The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread TEN

See our "who's who" page! ^

[HairOfTheDog]

The FreeRepublic Saddle Club - Who's Who *pics*

This is a horse chat thread where we share ideas, ask for input from other horsemen, and talk about our riding and horse-keeping. We have a lot of different kinds of riders and horses, and a lot to share. In the previous threads we have had a great time talking through lessons, training, horse lamenesses, illnesses and pregnancies... and always sharing pictures and stories.

I always have a link to this thread on my profile page, so if you have something to say and can't find the thread in latest posts… look for it there and wake the thread up!

I also have a ping list for horse threads that are of interest, and MissTargets will now be pinging everyone most mornings. Let MissTargets and/or me know if you would like to be on the ping list. As FreeRepublic is a political site, our politics and other issues will probably blend in…. There are many issues for horsemen that touch politics… land use, animal rights/abuse cases that make the news…. Legislation that might affect horse owners.

So... like the previous threads, this is intended as fun place to come and share stories, pictures, questions and chit-chat, unguided and unmoderated and that we come together here as friends. There are lots of ways of doing things and we all have our quirks, tricks and specialties that are neat to learn about.

Previous threads:

The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - thread ONE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread TWO!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread THREE!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FOUR
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FIVE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SIX
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SEVEN
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread EIGHT
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread NINE

New folk and occasional posters, jump right in and introduce yourselves, tell us about your horses, and post pictures if you've got them!

[HairOfTheDog]

Back from looking at the black horse :~)

First, when we arrived, Bob was standing out with a pack of alpacas which I thought was very cute.

He was actually trying to set up the alpacas to go over by the black horse "Tell" to show me that "Tell" is not afraid of them. Most horses are. But the alpacas were wandering their own way... I'll take his word for it :~)

Here's the horse...

He's handsome... different than what I was expecting. I was expecting him to be a lot hotter than he was from the description, he was really pretty quiet. Very personable... hard to get rid of when you are standing around. He noses and sniffs you up and down, a symptom of too many treats I think :~)

He's also not as big as I was expecting, probably a fair 15.2, but not nearly as big in overall build as Bay is. He's not as long or overall heavy as Bay. A good size horse, but not one I'd call "big". Nice short back, which is a positive compared to Bay.

And here he is in motion. He's easy moving, but not a flashy mover... more like a jeep than a sports car, he's for getting around, I can see why Lisa didn't think him good as a NSH type.

Here he is in the canter. Going the opposite direction, he didn't pick up the other lead even after 4-5 attempts, so he is 'one-sided' to some degree.

Here ecurbh is trotting him away. He has a wonky foot that I don't know how seriously to take. His rear right is rather pigeon toed and it is noticeable in the way he moves. There is a kindof twisting force and it seems to me he is loading himself on the outside of that foot as he moves. This is something I'd like advice on as to whether it would affect his abilities in a life of trail, and whether it means he'd have resulting soundness issues, and/or any precautionary support or farriery that would be prudent no matter what job this horse does.

There's video of him below if anyone can download and watch him in motion, it's shakey because I'm walking behind, but if you slow it down I think you can see it.

Movies

[2Jedismom]

I'm sneakin'...Steve's in the garden.

I'll never forget OT coming down here and we had all kinds of stormy weather, circulations right over us, the tornado sirens in Bixby were going off, Steve and I were glued to the TV set monitoring the situation and OT slept through the entire thing!

LOL!! Too funny.

[2Jedismom]

What do you do with alpacas? Eat 'em? Shear 'em?

I don't know.

[2Jedismom]

Supposed to get here in the morning...early.

[HairOfTheDog]

Shear them... They have very long fleece that people will buy... and hippies use them as pack animals hiking :~) Bob and Kay's daughter is using them for 4H. They run them through little obstacle courses.

[2Jedismom]

I'll say!

I think I'd rather have a burro for packing...but you can't shear a burro, it's true.


.


Well, I guess you could...

[HairOfTheDog]

They are more sure footed than a burro or horse, they're like a big mountain goat, they can climb up rocks and cliffs and things better than a burro would. I think they're easier to keep in camp than a burro, less mess, they poop little pellets like a deer and can browse on darn near anything. They are also incredibly docile by nature. They don't take a lot of manhandling to train.

