DefinitelyDressage.com

kande50

Tsavo wrote:
If they would sell me a Lameness Locator (TM) we could settle this. But they won't.

Have them send me one too, will you? And I'd also like an xray machine, and will share it with all the other people I know who would like one, too.

kande50

I'm 73. I've evented, I've done H/J, wanted to do more dressage, but...... It is what it is. Another opportunity may present itself. It may not be the same out there, but around here there are plenty of owners looking for someone to help keep their horses fit, or to go out trail riding with them on...

kande50

yeah, icky here in the midwest. 95 HUMID. You are validating what my DH always warns me about in the midwest (he is from there): Icky in winter and in summer! My sister's in KY. Hot and humid in the summer and cold and muddy in the winter, but very little snow and ice. The winters would probably be...

kande50

Kande is discussing a horse who doesn't limp. It would still work though, if he was bilaterally lame rather than sound. You'd block one side to see if he become uneven. Which just reminded me of an interesting conversation I had with a vet. The entire diagnostic procedure was a bust, but then he wa...

kande50

Tsavo wrote:If a horse shows no sign of pain, how do you ever know if that horse is in pain?

We can't know even if he limps, because it could be a mechanical lameness that isn't painful.

kande50

I have *joked* about my horse being quadrilaterally lame. The reason it is a joke is the chances of having exactly equal pain in all four legs are so small as to make the suggestion comical. Then add the claim that the horse stays quadrilaterally lame week after week after week. Do you see the prob...

kande50

Ryeissa wrote:
Pain presents in many ways that go beyond limping.

And humans either miss or trivialize most of them, because horses are good at masking pain and their humans are fine with that because they don't want to lose the use of their horse.

kande50

I can only report what I do and what happened. Taking him out of work a year ago did not resolve the limping. Turnout and rehabbing and getting him back to five days a week W/T/C did. Or it was a total coincidence. Or he could be more equally lame in all 4 now so there's no limping? I've seen that ...

kande50

Get a good pair of nippers and start practicing, because it isn't rocket science, and you can always continue to have a pro come and check your work. But if the horses are self trimming anyway, and you're facilitating their self trimming by taking the extra wall off, then when your trimmer cancels i...

kande50

Of course, TN is also 5 degrees colder in winter! We definitely have cold winters here, but the tradeoff is that the summers are beautiful. Even though it's been a warm summer this year the temps almost never go above 70 at night, and are more often in the 60's, so the mornings are perfect for ridi...

kande50

30 - 40 minutes of walk trot canter 5 days a week is not hard for any horse even my horse. I think it's hard for a horse who is pain, which is why, when I think of keeping a lame horse in work I think easy walk/jog trail rides with minimal hill work and no tight turns. IOW, enough to keep them movi...

kande50

Many owners would look at a rainy day and think, if I was my horse, I'd want to be inside and dry and warm and comfortable, yet most horses will happily stand with their butts to the wind and rain even with a shelter nearby. None of mine do unless they're on limited feed and won't leave it to seek ...

kande50

It.s more than just slipping in the wet grass. It’s about what the wet/mud does to the hoof wall and the frog, and the heel. The heel sulcus is usually the problem here, although the collateral grooves can be affected, too. The cure seems to be to keep the hoof short so the frog is on the ground, a...

kande50

Kande - you sound like the conversation going around in my head - If I can just get him "going down the road" and into the open space, I can stand doing the same (relatively level) ride over and over again. I'm right next to Mt. Diablo (SF Bay Area), so the areas I can take him are limite...

kande50

The proof is in the pudding... does he limp? Is he stiff? I have a lot of trouble with the timeline sometimes, but didn't you just post something about him now being lame on his left hind, too? There's no doubt that inflammation comes and goes, so with or without PT there's more pain some days than...

kande50

kande have you ever been to PT? I have. You go from a state of pain to a state of no pain. It is not painless on the way though. The equivalent to that in the horse world is correct work. If a horse has a condition that, like in humans is amenable to PT, then you are obliged to do that to take away...

