On 1/10/07, Robyn Hood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > New Years Resolution - I will learn to say nothing. > > Robyn >
oh come on, live a little. My new years resolution is to be blunt with candor :) As for shoeing... i think what we are talking about is once again---- the fear of what direction the breed is going in. We have people all over the world on this list and they think, oh, we american people are just so freaked out about nothing... but if you think about it, people like me who have icelandics because we are into gaited horses.... know only TOO WELL the terrible danger and how innocently it begins. I am new to icelandics but as most know, not new to gaited horses. Shoeing or trimming a gaited horse for any other reason than natural angles or shoes for the terrain or a specific soundness issue--- is ABSOLUTELY no different WHATSOEVER than what the TWH people have been doing all these years. Go back and look up the old show horses on the TWHBEA site... they have on almost normal shoes. Then oh brother look at them now. Who on earth can look at them now without feeling sick??? And the gait is RUINED. Did anyone read all the way down on the post I made about how to measure a horse? I know it came from a donkey website but it says quite clearly that once a donkey reaches a certain height conformation begins to "scatter" and lose quality. Anyone who owns a walking horse knows very well how to alter gait with farrier work and so do most icelandic people. jeez, its easy. Weight on the back if they are trotty, weight or long toes on the front if they are pacey. I broke three ribs in a fall once because I had a new farrier and when he asked how was jaspar's gait I said "oh, he's pacey as heck but I love him" and without even asking he cut him with long toes so that two weeks later on a sandy flat trail he just fell on his face (and so did I!). Farrier work for gait is evil and inconscionable and abusive and cruel to animals! Janice-- yipie tie yie yo
