RC: Fw: RC: Uphill and Down.. in simple terms

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/14/00 3:51:25 PM Pacific Standard Time, bass@bigsky.net 
writes:

<< > > If a horse is ridden down hill
 > > > and is not in condition to do it, 
 > > > he'll be sore in the front end some where
 > > > from braking his mass with the front end.
 > > > (sometimes in the chest muscles just
 > > > between the fore-legs.) >>

I must have missed Barb's post, but this really isn't what we see clinically. 
 Instead, we see horses that are sore in the hind legs--semimembranosus and 
semitendinosus--and in the loins.  Just as a horse stops best in an arena by 
dropping his rear, driving his hind feet up underneath himself, and shifting 
his weight to his hind legs, so likewise he brakes with the rear going 
downhill.  Even in a flat arena, horses that brake with their front legs are 
awkward and uncoordinated--any tendency to brake in the front is even more 
awkward going downhill.

Heidi