kande50

But let's be clear here, not every person who claims to be an animal ethicist actually has the animals good life in mind. There are people who steal dogs from families and kill them because they believe death is better than slavery. True, and even those with the best of intentions make what I think...

kande50

Start in front of the door and make a comfortable sized circle at the door. Work on making the circle round, keeping the rhythm steady, and getting the same number of steps on each circle. Reverse often and continue on your circles until they approach perfection. Then move onto a slightly bigger cir...

kande50

I move on to a sounder horse as soon as I realize that the horse has issues that aren't going to go away, and the reason for that is because I believe that horses will work through considerable pain both because they don't feel they have any choice, and because they're genetically programmed to mask...

kande50

I think there probably is considerable merit to the idea that side reins can be easier on a horse than some riders' hands--depending how the side reins are adjusted, how long he's expected to work in them, and what the rider's hands are like. I seldom use side reins simply because up until I retired...

kande50

My horse is lame now on the left hind. He was sound for weeks before that. I can't ride him now. I could ride him then. I will retire him if he can't come sound. If this left hind issue doesn't resolve I will have to retire him. He has had a flare of lameness on this leg in the past I I asked about...

kande50

The vet says he's not in any major pain. He's a little sore if you palpate the area, but he's sound at the walk, and moves around in his paddock. ... Sounds like a good arrangement for him, and there's always the possibility that he'll mellow enough over the next few years to make a good trail hors...

kande50

My understanding from various other sources is that leg yielding simply offers fewer developmental (strengthening, engaging) benefits for the horse than shoulder in. However, many riders (and horses) find leg yield easier to understand, so it can be a starting point. It has also become "a thin...

kande50

Rain...what is that? My barefoot girl has hooves like flint. And they are doing a champion job of chipping. It is only cosmetic. They look like crap but she is sound as can be despite hoof appearance. I too, think that chips are only cosmetic and are just a temporary side effect of allowing hooves ...

kande50

I had a hard time learning to use Movie Maker when I switched to 10, but that may have been because it wasn't anything like the editors I'd been using? I did find the one on utube easy to use, though.

kande50

Costume classes are so much fun! I love it when the organizers arrange the schedule so the costume class is after the lunch break, so that anyone who wants to participate has plenty of time to get ready.

kande50

And maybe there is some research that chiggers are attracted to light color which would explain why scratches affect mainly white areas. One theory I've read is that the white hairs are coarser and that somehow causes them to hold more moisture. I've only very casually compared the white legs to th...

kande50

I personally don't believe that horses give their all out of the goodness of their own hearts Neither do I. And in fact, I believe that it's a very direct relationship, and the more we want a horse to give the greater the rewards need to be, which means the greater the aversives need to be. Not nec...

kande50

I have an intense dislike of horses that won't work and cooperate. Whereas I have all kinds of empathy for horses who won't work and cooperate, because I strongly believe that if a horse knows what he needs to do and thinks he can do it, then it takes very, very little to motivate him to do it. So ...

kande50

I agree, Demi, with how smooth the flow is for JS between warm-up and work, and little breaks throughout. It's a great model for sure, even as he really does work his horses (of course he also gives them walk breaks, but that is usually trimmed out of the videos). What a shame for the horses that h...

kande50

musical comedy wrote:Why do their rules have to be like the bible.

