what does crabbing mean

["John & Sue Greenall" <greenall@vermontel.com>]

Interesting responses to the crabbing issue has prompted me to 
explain what I understand crabbing to mean.  Please feel free to jump 
in.  Because horses trot in a diagonal gait, unlike dogs, they cannot 
be compared.  When a horse "crabs", one hind leg travels to the 
outside of the track, either to the left or right, while the other 
steps in or under the horse, thus bearing most of the weight. The 
"outside" leg is the one being compensated for.  Many horses will do 
this very happily and switch back and forth.  My observations have 
shown that the more tired the horse, the more obvious the crabbing.  
The two horses that I had both crabbed in one direction, thus working 
one hind leg more than the other - one did it all the time to various 
degrees.  As work increased, ie top tenning 50's, the crabbing became 
more severe until they finally ended up with hind end lameness.  We 
tried chiro and acupuncture and massage and all the stuff.  The 
problem was consistant enough to end their trail days.    
Interestingly, both have very sucessful careers other than distance 
riding and have never been lame since.  It woud be interesting to 
hear of any other similar experiences. 
John and Sue Greenall
mailto:greenall@vermontel.com
http://www.vermontel.com/~greenall