Today was the start of a new adventure for Betty and Sugar. As I mentioned yesterday, Betty has been having a little trouble with Sugar's gait. We invited a local Corrales woman, Miriam Gonzalez, to come do an evaluation. Miriam is a trainer of horses and riders and she's from Panama. She's a neat lady.She checked Sugar out from head to toe and made some recommendations concerning her hooves. Then she took Sugar out for a short ride in our back lot. Then she got Betty to ride Sugar in our round pen and showed her some exercises to do with her.
Miriam will come twice a week for the next four weeks before we go to Canada in mid-August. She'll work with Sugar and with Betty on her riding skills. It will be great for all of us for I'll learn from Betty what she's learning from Miriam.
Based on her recommendations, we actually made a switch in our farriers. The new farrier, who also owns a gaited horse, came around lunch today and did a trim on Morgunn and Sugar. He said both horses have good, strong, healthy hooves which is always good to hear.
I'll try to take some pictures next week when Miriam comes to work with Betty next Wednesday and Friday.
7 comments:
Lots of changes in the works. Sounds like a busy summer....but fun, too.
~Lisa
What kind of adjustments were needed on their feet? Can you describe some of the exercises she suggests for getting the gait back? Just curious!
Val, gaited horses need a lower heel for their gait than quarter horses. The exercises are mostly muscle strengthening exercises that focus on the head, neck and hind quarters. Gaited horses gait better with a heads up position. Betty will be doing some lunging on a lead, asking Sugar to keep her head up. She'll do some riding exercises at the walk starting in a large circle and slowly spiraling in so the circle gets smaller and smaller. This encourages Sugar to use her hindquarters more as she has to step into the smaller circle.
That's it for now and I'm sure Miriam will have some more as she works with Betty.
Dan
I have only ridden a gaited once and I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Plus he was a fast boy and we didn't have enough time for his owner to show me what I needed to do. Sadly, my friend that owned him was tragically killed shortly after that in an auto accident. I guess I will stick with my 14h Morgan mare. She has short legs and an awful trot. But my favorite gait is a walk and that is her favorite too! I guess that makes us a great pair.
Thanks for the info, Dan. I appreciate it. There are so many subtleties in various riding styles that I am ignorant about.
Oh wow, how will your old farrier take it? Just business? Good that you are willing to make changes and not get stuck in a rut that isn't working.
On the same kind of note, Leah, our new volunteer, is making a lot of neat recommendations around our place. It's neat to have someone come in with fresh eyes. She figured out in a few minutes watching Zack struggle to mount Hondo that he was actually trained to mount from the opposite side!! Wild. And that she knew.
I am impressed too, that you switched farriers so easily. I thought it was like a contract in blood or something. Our old farrier still comes out on occasion and mourns the loss of our horses. Very interesting info on how to train for keeping the gait. Eric's mare goes into a, I think it is called a 'rack?'. It is amazingly fast and smooth and odd for a quarter horse. He needs to train her so that she can pick it up more easily, right now she just falls into it when trotting fast.
Post a Comment