though. The CCTV in this country is great - I get to watch lots of interesting "TV programmes" in court of people duffing each other up or skilfully shoplifting :-)
C
My internet is like crazy mustang today! Finally I opened your blog. Uff..It's interesting! Campolina
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