Monday, February 23, 2009

So, this isn't the best video on earth. Bear in mind that I don't think I'd ever worked her like this in the round pen before, and we'd only been working on it for about 10 minutes, so she's not totally responding like she should. Also ignore the wonderful background clutter, especially the knocked-over porta-potty. Gotta love that. The people who worked on the creek can't get the potty people to come pick it up. You can bet I wasn't thrilled the morning I discovered it had tipped over! I didn't bother standing it back up because we have high winds fairly often and I figured it would just fall back over. Happily, it didn't make a mess. At least I don't think it did. I avert my eyes. I'm in denial.

Anyway, check out how Bella is moving. She seems a little off when going to the right, but fine to the left. The left stifle is the one that was popping. I'm not sure what to make of it, but I think she's sound enough that I can start slowly working on her saddle training. I'm not going to get on right away, don't worry, so I'll have time to notice if the problem pops back up.

After all that ado, here's the video:

Posted by at

2 comments:

froglander said...

In response to your response on YouTube...

If it were her stifle, the one gelding I had mentioned, Chex, he has a hitch in his stride at the trot, but he's usable. Consistent work seems to make it less. So no one really considers him lame, he's just got a hitch in his stride.

Another horse I know of, a tall QH gelding that is shown on the quarter horse circuit, he short strides on one side in the back. He's had all kinds of stuff done to figure it out and the result was that that is just he way he's built. Chiropractic helped some, as well as consistent work to strengthen his hind end.

It kind of reminds me of one time I was unsure about Taffy, she just seemed a bit off on occasion so one time I did have the vet look at her (and of course she was fine) but was told that sometimes you have to work them until they are lame enough to really be able to diagnose. It's those on again off again lamenesses that are the hardest (and most expensive I'd guess) to figure out.

Good luck with Bella and keep us updated :)

9:17 PM
Linda said...

I don't see the problem in her trot. I pulled my old guy, Red, out this morning and he looked off, too. Do you think it's the time of year? Maybe they're stiff from not being worked consistently. I don't know. I thought she looked good in that video.

11:36 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)