On Feb 10, 2008, at 3:24 PM, Raven wrote: > same principle as the PP retrancas/tail gear. it encourages the horse > to snap his rear legs....forward faster. > Raven
But the retrancas don't. No difference in gait is seen or felt when a horse is ridden with or without them. A more common breed myth is that they accustomed the horse to having the sugar cane brushing against its legs in the big cane plantations of northern old Peru. Old lithos from Peru show the horses tacked in breeching much like pack mules use, and older judges and trainers from southern Peru I've talked to said that was what they grew up using -- that flowing, loose retrancas came with the start of national shows about 50 years ago the then dominance of the northern haciendas and horses, and the "elegance" desired by the haciendas around Lima. As you can see from the pictures of Toison during bozal training (http://www.silcom.com/~lkinsky/Toison/toison.htm) and Raj in the bit (http://www.silcom.com/~lkinsky/raj.htm) the retrancas aren't even touching the leg at its rearmost position. Lynn Kinsky, Santa Ynez, CA http://www.silcom.com/~lkinsky/ http://www.dslextreme.com/~napha/JoyOfRiding/index.htm