[AnAmericanMother]

I don't like the fact that the twisting motion is unilateral. (We have a badly pigeon-toed horse in the barn who is always sound, but she's equally toed in on both sides.) He's also tracking with that foot farther under his body than the other. It may be an injury rather than a structural problem (like pigeon-toe). The fact that he refused repeatedly to take the left lead tells you that he can't or won't push off the bad foot.

He's got a cute face, but that foot looks like buying trouble.

[HairOfTheDog]

RE the wonky foot: It's something I'd want to have my vet look at... he's particularly good with movement and lameness so I'd definately ask him to take a look. My farrier is also the same farrier that just put shoes on him, and I want to ask him about it too.

RE the lead: It might be that he feels weak on it, I thought of that too, as an explanation. But he's also only 5 and really green. Only some training would tell if he ~can~ take that lead.

[AnAmericanMother]

Is there a paddock or pasture where you can watch him run at liberty? That might be the best way to see if he'll take that lead at all.

If you're serious about him, then definitely have the Vet and Farrier Conclave.

[HairOfTheDog]

Sure, I could have gotten him running at liberty today, if I chased him... ;~)

One sided horses I've known won't voluntarily take the off lead in the pasture... that's how they get one sided. It's only repetitive tight circling with them well bent that can get them to clumsily try it at first. They get better with practice usually.

[AnAmericanMother]

Oh, yeah, we went through that with Gracie - at 14 years old!

Fortunately, her idea of a Pasture Good Time is ambling about grazing, so 14 years of doing her own thing didn't include much cantering . . . but it still took a lot of 10 meter circles before she got the message. She's not 100 percent on the longe line even now, she'll sometimes cheat onto that left lead while going around to the right.

Which reminds me of something I meant to mention earlier - something like 90 percent of horses are "right sided", i.e. contracted to the right so that they default onto the left leading foreleg. Which might be another indication that this horse has a problem with that right hind - unless he's naturally left-sided.

Not trying to throw cold water, just trying to be realistic here (he certainly is a cute boy, I like his expression.)

[CindyDawg]

Can you show me what yall are seeing?. (I understand about the leads).

[AnAmericanMother]

Play the trotting away movie, and have your mouse over the pause button so that you can freeze frame it.

You'll see as the boy's right hind foot comes down, he slings it a little bit in under his body, rotates it a bit, and kind of screws it into the ground.

It's not a frank lameness at all, it doesn't seem to cause him pain, he's not nodding and his hips are going along evenly. Just an odd way of putting his foot on the ground.

[HairOfTheDog]

AAM described it well. It's maybe a little easier to see in the walking video, only because it's slower. If you can slow down or go frame by frame on it, it's easier to see.

[CindyDawg]

What video are yall talking about?

[HairOfTheDog]

The link is at the bottom of the post where the pictures of him are: 6061

There's four videos there.

[CindyDawg]

Ok. I see.

[AnAmericanMother]

I looked at the walking video after your post, and you're right. I almost always just look at trotting away to judge lameness, but this movement is far more obvious at the walk.

Two things I noted in the walk video -- the turn is not just in the foot, there seems to be some involvement as high up as the right hock, as though his cannon bones were different lengths. It's also very noticeable that he's putting almost no weight on the inside half of his RH foot. I know your farrier wouldn't give him a bad trim, but it's almost as though he would need a "cookie" in his tennis shoe, if he were a human.

In a human this rotation would be due to a ligament tear in the ankle, causing lateral instability outward. But horses run on their big toenail . . . their hock is the analog to our ankle. So I dunno.

This one ought to make your lameness specialist vet rub his hands with glee (like when the ophthalmologist looked at my eyes and yelled to his partner, "Hey, Charlie! Come look at this one!")

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Once I'm done talking I'll try to load one of the videos...

He's not really a black...might be if he was kept up.

I like the way he looks in the third picture of him, trotting on the line. Nice shoulder, beautiful neck and throat latch. It could just be in pictures, his head seems a bit big. Looks like a nice stride. Looks like his back foot will land right on top of his front track. It can be hard to get them to pick up the correct lead on a lunge line, if their not inclined to do it:)

At the age of 5 he still has some bulking up to do, he could get bigger, especially with a lot of riding:)

I think it's a good sign that he's so personable...

So, would you even consider him?

Becky