Testing Photobucket Video

[Mellifluous]

Does it work for you?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v163/legado/th_P1010089.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v163/legado/?action=view&current=P1010089.flv)

[baileyholc]

It worked for me. Wow, what a stride.

[ASB.Immortality]

If I can the video I took to post, the three year old I video had a stride that put those two to shame. He was AWESOME! God I loved him! But then again, Link Webb doesn't show anything that isn't great. :) :D

I haven't figured how to get a quicktime clip to convert where it can be uploaded, so here is some photos of him.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b185/stormy_warning/Horses/LinkWebb.jpg

[Minouri]

I keep getting redirected. :cry:

[ASB.Immortality]

Finally!!! I got it to load!!! Now maybe it works. :shock:

http://media.putfile.com/Link-Webb-

[Carol Nelson]

Do they do that naturally??? :(

I'm sorry but to me it looks terrible....

[Minouri]

Yep I was able to see it the second time! Thanks. That IS quite a stride. I kept picturing him pulling a cart like that.

Beautiful horse.

[paintedhorizon]

I've been to one of these shows and without their shoes, no, they don't do this naturally. And yes, I agree Carol.

Do they do that naturally??? :(

I'm sorry but to me it looks terrible....

[Barbwire]

I can see it. Sorry, to me it just looks so unnatural, almost bizzare, for a horse to be moving that way. Then again, people that see videos of fino horses probably feel the same way.

[Mellifluous]

TWH have a natural overstride that is part of their gait...various methods of "doctoring" and "fixing" plus the "packages" on their feet exaggerate the overstride and make them all squatty in the back end along with the higher "action" on the front.

Sorry about all of the quotes - I just imagined myself as Dr. Evil talking about "lasers"

[Barbwire]

It is the hind end "squattiness" that I find so "strange" to "look" at.

http://www.austinpowers.com/objects/images/evilprisoners.jpg

[paintedhorizon]

ditto to Barb

[Carol Nelson]

I wonder what kind of cartilege and joint damage these horses suffer in the long run????

[ASB.Immortality]

Actually they don't have that many joint problems. You will actually see more joint problems on Saddlebreds I have found. The hocks are used so much that they will tend to have soreness in them. To correct that, they are injuect with hyluronic acid (it is like a cortizone shot) in the hocks. That is usually done once a year, or there is a type of ointment made of it that is applied daily. With the TWH if there is a problem it will be with the stifles. They can lock up. To fix that, the stifles are cut and the problem is corrected. Also once the stifles are cut, it allows the stride on back to be longer.

[Carol Nelson]

So you're telling me that it is common practice to cut the stifles...well, I assume you mean cut the tendons resulting in the stifle problems....which is what they do, they don't cut the stifles.

[ASB.Immortality]

Ohhh... excuse me for not clarifying myself on that. I thought most would know what I meant. Apparently I was wrong. I can safely say though in our part of the woods when you say "you are having stifles cut" most do know what you talking about.

[Carol Nelson]

But it's a common practice....?
I mean, to first damage the horse in order to get the appearance they want, and then have to cut the tendons to remedy the stifle problems that they caused to get this look. Does anyone other than myself think that this is horribly wrong???
I myself have a horse with stifle problems and know very well that cutting the tendon comes with it's own set of problems...it's not just, oh well...cut the tendon and the horse will be fine after that.

[ASB.Immortality]

In the show horse world ( & not only in the TWH world either), yes it is common practice to have stifles cut, in most cases the horses are NOT damaged beforehand as you claim. If you opt not to, then fine. As for the stifle cutting, there can be a whole different set of problems arise but that is if your after care is not up to par. It is something you have to stay on top of to make sure it is alright until it is well healed.

But seeing as you think the horse is damaged then fine so be it. You seem to be another one of those people that hear Walking Horse & go into tantrums about them whether it is a pleasure horse or show horse. I could talk until I was blue in the face and you would never hear what I was saying. But I guess your horse with stifle problems is damaged also along with all the other horses that have stifle problems.

[Minouri]

When I first got my Paso I told my friends about him and several of them said........but he's not a SHOW paso, right? I said, no.....just pleasure trailriding. They said GOOD.......you do not even want to know what they do to Pasos to get faster footfall for the shows.

I heard stories of hurting their feet......cutting them so short them bleed....doing all sorts of things.

Every breed has it's extreme practices and fringe people. Having met so many Paso people through this site.....I doubt if much of what my friends told me is true anymore.

I'll have to read more about show TWHs before I can say what I think of how they get that gait. There are many animal practices I don't agree with. We dock dog tails and ears. Western people have cut the muscles in the horse's tails to keep them down. Race horses are run into the ground, drugged up, then disposed of often for insurance money. I just heard a local story of a trainer getting caught putting nails on the top of jumps to get her horses to jump higher.

That's what makes it hard for me to believe that anything is "common". Do all the show ppl do it? Have they always done it? How do these horses retire?

The market up here is flooded with TWHs. I'd be interested in knowing the answers to those questions because so many people buy them.

[Carol Nelson]

No, ASB, I am not given to tantrums, and I have even changed my beliefs in some issues, slaughter for one. What I'm simply wanting to know is information, and I'm a little shocked at what I hear, shocked but not surprised. But yes, as Minouri said, our breed is not immune either from such things, but fortunately rules are changing to disallow such stuff in the show ring.

I just wish people were more informed of such measures, as when they purchase such a horse, they would be more apt to be aware of the possibility of those methods being used previously on the horse, so that they are deterred from future expenses for treatment of the problems caused by the method.

I myself purchased a QH years ago when I was a beginning rider, only to find that the animal had come off the track, had been sored, and had foundered and had navicular, and was a quivering mass of nerve. He never should have been sold to me, a beginner. I could have saved myself a lot of heartbreak had I known about such things.

And this doesn't even touch on the pain and suffering the poor animal must endure.

[paintedhorizon]

I only am against the huge shoes on them, not the flat shod ones.

[baileyholc]

http://bestsmileys.com/eating1/1.gif

[Barbwire]

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/forumfun/sucks7.jpg

[TrueStepPaso]

Does anyone other than myself think that this is horribly wrong???


More than you know.....and, for the record, it looks ridiculous. These people don't care about horses...with their 8" pads/shoes, soring, chains on until theres open festering wounds.... :evil:

[TrueStepPaso]

ASB.Immortality wrote:yes it is common practice to have stifles cut, in most cases the horses are NOT damaged beforehand as you claim.

Um, yeeah, why don't you tell that to the over-worked saddleseat Morgan in my barn that I have to help unlock her stifle before she falls over on the concrete walkway once a day. If a horse/human needs surgery, then its because there was significant enough DAMAGE that the body cannot heal it on its own. Do you really believe yourself? Thats like me going to the hospital and asking the surgeon to do a "Carpal Tunnel Release" (where they cut into the cartilidge band to release pressure), but assuring him that there's nothing wrong - I just want him to do it because its "common practice"........please. Just because everyone's doing it, doesn't mean its right.
Oh, and the new way to do it, in case your interested to tell everyone you know who's doing it, is to make many tiny incisions (like poking) into the muscle that "hooks" onto the stifle. This causes it to swell so it can no longer get stuck over that piece of bone. No need to cut anything anymore.

[ASB.Immortality]

A little late responding... I am no longer trying to explain to you folks. You get pissy when someone tries to explain something & why, so I am not even worried about what you all think about it.

....dons the flame suit....

Have fun.