I've been meaning to take some video for a while, and today I finally managed to get all the stars to align for this:
She put on her full fireworks display of romping, kicking, and in general having way too much fun.
Part of why I wanted a video of her moving at liberty is for work-related purposes...her shenanigans put any boot to the test. I call her the crash-test dummy of the hoof boot world: if it can be broken, she will find a way. The above is Exhibit A as to why. She is flat-out hard on hoof wear.
(I guess that says something that she has only busted one Renegade in almost five years.)
I've also been curious to analyze her movement, frame-by-frame. She has short, fairly upright little pasterns, but I'm amazed at how much flexion actually happens when she's moving at speed. And I'm very pleased to see she's got a very decent landing, for her. She's naturally high-heeled (pony feet!) and a heel-first landing is something we struggled with for years.
She used to go through the toes of boots embarrassingly fast, but ever since I took over her trimming, I have made a conscious effort to work on her heels and keep them in check. As a result, she's wearing her boots much more evenly now, and she's landing pretty evenly.
I know I'm biased, but I just love watching her move. Today, I was having a hard time remembering she's 19 and has fused hocks, because she was moving really well. The warmer the weather gets, the happier (and less crunchy) she is.
She looks like a really comfortable ride! Well, when she's not kicking those heels up anyway... ;)
ReplyDeleteShe's not too bad. I call her the eggbeater, because those little legs move so fast and so low to the ground...no vertical action whatsoever unless it's one of her full body upward leaps. Her fused hocks means her canter is pretty rough now, though. Minimal flexion of the hocks translates into a pretty stiff movement. But I love her (not so little) trot. If I let her, she'll trot 12-14mph and make big horses canter to keep up.
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