This message is from: Mary Thurman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---jean gayle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > This message is from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (jean gayle) > > Hello Lindsay and glad to see you and hear about your crew. Yes it is > certainly an interesting and helpful group here. I have two questions to > pose to the group. Can a choppy trot be turned into a comfortable one? Do > all Fjords have a tendency to trip or did I just get the only two? Hi Jean, About choppy trotting: We have one "short trotter" and one with a normal trot. Sometimes a choppy trot is caused by the horse's conformation (ie. are his front legs coming out of his body directly under his shoulder - meaning his shoulder is too straight; are his pasterns short; are his front legs set too far under him?) If this is the case, a choppy trot is his lot usually. My short trotter doesn't have any of these problems, mostly he seems lazy. I discussed this with Nancy Lehnert at the show last fall and she gave me some suggestions on how to improve his trot, since he is still young. I worked on them until we got too mucky to use the roundpen and they do seem to help. I'll continue them this spring when we dry out. I'd be glad to share her ideas with you. Would this afternoon be a good time to come see your new boy? (That is if we are not being drowned this afternoon). As to the tripping problem: It seems to me that there are two kinds of Fjords - the trippers and the non-trippers. We have had both, although it seems more of them trip than do not. Possibly it is an attention/asleep at the switch problem, as I have not had one trip when doing something even mildly exciting, such as at a show or in a parade. Fred's horse, who has gone down on several occasions, never tripped once the whole time we were in Libby - not in a class, not on the trail, not in the parade. But he nearly fell on his face coming out of the trailer when we got home, and often trips over his toes during arena work or on a boring trail. We keep his toes really short with a slightly longer heel so he "breaks" at the right time. Seems he tends to "break" too late and his toe gets stuck. (I think that's right, possibly its the opposite. Anyway the trim job works.) Incidentally, when I was driving my Fjords I don't recall that they ever tripped - not even Line, who is a real klutz - but maybe it's just less noticeable when you aren't on them. Mary == Mary Thurman Raintree Farms [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
