British-Dressage.com

@fanninfire
Let me educate you a little…..Your knowledge of the facts surrounding the shoeing of padded horses is seriously lacking.
The HPA and the USDA along with the TWH industry has guidelines for angles relative to the length of natural heel and toe. They have to be kept within the NATURAL ANGLES AND PARAMETERS of the hoof in relation to the structure of the leg and body. To make it REAL simple for you,if you have “X” amount of toe , you must have “X” amount of heel to be USDA “approved”

@Sky212

Still waiting for issue and apoge number of these “open sores” you claimed to see.

Surely you weren’t LYING….. LOL!!

LOL!! i watched some of the personal videos of the folks crying about these horses not being natural, when their own horses aren’t doing ANYTHING near the natural gait of the Tennessee Walking horse themselves.

Ignorance is bliss I guess.

Thank you for showcasing such lovely examples of early Walking Horse breeding. I just wish we could get back to the simplicity and purity of the 1940′s and 30′s gaits! I hope this gets more hits in the future– you really put together a nice video.

@Hogguide Which they then totally alter by introducing a wedge shaped stack to alter the overall angle of the hoof.

my grandpa had a colt out of midnigt sun

@Hogguide If you felt so confident that padding up horses and making them perform unnatural gaits was right, why would you respond in such an angry & insecure fashion when someone questions the practice? People who care about the well being of horses are NOT morons. Correctly shod flat shod horses and barefoot horses have the most natural hoof angles you’ll ever see. To say otherwise truly IS complete ignorance. Coming from someone with a lifetime experience with Walkers (both pleasure & show).

@Hogguide Sorry, but I am right. Some former padded horses are lucky and don’t get leg problems, granted. But others do. We have bought and sold many, many Walkers over the many years we’ve been involved with the breed, and have indeed come across a great many former build-up horses with tripping issues and knee and joint issues. It’s quite sad. Those build-up pads are very heavy and they can’t help but put undue stress on the legs. Some horses are affected for life by them.

Great video

I just wish we could go back to the Haynes Peacock, Strollin Jim and Merry Maid look. What amazing gaits and beauty in the natural movement of those animals.

Look at those guys walk….they sure were beautiful.

Stop sippin on the hater-ade and lay off the walking horses! These are the trademark champions!! Many of todays champions are decendents of these that you saw. Breeders have selcetively bred over the years to improve upon these gaits and improve on what you see here! Now if you want to start on hating about selective breeding think again next time you eat a angus burger or a big nice steak!

Will you please post the video of Midnight Sun? Do you have any of Rodgers Perfection or Carbon Copy?

So I guess from the videos that trainers didn’t start torturing these poor horses until the early 70′s.  Thank goodness for the inspectors at WH shows.

@mschris32 After looking at teh video again, it looks like after 1953 things began to go downhill. Noticed beginning of pads being used. Also note the reletively loose rein and a more balanced riding position in the early days. Later, riders began getting a “chair seat” and riding with a hunched back.

I’ll take my natural TWH’s any day over many of todays “pacers”.

@mschris32 After looking at teh video again, it looks like after 1953 things began to go downhill. Noticed beginning of pads being used. Also note the reletively loose rein and a more balanced riding position in the early days. Later, riders began getting a “chair seat” and riding with a hunched back.

I’ll take my natural TWH’s any day over many of todays “pacers”.

@mschris32 actually they started around the early-mid 50′s. it wasnt until the 70′s that people got really pissed off and brought the government in to stop it.. Many of the inspectors are corrupt and bought off. Sad day that it’s 2011 and soring still exists. If judges wouldnt pin then it would help put an end to this practice.. Frankly I think pads should be banned in all shows. Sad thing the majority of the public doesnt even know what a natural correct running walk looks like..

@Hogguide You keep mentioning how long the horses live, so you believe that if as long as what you are doing doesn’t KILL a horse, at least in a short period of time, then it’s OK?

Why don’t any of these “riders” pat their horses on the neck for working so hard for these dumb ribbons (and money)? And come to that, why are these horses panting harder after a couple of turns around the ring than any jumper after 3 courses of 8 jumps? It’s interesting to see how comfortably the old horses could canter. Now, a canter is ‘spur, yank, spur, yank’ just to keep the horses from falling off their high heels.

very interesting. To me if you can’t post or ride a 5 gaited saddlebred… The Tennessee Walking horse is the way to go. I had one his papers were burnt in a fire. he was 17 when I bought him, then sold him to a stable in Iowa. I found his new owners & he was still giving lessons to children when he was like 21 y/o! the best horse I ever owned!

so beautiful..my favorite will always be shakers shocker cause his owner never sored him & she was VERY outspoken against it!!

My horse has Midnight Sun, Ebony’s Masterpiece, Wilson’s Allen, Merry Go Boy, Sun’s Ace of Spade, Sun’s Delight D, Go Man Go, Tripple Lady, Pride of Stanley, in her back ground and she is 8 years ofd. She is listed in Equine now. Her name is Lady’s Best Girl She is Golden Champagne and she is a loveable girl. Very smart and willing does anything you ask of her.

@GhostFearMe I was honored to help care for Shaker’s full brother, Shaker’s Southern Heir, kids could crawl over and under him and he never cared, when his owner would breed him, she never had to put him in tie downs or twitch him or any of the horrible things I’ve seen others do to their studs, if it looked like the mare would kick, she’d calmly call him back and he’d go right to her. Greatest horse I was ever around!

Heavens, I was at that 1969 horse show,was a kid, and man the skies opened up, and actually flooded the whole place! The drains in the ring got plugged from so much runoff and the horses were nearly swimming, we were nearly swimming to get to our cars! lol! I can remember seeing a wallet float by with money sticking out of it, being a kid I wanted to grab it, hehe. Cars were stuck in the instant mud, people couldn’t even get out of the parking lot, it was nuts, but fun in a crazy way!

oh wanted to say thank you for this, brings back so many great memories for me. I remember watching Another Masterpiece come into the ring, and I fell instantly in love with that horse. I think Shades of Carbon and Ebony’s True Grit were in that one, too, Shades got it next year and Grit the one after that.I was rooting for Another Masterpiece, my aunt for Shades of Carbon, and my mom for Ebony’s True Grit, I’ve always teased her he had to try 3 times to get it, rofl, but they were all great.tx!