I think this fits here better than in ailments and injuries but it is a bit of both really ...
Raf forges and also tends to catch the inside of his fetlock joint/pastern with the opposite foreleg. He does have bad conformation of his front legs, they turn out slightly so he does the opposite of dishing (not sure what it's called). Because of this I have to boot him up to ride and YO is always telling me that I need to collect him up and make him work properly from behind to stop him knocking himself - I'm talking about hacking here and TBH I don't really like making him work so hard when we're hacking.
Anyhow, I normally do a little bit of schooling when we're hacking, but I do a lot less schooling than just meandering about admiring the view. But today (bearing in mind I've got a lesson on Tuesday evening and always feel the need to practice last minute) I decided to make a concerted effort and tried to achieve a proper walk most of the way round, with rest periods in between.
Things I liked were:
a) After a few goes Raf really buckled down and started listening (I've never really persevered enough to get to this stage before
)
b) Although I couldn't really feel much difference through his back to start with, after we'd been going a while I realised I could really feel his back drop when I released the contact and let him have a stretch, which then gave me the feel for when his back came back up again (it comes up a lot more slowly than it goes down!)
c) After a while in his rest breaks he started to stretch his neck out and down instead of sticking his head straight in the air as usual
d) I also noticed that after a while his walk stayed straighter and was more active through his back even in his rest breaks
e) He didn't take one bad step when he was working on the bit, although to begin with when I let him rest his feet were all over again
After I turned him out I watched him walk up the field towards the water trough - even when he was aiming at something he couldn't walk straight. His head was up and looking all over, his shoulders went where his head was looking, his body was wiggling behind like one of those toy snakes with all the joints and his feet were anywhere and everywhere!
Does anyone else have to ride 'correctly' all the time to avoid injuries? I don't really want to have to!
Raf forges and also tends to catch the inside of his fetlock joint/pastern with the opposite foreleg. He does have bad conformation of his front legs, they turn out slightly so he does the opposite of dishing (not sure what it's called). Because of this I have to boot him up to ride and YO is always telling me that I need to collect him up and make him work properly from behind to stop him knocking himself - I'm talking about hacking here and TBH I don't really like making him work so hard when we're hacking.
Anyhow, I normally do a little bit of schooling when we're hacking, but I do a lot less schooling than just meandering about admiring the view. But today (bearing in mind I've got a lesson on Tuesday evening and always feel the need to practice last minute) I decided to make a concerted effort and tried to achieve a proper walk most of the way round, with rest periods in between.
Things I liked were:
a) After a few goes Raf really buckled down and started listening (I've never really persevered enough to get to this stage before
)b) Although I couldn't really feel much difference through his back to start with, after we'd been going a while I realised I could really feel his back drop when I released the contact and let him have a stretch, which then gave me the feel for when his back came back up again (it comes up a lot more slowly than it goes down!)
c) After a while in his rest breaks he started to stretch his neck out and down instead of sticking his head straight in the air as usual
d) I also noticed that after a while his walk stayed straighter and was more active through his back even in his rest breaks
e) He didn't take one bad step when he was working on the bit, although to begin with when I let him rest his feet were all over again
After I turned him out I watched him walk up the field towards the water trough - even when he was aiming at something he couldn't walk straight. His head was up and looking all over, his shoulders went where his head was looking, his body was wiggling behind like one of those toy snakes with all the joints and his feet were anywhere and everywhere!
Does anyone else have to ride 'correctly' all the time to avoid injuries? I don't really want to have to!