Maybe because no one can agree on what they should be, so they're stuck with what they've already got?

kande50

I never thought of submission as a particularly bad thing before I understood how negative R (pressure and release) works, but now that I do I definitely think that it's a very bad thing because of the potential for misapplication, and the damage that can result. Nor do I want to see the terms obedi...

kande50

Reid and Associates Equine Medicine and Surgery Any mare can have a bad day, but when you are experiencing behavioral swings or fertility issues there may be an underlying cause. One possibility is granulosa-theca cell ovarian tumors, known to affect a mare’s estrus cycle and even cause lameness, re...

kande50

We use those oilskin raincoats with the removable liners, because they're durable and do a pretty good job of covering most everything. I could have used a good rainhat/helmet cover to keep the water from running down my neck, but never did get around to making one and don't ride in the rain often e...

kande50

We've always trail ridden in the rain, and our rule of thumb has always been that if it's pouring we don't (usually) go out and saddle up, but if it isn't we go. If we get wet after we're already out we're fine with that, and in fact, some of our best rides have been in the rain. I do like synthetic...

kande50

Really? If someone with extensive anatomical knowledge isn't the best rider in the world then anatomical knowledge couldn't possibly be helpful? :-) . Correct.[/quote] So it wouldn't matter if she didn't have the time to ride, because if anatomical knowledge was a factor she should still be the bes...

kande50

[quote="Ryeissa"]At some point I begin to wonder if some people are never happy?[/quote

I woudn't expect any less from those who have chosen the Dressage sinkhole, because as we all know, there's always room for improvement.

kande50

Tsavo wrote:
If anatomical knowledge was helpful Deb Bennett would be the best rider and trainer in the world.

Really? If someone with extensive anatomical knowledge isn't the best rider in the world then anatomical knowledge couldn't possibly be helpful?

.

kande50

I usually ride Rocky on the trails in a western endurance type saddle, because I feel more secure in it. Recently though, I have started riding in the pasture with my dressage saddle and it is so nice to ride in a dressage seat outside of the box. I am thoroughly enjoying my rides, both out of the ...

kande50

I don't clicker train our Halflinger much, but I did capture the flapping lips and put it on cue. The grandkids love it, but they're still learning that they need to wait until she finishes chewing before she can do it again.

kande50

Dissections can help educate one on soundness issues, which could save one from putting more resources into a horse who is too damaged to be able to do what they'd like him to be able to do (not to mention the far more important issue of sparing horses from abuse). Hard to say whether doing dissecti...

kande50

Nobody was ever able to claim the prize. Also important to note that all of the contestants agreed that the test was fair before they started it. I think most were probably flabbergasted by the outcomes, because they truly believed that whatever it was that they believed was true. I've been flabber...

kande50

For those who have been zapped by electric fences, which is worse, being hit with a whip, poked with a spur, or getting zapped by an electric fence? Obviously, it depends on the intensity of the aversive, but an aversive is an aversive is an aversive, and IMO, it makes no sense to try to demonize so...

kande50

My rule of thumb is that everything should be positioned in such a way that when the rider is at the top of their post, they can stand in balance for a few strides. It's a self-correcting test. Interesingly, this happens to me fairly often, but not necessarily all the time. Not sure why not, but wh...

kande50

IMO, this should be required reading in every school until every single student understands it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Milli ... _Challenge

kande50

khall wrote: So out those shipping costs due to incompetent help at Trumble.

Trumbull Mountain? They have an excellent saddle fitter, although maybe not clairvoyant enough to fit saddles remotely?

kande50

It's best to always consider the ability and/or stage of training of the horse and rider before offering up suggestions. I think what's useful about suggestions is that it's all information that may come in handy now, or later, either for the op or for someone else. Information has all sorts of use...

kande50

I'm getting a few cherry tomatoes from a potted plant that overwintered in the house. I got a couple dozen off it during the winter, but then it died back and had to regrow when I put it outside in the spring.

kande50

It kind of comes out of sf, as they're already in position for a one rein stop so when they go it's just a matter of not going with them. Something else to consider is that calm needs to come first, before any additional training. So if a horse isn't calm on the ground then there's no sense moving o...

kande50

At the very least I *think* SF when I'm riding, although I'd never try to ride SI all the time, and if for some reason (a horse with more potential to stay sound maybe?) I did want to ride SI more I'd change direction/bend often.

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