Therapy Pony

This pony is working his therapy job at a senior facility.

Soring Gaited Horses

Gaited Horses can be "sored" to create lift, animation, and to change the timing of the front feet.

Soring can be accomplished by:

[] long toes
[] big feet (add more weight)
[] heavier shoes
[] adding boots
[] adding toe weights
[] quarter boots tightened on the coronary band
[] heavy contact which interferes with the horse's normal leg flight
[] sitting on the cantle of the saddle
[] placing the saddle past the last rib
[] saddle digging into the loins
[] the feet pounding on the ground (concussive practices)

None of these practices should be used with Icelandic Horses, but some are.

Barefoot Icelandic Horses

In North America, we tend to like to have our Icelandic Horses barefoot, it at all possible. Barefoot allows the horse's hoof to spread and contract as necessary. It may not be possible to have barefoot horses in Iceland, but it is possible in North America. It all depends on your terrain and how much you ride. If the horse has genetically good feet, it may not be a problem to be barefoot, and may actually be healthier for him!

The natural barefoot trims work really well for Icelandic Horses.

Icelandic Horse UnHappy Mouth

Let's see if we can move away from seeing pictures like this of Icelandic Horses. Well, not only no pictures, but no pulling on the horse's mouth, no strapping the mouth shut, and no bits that cause this type of reaction.

Tolt: Not Collected

Tolt is a gait that is not collected.

The definition of collection is a combination of three factors:

[] Engagement of the hindquarters, which means that the pelvis tips down (tail down) and in (rotating the bottom of the pelvis in and under the horse), bringing both legs under the mass of the horse.

[] Bascule (rounding) of the back. Engagement of the hindquarters must happen for the back to round up.

[] Lifting of the base of the neck. This allows the neck to telescope and the head to freely offer it's relaxed position slightly in front of the vehicle.

In tolt, the pelvis is doing the opposite of the engaged position; it is tipping up (tail up) and out (rotating the bottom of the pelvis up and out away from the mass of the horse).

This action, starts the back to hollow. The back cannot "round" when the hindquarters have not been engaged.

In collection, the lowering of the pelvis (engagement of the hindquarters) is a *sustained* lowering.

Sustained lowering never happens in tolt.

Going to the front of the horse: lifting the head and neck lowers the base of the neck, which makes tolt an earth-bound gait. The vector of the movement is down; earth-bound, which is the opposite of collection.

Charm, Icelandic Horse

Charm went to the Rider's Field today, did some ground driving in the arena, and walked on the trails.

Shame in the Icelandic Horse Show Ring

A blog entitled "Shame in the Show Ring" has featured Icelandic Horses:

http://shameinthehorseshowring.blogspot.com/2008/09/ponies-on-ice.html

Please be sure to read the article, and feel free to comment on it.

We want the best for our Icelandic Horses, and want to see natural horsemanship and natural gaits!

Disharmonie Videos

Hyperflexion




Schritttrickkiste

More:
Passgewürge

Schrittmanipulation II

Icelandic Horse WC 2007

What is happening here?

disharmonie

disharmonie
Originally uploaded by lena & pferde

Icelandic Horse Natural and Artificial Gaits

Some gaits of gaited horses are natural and some are "created"; artificial, mechanical, manipulated.

Here are some of the ways that gait is created in Icelandic Horses:



Icelandic Horse Connection