I found this: "As I understand it, they are used in American Saddlebred Barns and with Road horses, hackney ponies etc. A stretchy surgical tubing is attached to a couple of dog collars and this is placed on the fetlocks of both front feet. I can't recall if they are attached anywhere else to hold the "rubber band" up or if it is just there between the front feet. As they move their foot, they have to put the extra effort and lift their feet much higher. Kinda like watching the folks with the scuba fins at the PB's clinics. They step very high.
Seems like the trainers would tell me that build the muscle and they get used to the tension, so in the show when it is not there they are really high steppers. It was YEARS ago when I boarded at a barn that did show Morgans that I first saw them used and then later when I was boarding at a Saddlebred training barn." "Stretchies.. that is what we used to call them. It is surgical tubing - usually 2 or 2.5 feet (as I recall) attached to leather hobbles. The hobbles are placed around the pasterns. As PB explained with other devices, the horse will feel the pull on the legs and pull harder against the stretchy and end up with a bigger stride. There was a video of a horse using one and I could not find it to put here. It does not sore the horse per sey - it does have all the inherent risks that PB mentioned of a possible misstep and injury to tendon. In my limited experience with these, all horses seemed to step higher when they used them - but only those with a natural high step actually benefitted from them. Yes, on a low stepping horse - they would step low once off. And, if the horse was not 'collected' with head up and in, well there was no high step at all. I had never seen a saddlebred injured with these devices. But, I mentioned once before you can usually spot an old show saddlebred by the way they are muscled differently from the many years of exagerating their gait. Kinda like the Jai ali players who have one arm bigger than the other form the excess use of that arm." http://www.gaitsofgold.info/wowbb/forum51/6005.html Mic Mic (Michelle) Rushen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Solva Icelandic Horses and DeMeulenkamp Sweet Itch Rugs: www.solva-icelandics.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes"
