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Posted by Gail Ivey
on 11/6/2009, 12:00 pm, in reply to "Re: That's what I was going to say..."
66.245.59.216
There's definitely some conformation types that lend itself to better movement, but I'd venture to guess that your polo pony probably had years of tension and tightness before you rode her, and those things altered her muscles and probably created joint issues, too.
I used to have a quarter horse that was real straight through the stifle. For years I posted his trot because he gave me no choice. I even had very good help getting him to smooth out his trot. He was relaxed, too. He couldn't jog to save his life. I figured it was just because his conformation behind was so straight, and that certainly was a part of it.
But, then I had some acupuncture done on him, and the acupuncture vet (Dr. DeRock) found he was really locked up in his hips and had some rib issues as well as a locked up poll. He'd flipped over when he was about four months old, but I figured he'd healed up from that just fine, so I never could have guessed he had that much pain going on.
The next time I rode him after the acupuncture, which, due to a bad sole abscess, was about four months later, I asked him to trot and he went into the nicest, prettiest, softest little jog, like he'd never done before.
It's quite true he was never as smooth riding a horse as a horse with better angulation behind, but if I'd known that back-killing, bone-jarring wretched trot of his was all due to pain, I could have saved us both years of chiropractic!
So, another factor to consider is whether or not the horse has had years of incorrect or insensitive riding that has altered the horse's posture and muscle development. If that's true, then obviously you have no hope of a smooth ride if the horse isn't relaxed, and no hope of relaxing the horse if the muscle issues aren't fully addressed.
"Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for." -
Socrates
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