)(*&%$$&^^(*&()*&^&^%^$^%^&(*&*&%&^%*&&(*!!!!
)(&*(&^&^$*()^%$£$"£$"$^&%*&%$£"$£%**)(_$$£"£$"%$^&%& thing!!!!!!!! DIE you &£$"£"$£$£!£"%$£%$"£$^%$^_)((&*&^^%^%!!!!!! Two more molehills today. That's it. No gas balls left. Damned thing must have a gas mask - can't you just picture it down there with that flour shaker bit on his nose, and looking out through two little round panes of glass, laughing????
Anyway, after clearing off the molehills, I rode Tia. She started the same as I now know is normal for her - stilted in front and not really carrying her back end. Tam had suggested that I try flexing her neck in walk, and I did that. It did actually seem to help loosen her up a bit quicker than normal. After some reasonable walk and trot I tried again to teach her walk to canter. My, how she panics! We spent quite some time with her throwing herself around but finally she understood what I was asking for and made a couple of good attempts on each rein. I have no idea why she finds this so stressful, she is by far the worst to teach that particular movement to of any horse I have ever had. She won't back up under saddle either, I am going to have to get Superhub to come and help me teach her that, because she'll do it from the floor.
I did Tetley then, and he was right off key. I think he'd probably been out clubbing last night and come home with a hangover. He really wasn't interested. I thought that if I carried on riding him I would simply fight him, so blessing the arena, I put him on the lunge. He was wonderfully sound. After some walk, trot and canter on each rein, nicely warmed up with no effort on my part :-), I got back on and did some flying change training. He is SOOOOO close to doing it properly, but still putting one foot down before he makes the change. I'm hoping he'll get it soon, but he's trying very hard for me so I can't complain.
Caddy was less smooth outdoors than in, more to distract him I guess. But we did walk, trot and canter on each rein and then stopped before he got tired. He is feeling bigger and bigger every day.
I did Tia's feet and they were interesting. The backs are concaving up at last and look a nice shape.The fronts look bigger, and are increasing in concavity. But one has flare on one side to the inside and the other has flare on one side to the outside. I can't help wondering if this indicates some minor imbalance in her whole way of carrying herself? She used to be toe-in when I bought her, and dish, but both those things have completely disappeared with keeping her shoeless. This is the second toe-in horse who is not toe-in once they've had a proper trim for a while. How many shod toe-in horses are there out there who aren't really toe-in at all? What stresses do those horses have on their joints????
A friend bought me a German rasp as a present. It's a BEAST!!!! The farriery store said the farriers won't buy them because they are too sharp and take too much off at a time. Well I can tell you, for a woman they are puuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrfect!
I am off outside now to rake the arena and kill weeds on the field.
C
posted by cptrayes @ 3:09 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
If Tia raced, maybe the canter is emotionally stressful as it reminds her of the track. If not, then it's probably still a balance issue. Getting her off her inside shoulder with lots of suppling on the transition should help over time.
What do you raise over there, supermoles? If so, Kryptonite might work. What in the world is under that arena they like so much? Did the gravel come with succulent bugs for them to eat? Unless it's something about the temperature of the ground under the gravel? Hate to suggest the awful mole trap things with the springs and spikes you stick on top of the tunnel. Moley goes through, trips the trigger and gets skewered. You can find them with an Internet search for "killing moles" or maybe "mole traps." They did have a whack a mole game at my County fair. It is still an option, you know. ;-)
I don't know enough about fusing spavin to offer advice.
Toe in? My barefoot horse is TERRIBLY toe in now, I shudder when I see him trot towards me in the field.
I have to admit that the farrier made a great job of hiding this when shod for showing, you couldn't tell at all.
Unfortunately he kept developing strange swellings around his knee. One on the front, which went, then one on the side that I even got the vet out to. All have completely gone now and I just hope his feet straighten up a bit as the barefoot progresses. I comfort myself with the thought that it is how HE wants his feet to grow!
Judith
I saw Peter Laidely take the shoes off and trim a toe in horse and it was amazing. I have never seen a horse so toe in before but once the shoes were off and flare and uneven hoof wall thickness was addressed the difference was incredible. You would have been hard pressed to notice anything. Peter reckons it takes about two weeks for the limbs to adjust to the changes and for everything to truly straighten up.
Is Tia's flare separation type flare or hoof wall thickness type flare? If it's hoof wall thickness type flare then she is loading this part of the foot somehow which could well be due to something higher up, maybe some sort of diagonal problem going on?
What makes were the rasps? they sound fantastic.
Caroline yes it was my comment yesterday, forgot to add my name at the bottom rather than being too chicken to put my name to it?! : )
I misunderstood about who you were riding at the ODE so apologies! The problem I think with spavin is that it can take literally years to fuse on some horses, one horse I know of has taken over 3 years but now finally recent xrays show a good degree of fusion, others can take a much shorter time. It all depends on the joints affected. The lower joints fuse much better, and generally more swiftly, whereas the upper joints are notoriously difficult to get to fuse at all.
From Tetley's good days outnumbering his bad, and his monthly improvement, it sounds like his lower joints and that they are stabilising. As you know him and his behaviour so well you're obviously the best judge of how he's feeling and how the disease is progressing. It has to be said most spavin horses are probably worked on varying amounts of bute to allow them to be worked as hard as necessary to help the fusion whilst keeping them as pain free as possible and the helpful anti inflam properties, so the fact T looks as good as he does without bute probably says a lot. Sorry i'm waffling here...
Re Tia walk to canter - I found Robin found walk to canter very tough too and used to panic a lot when asked. Making sure he's well in front of the leg, walking a square and really lifting the inside shoulder and asking for your canter strike off as you come out of the corner of the square gave me the best results with him. Also lifting my bum slightly out of the saddle as I asked him to strike off seemed to give him the confidence not to hollow and rush. We went from having to trot a few strides before picking up the canter to eventually walk to canter. I forgave him the few strides of trot for quite a while as long as he did it calmly...
Cassie
Is the rasp a Heller Legend? I got one of those and it was fantastic, though I had to be careful to start with as it would bite deep if I let it.
When you work out the buttons for walk to canter with Tia, feel free to come and teach Bebe as she has the same problems. She does finally understand reinback under saddle though, bless her.
The rasp is a Keckhaert. Beast of a thing! Marvellous :-)
Molie's got bleach coming next hill he puts up. I bought six litres in Tesco. I don't want to hurt it with it, just hope to make it move somewhere else.
I think that shows, Judith, doesn't it, the stresses that you can put on joints by using shoes to make the horse look straight? Casper took a whole year to straighten up, how long has yours been so far?
It's thickness flare Tracey, and that's just what I'm wondering, why she is carrying her weight more to one side of her shoulders than the other?????
No need to apologise Cassie. And thanks for the tips on the walk to canter. I would be happy to accept some trot but I get a half-rear, mad dash or she throws her back end out sideways, or all four feet come off the floor or some combination. The silly thing is once you can get one, and convince her that she can do it, she can actually do one quite nicely. She's a funny girl.
Thanks Amanda, can I pass on teaching Bebe wtc :-)
C.
Post a Comment
<< Home