Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Gambler was a rescue I bought pretty much sight unseen.  :)

He was delivered to my friends house in Iowa, and she called me while I was in Las Vegas at the NFR. Her first words were..."you done good"  lol   He was thin and had issues, but has turned into a great horse for me.

We were headed for many rides this past year, but I had to have some surgeries that side liined me. Now we are back into training, and with luck we will make it to his 500 mile mark this year...just 150 to go..  :)

kathy.mayeda@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Beau also has a nice stretchy trot, always had when he's done right.  He DOES have more management problems than the average horse, and his opposite knee is a little arthritic now. I learned a lot from him, but if I had to buy a horse I would be looking at this with a critical eye unless he already has some proven endurance miles on him and I had x-rays done.  It did take a lot of corrective action to get him straight.  It also takes a lot more to keep him straight with this type of conformation.  He also has a corresponding upward fixation of the patella on the diagonal hind.  Cure is trotting, so I guess endurance did right by him.  But I already owned him, he loved endurance, so it was worth it to put the effort into the micromanagement.

 

K.

 

-------------- Original message --------------
From: Lori Bertolucci <loribertolucci@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Yes, until I started doing my own when I took him barefoot, I had all kinds of problems. Now I can't do the main trimming of his hooves, due to a bad elbow, but my farrier is a great barefoot trimmer, and we work together at keeping all our horses hooves in shape.

One thing I really noticed after getting Gambler's hooves right was his trot. Before, it was short and choppy..ride that for 50 miles!  lol   Now it is stretched out and he covers ground nicely.

 

Kathy Mayeda <kathy.mayeda@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Yes, I guess a common problem with this conformation, is the farrier who tries to lessen the angle and just dubs the toes back.  Creates a dip in the front of the hoof.  I bet you've had that too!

 

K.

 

I guess what I should have said was, don't try to make the hoof look like a normal hoof.