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Many times a horse is tripping in the front or folding in the rear 
because he has sore heels. Sore heels makes a horse shorten his 
stride and set the hoof down toe first. Watch your horse walk on 
level ground and see how he sets his front hooves down. Healthy 
hooves land flat or slightly heel first at the walk. Many other 
things can make a horse shorten his stride and land toe first like 
chronic tight or sore muscles, old injuries, too tight girth, too 
tight or binding breast collar, saddle bars jabbing the shoulder 
blades to name a few. If he walks toe first with or without a saddle 
its probably heels, muscles or injuries. So check'um over, squeeze, 
poke and flex for sore parts, loosen your gear, swap saddles and 
pads, etc. If all that stuff is okay then I would get a hoof tester 
(big pinchers) and start on the rears cause they are the most likely 
to NOT be sore. You start out lightly pinching all around the hoof 
using the same amount of pressure. Start on the front of each hoof 
and pinch between inside (not on) the shoe on the sole and outside on 
the horn without causing the horse to flinch. Pinch around and along 
the quarters and last on the bar next to the frog at the heel. Do the 
other side of the hoof. Then up the pressure a little and go all 
around again. Keep upping the pressure until you get a consistent but 
slight flinch. Try the other rear and see if the pressure is about 
the same. Try to remember how the pressure feels on your palms 
against the pincher handles. Move to the fronts but start lightly 
again, if the heels are sore the horse will flinch way before you get 
to the pressure you had on the rears. Tripping can be fixed and 
finding the cause is half way to fixing it ;-).
Don Huston

At 09:14 PM 6/13/2006 Tuesday, you wrote:
> My husband has a Tenn. Walker that trips.  Last ride the horse 
> tripped so bad (while walking), when I looked back, both horse and 
> husband were flat out on the ground.  This is the first time the 
> horse has gone all the way down, but he skins his knees a good 2-3 
> times a year.
>
> When my horse trips, I tend to give him his head, so he is not 
> slamming his mouth into the bit, my trainer suggests I keep pressure 
> on the reins, that it will 'catch' him and also make him realize 
> that tripping really does hurt and maybe he will be more careful.   Ideas????
>
> Just curious, would you all rather have a horse that trips, or one 
> that does 180s?  (This is the debate in our household.  Maybe we 
> need different horses?...Life insurance?....Saddle seat belts?.....Velcro?....)
>
> -Stacy
>
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