my horse isle 3 blog

sorry this blog is so blank and ugly I haven't gotten around to setting it up properly yet

[horsefigureoftheday]

Horse figure of the day: Border Fine Arts "In Safe Hands"

[horsefigureoftheday]

#i love this figure because sheep ❤️❤️ but him riding a friesian is so funny to me#on terrain like that...

That would be really funny! But I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be a highland, fell, or dales pony xD

[horsefigureoftheday]

Horse figure of the day: Border Fine Arts "In Safe Hands"

[moonfang-hi3]

it did not like my answer..

[flatshod]

[wouldyoufuckthistaur]

Stinzl, he/him, from Stinz!

Would You Fuck This Taur?

Yes

No

View Results

Voting ended onJun 22

[horsefigureoftheday]

Poll is mislabeled, this is our boy Andri! The same Andri who got shoes for Christmas that one time. All grown up :')

https://www.tumblr.com/horsefigureoftheday/799054128247619584/

[wouldyoufuckthistaur]

shit, my bad!!! i'm gonna fix that right now

[horsefigureoftheday]

Horse figure of the day: Sergio Bustamante "The Muse And The Horse"

[horsefigureoftheday]

The more I look at it, the worse it gets

[flatshod]

I found pictures of this bit online so here those make it clearer what we're looking at

[moonfang-hi3]

freak spotted

[horsefigureoftheday]

Hey, so, I know I have a lot of non-horsey followers who may not know about horse biomechanics. Which means I have an opportunity to teach.

If you ever see a horse wearing these padded 'shoes' (called stacks) on its feet, you are looking at an abused horse

Stacks are used in a riding discipline called padded performance, or more commonly known as big lick. In this discipline, the goal is to create as big and flashy of a walk as possible.

To get a big flashy walk, big lick trainers put weights on the horse's front feet (to make it lift the legs higher) and use action chains, which smack against the ankles every time the horse moves (making it lift the legs faster to try and escape from the painful chains). Though it's technically illegal, many trainers also use soring, where they rub mustard oil or kerosene onto the horse's ankles (to cause pain so it has a stronger reaction to the action chains). Soring is widely accepted in padded performance, and trainers will apply chemical irritants to their horses at shows, out in the open for everyone to see.

Horses naturally carry 60% of their body weight on the front legs. When the front legs are sore, they'll carry more weight on their hind legs, which causes rapid joint degeneration. It's not unheard of for retired big lick horses to have completely deformed hind legs

There is no ethical way to do padded performance. Big lick riders will talk about how stacks don't cause issues (often citing one study that looked at padded horses slowly walking on a treadmill without rider), how soring is illegal, how hard-working their farriers are, how closely they work with veterinarians, how their horses live like kings, how beloved their horses are, etc., but it's all talk.

If you see a horse with stacks, you are looking at an abused horse.

I'll add a few relevant videos under the cut (from least to most graphic)

[flatshod]

Disclaimer that chains aren't inherently painful or abusive. You can easily try this out yourself by putting a similar loose chain around your wrists or ankles- it's not painful, just annoying, like a weighted bracelet. The movement of the chains causes the horse to lift it's legs higher to evade it similar to how they react when you touch their pasterns with a stick or whip or similar, or how they do Big Steps when they're in unfamiliar grass or water that tickles their pasterns. It's not inherently a pain thing. Think like how dogs do big steps when you put booties on them the first time. The effect decreases as the horse becomes used to the feeling as well.

Unless they're sored. They are painful when the horse is sored, of course. If you put a chain on painful, sensitive skin, it hurts like hell!

I'm pointing this out because chains and similar "bracelets" have genuine uses in equine physiotherapy to improve proprioception, balance, and engagement, especially when combined with groundwork/flatwork. I've seen people call any horse with "bracelets" abused, so I felt the need to clarify this just in case!

[theweirdwideweb]

[mammalidentifier]

Domestic horse (Equus ferus caballus), more specifically of the Paso Fino breed.

Paso Fino horses, whose name translates to “smooth step”, are a breed that displays what’s known as an ambling gait, an intermediate walking pace between a walk and a gallop, commonly replacing trotting. While it might look unusual, the ability to amble is something certain horses are just born with: it has been traced to a mutation in a single gene that has been selectively bred for by humans since antiquity. Some gaited breeds seem to be more prone to certain health conditions than other non-gaited breeds, but these conditions are far from unique to gaited animals and don’t seem to be caused by ambling in itself.

Gaited horses were highly prized in medieval Europe due to the fact that riding them is particularly comfortable, especially during long stretches of time and while traveling on uneven terrain. As travel by carriage became more popular, though, they fell out of fashion. In the present day, most gaited horse breeds come from the Americas, being the descendants of gaited horses brought along by the Spanish in the 16th century, although a few gaited breeds can still be found in Europe and Asia.

Some examples of horses who display ambling gaits are (clockwise) the American Saddlebred, the Mangalarga Marchador, the Icelandic Horse and the Mongolian Horse.

[flatshod]

Not quite! This horse is Tornado de la Encantada, a Trocha y Galope stallion. It's a gaited horse breed from Colombia! The gait he's performing is the name-giving Trocha. They're a part of a breed group called the "Caballos Criollos Colombianos", which is a group of four distinct types. The Colombian Paso Fino is a different breed, with a different gait. While they're closely related breeds, they can be told apart by their distinct gaits as well as some visual differences in terms of size and build!

[flatshod]

1 quastion: why do some sooty horses have a gradient look while others have a dappled look? Is it the dapples trait that causes the difference? Both of these horses are sooty buckskins, as per the site

[flatshod]

Bred my 50/50 trote/trocha mare to a lucky find trocha. Foal is ID'd as a trote and genetically 25% trocha. 1) what and 2) how