This message is from: Mary Thurman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
--- Larson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This message is from: Larson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > A few questions on tripping: > > Where are these young "trippers" being worked? On > the flat, in a round pen, an arena? Ours were worked in all three situations. The footing in the round pen and arena was sand. Of course, the tripping was/is the most noticeable in the round pen because of the stress it puts on legs and joints. Outside the footing is anything from the beach to a mountain trail. Our horses are raised in pens/paddocks with very uneven footing and lots of mud in the winter, so they are not "stall babies". As they get older the tripping seems to be caused by inattention in most cases. My horse also trips more often when he has shoes on. Guess we need to try filing the edges of the shoes to round them off. We'll try that next summer. > > Also, at what elevation are the trainers attempting > to keep their heads? At a comfortable elelvation for the horse's conformation. Depends on how the horse's neck comes out of his chest and what kind of throatlatch he has. In all cases the nose is NOT dragging on the ground "a la western pleasure", nor is it overflexed. We have even found that the bigger horse travels best with his nose slightly out at the canter - as if he were balancing himself with his nose. And if they're not use to > Fjords, are > they taking into consideration the different muscle > conformation of the Fjord? The trainer we used spent a lot of time thinking about how he could tailor his Quarter Horse training program/methods to fit the different physical and mental requirements of the Fjords. Quarter Horses are "react now" horses, where Fjords are "thinkers". And, yes, Fjords are built much different than QHs, except at the very early ages when the muscle structure can be quite similar. The differnce seems to come more in the "mind bent" - some lines of QHs are bred for reining, some for cow work, etc., and Fjords are not. Having watched QHs of different "breedings" I now see how this is definitely true. Fjords, on the other hand, need time to "digest" the new ideas. They CAN do the work asked of them, they just learn it a little differently. Imagine how a QH bred specifically for reining, say, would react to a heavy harness and plow. It would probably take some mental and emotional adjustment on his part. A smart trainer - one who truly has the benefit of the horse in mind - figures this out and tailors his program to the individual horse. Of course, not all horses within a specific breed are the same either, so a good trainer is constantly "listening to what the horse is telling him". Boy, the stories some horses tell on their previous/current owners or trainers! If you take your horse to a trainer, expect the horse to "tell on you" - both good and bad! Mary ===== Mary Thurman Raintree Farms [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com
