>>> sure! the pic was taken a few months ago, when i was having a riding lesson. i strongly suspect from my cranky little face that my instructor had asked me to trot, and stjarni was tolting anyway :)
Ok, but remember that I asked permission, ok? :) I'm replying in detail, hopefully to clarify the why's for what I've thought about this picture since I saw it the first time. And yes, I know it's just a single picture... First, he's not tolting/racking. He's step pacing, and it looks to be a fairly lateral version. Now, as several have pointed out, he seems pretty relaxed, but it IS a step pace nonetheless. Step-pace often gets a bad rap, but I'd dare say there's not a person on this list who owns more than one mult-gatied horse who hasn't had a step pace incident...or two...or a full-fledged step-pace problem. There really SHOULDN'T be such a stigma against it, at least in my opinion, because 1) it CAN be a pretty smooth trail gait, 2) many times it's a transient gait that will go away with certain adjustments and 3) just because a horse step paces doesn't always mean he can ONLY step pace. My biggest step-pace "problem" was with Sina when I first got her. I was awfully stiff, in horrible shape just coming back from being confined to a walker and a back brace from a broken back. I was horribly stiff myself , so what else could I expect of her - but I went to work on improving that. But, I think the biggest single "fix" was finding her a wide-enough, well-fitting saddle. Finally I realized that every time she'd outgrow her saddle (she was five and still maturing when I got her) the paciness would return. As for riding the paciness - EVERYTHING Sina does is smooth. It would have been very tempting to leave it alone and just go with it. But, I'd also see her trot in the field, so I knew she had the full range of gaits, and she isn't inherently a pacey horse. Treeless saddles provided the long-lasting solution for her saddle-fit woes. That was the first thing I thought about when you sent this picture the first time. You'd already sent pictures of your saddle which didn't look so wide to me, and there was Sina's step-pace, "déja vu all over again." That's why I hinted (at least at first I hinted, then I think I finally said it pretty bluntly) that I would REALLY watch your saddle fit with Stjarni. I was speaking from first-hand experience. A couple of other things in that picture reinforced that feeling. If you've read Lee Ziegler's book, you may have seen her "cure that pace" suggestions. She had an article on her website before her death, and there once was a little slide-show DVD on the subject she'd send people - she sent it to me before the book came out, and before she got sick. She had some good exercises in it. Now, one exercise that a lot of people recommend for helping break up pace is going over a lot of trot poles - I don't think Lee recommended that as strongly as some though. Other people also recommend going slightly forward-seat or to "two-point" position to encourage the horse to go more "towards" diagonal. In that picture of you and Stjarni, you have just gone over a trot pole, and you're in a forward seat position - and I learned to ride in huntseat, so I see nothing wrong with a little bit of a forward seat if it works - and he's STILL doing a step pace. That's a red flag to me that something needs to be addressed. I don't claim to know WHY he's step-pacing from that one picture. All I know is that's what he's doing. A good many nicely gaited horses will step pace if/when they get tense, so this isn't meant as a slam towards Stjarni. Our Trausti isn't particularly pacey - in fact, Liz Graves noted a few trot-indicating traits in his conformation, and he will trot freely. However, if he gets tense, maybe wanting to go see his buddy on the sidelines or back in the pasture, whatever, he too will get pacey. Some horses, however, will step pace because their backs are sore, or they have some other pain - that too is probably a variation of tension when you come down to it. BUT, some horses are simply built for pace. If the horse is built to pace, you may be able to improve it - maybe not really change it, but minimize the long-term risks. Why would someone want to improve it? A step-pacey horse has a hollow back, and if they are built to pace, they probably also have a long back - like our TWH, Mac. A horse with a hollow back isn't using his abdominal muscles well AND if he has a long back to begin with, that's a recipe for a swayback. Mac's swayback didn't show up until his late teens, but I wish it had never shown up. Live and learn I guess, but I try to let my mistake with Mac serve as an example for others to learn from.... So, anyway, that's what I saw in that picture the first time I saw it and it's what I still see. Maybe things have changed, or improved, but those are the warning flags from that moment. Karen Thomas, NC -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.16.9/623 - Release Date: 1/11/2007 3:33 PM "The greatest enemy of the truth very often is not the lie- deliberate, contrived and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic." "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer [] The video every Icelandic Horse owner should have: http://IceHorses.net/video.html [] Lee Ziegler http://leeziegler.com [] Liz Graves http://lizgraves.com [] Lee's Book Easy Gaited Horses http://tinyurl.com/7vyjo [] IceHorses Map http://www.frappr.com/IceHorses [] IceHorses ToolBar http://iceryder.ourtoolbar.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IceHorses/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IceHorses/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
