Twins.
I am now the proud (very proud, actually :-) ) owner of two WOW saddles. And from the reaction of each of the horses I am really pleased that I bit the bullet and splashed out on the second. It wasn't as new as I had hoped, but it is in very good condition. The flaps are new but the rest is a well used but well looked after 2 years old or so. It has the wider gullet which is currently being made for the one I paid full price for and it is definitely the one that I should have been sold in the first place. I spent ages with them both laid on the yard and fiddling with gullet plates, flap position and airbag pumping but it was lovely in the sun with a rug spread out to protect them.
Tetley just loved it. He did some "almost flying changes" and some awesome trot extensions.
Tia seemed to be much happier that she had the right width (narrower) gullet plate in hers instead of trying to get away with Tetley's. Though she wants everyone to know that grass is NOT for walking on. She did settle after a while, and produced some equally "forward" (think speedboat towing a water skier (me :-) ) trot. I tried to let her find her own balance by doing 20 metre circles with 10 metre circles the other way every half circle. But she wasn't going to settle, so in the end I went for some industrial strength half halts and she got the message really well. We finished with a couple of circles of canter on each rein when she humped her back but it was easy to send her on out of it. I was pleased with her, but I can see why she would have scared a novice.
Walking back across the gritty tarmac yard her feet were clacking loudly and she was totally confident. I am very, very happy with them. Tetley has shed the outer skin of one complete bar in a front foot. With that black stuff that Trish mentioned underneath. But his foot is hard and he is sound on it, so I shall ignore it. There is now a hole in his back foot where he was lame for a few days a couple of weeks back, with a very hot heel - do you remember? That was obviously an abcess even though he hardly noticed it really.
Back to cross country training again tomorrow!
C.
posted by cptrayes @ 6:08 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
with his half passes, flying changes and passage, dressage tetley seriously ...after he's had his time off, of course. But seriously, if he's staying sound doing that, enjoying doing that (which I recall he clearly does!) why not?
Ann I'm really glad His Orangeness is happy with his shoes back on. It's really not an easy thing to do, this barefoot malarky. I know of so many horses that have been shoeless for up to 18 months that are simply not sound. I "get away with it" because I can provide as close to perfect conditions as possible in this country. People who work full time or are in livery yards have all sorts of problems to cope with that I can avoid.
On the other side of the coin, I got an email out of the blue today from a girl who told me that I had inspired her to go barefoot with her navicular horse six months ago. I can't even remember doing that, but the horse is now competing at 3ft 6 jumping and totally sound. She'd been told it was a write-off.
I'm trying to build a mental database of what works and what doesn't, so can you email me Ann so I can remember which email address in my book is yours, and can we talk about why it didn't work for HO?
Claire you exaggerate :-) we can't passage or do a proper flying change yet, but you're right, I forgot to mention that he did some super canter half pass today too. I can sit so STILL in the WOW saddles that it all comes together.
C
Yeah!! dressage for Tetley sounds like a cool idea...just let me know if you need any help on the piaffe seen as im such an 'expert' now....ahem (says she with the untrainable lunatic..im finding my humour again C):)
Speaking of feet we have the WL seperation kicking off again, happened around this time last year, so its safe to say its the grass.
Our grazing is poor but im picking up a bag of TopSpec antilam to try and he's getting stripped of with his fat (lady) friend so hope this might help?
Nicola are you sure that your white line separation isn't simply being caused by extremely fast hoof growth? - Tetley has what looks like trench forming between his hoof wall and sole, but when I took a look it is only because his hoof has grown so fast that the sole is peeling back from the wall and leaving a dip at the white line. He's got 8 EIGHT!!!!! millimetres of hoof wall. And when I say that the sole is "peeling back" this is the last stage in his over-spread feet coming right. The sole tubules at the edge used to grow out instead of down - now, every so often, about 1/8 inch of sole around the edge of his foot recedes and his sole area gets smaller and smaller as his feet get better and better.
:-)
Could well be this Caroline...He does seem to be having a sudden growth spurt,and he's always grown ALOT of foot during the summer even when shod.
You got any pics wouldnt mind having a look to compare?
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