Just when I think I've heard it all about horses and ponies

Are you pulling my leg?

 

They have all types of crap they put on horses for showing, tail and mane extensions, white or colored dye to enhance coat color, neck sweats, all kinds of stuff.............. I wouldn't be surprised. I think a lot of shows have gone away from judging how a horse truly is and became more like beauty pageants.

 

My theory is that people notice things a lot more than they used too. (although I agree with the change in the trend of what you see QH's looking like The QH breed has about 4 different breeds within itself now-the TB type, the cow horse type it used to be (cutting, barrels, etc.), the beefcake type (halter), and the in between type-the western pleasure ones.

But in terms of lameness, etc.-I think it's because people keep learning more and more and are seeing minor deviations in stride and ways of going. For instance, we used to feel that saddles were one size fits all and that horses were just being *naughty* when they objected to work. Now, many horse people look at it as "well the horse is bucking because the saddle doesn't fit and the withers are being pinched" or the "bit is pinching the nose, that's why it's flinging its head"

I joke and say horse ownership used to be easy when we could blame the horse-before I knew about saddle fit, lameness evaluations, and nutrition

As for the eye lashes, that's a new one to me. What breeds were they talking about? Are you sure they weren't talking about the forelock, main, or tail? That's been common for many years now.

 

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No, I've never heard of that either! Fake tails, yes, eyelashes, no! But I have heard of hair spray on your tack to make it shiny for dressage.

I do think that the horse world is changeing. But I think that's just part of a natural evolution. The warmbloods have definitely changed. Breeders are aiming for a lot more typey and a lot less drafty thick horses. Refinement always seems to be the goal in mind. I have noticed the horses' temperaments have declined, it seems to be the first thing to go by way of the weasel yet last thing to be considered. I was scribing for a breed show once and the judge was really harsh to a very well-behaved stallion. He kept saying "That's no stallion!". I was shocked, the horse was very nicely conformed and a true young gentlemen. Apparantly, the judge thought the stallion should have been trying to rear and strike his handler--like the one horse he liked. Friesians have also experienced a change, going from a Baroque to a more sporthorse shaped body.

I think colic has a lot to do with management. Some farms understand gut flora of the horse, some don't. A lot of colics I witnessed were caused by improper workout routines--so the rider's fault. Colic isn't a real big issue in my area, but where I used to live, it was very frequent. Weather, soil, and temperature/humidity can play a role in colics as well.

Perhaps we are seeing more injuries in our horses because we are demanding more from them for longer periods of time at a younger age. People pushing too fast to get the blue ribbon results instead of thinking, "will this horse be sound at 10 yrs old?" Stuff like that. Anyway, just my ramblings on the thought.

 

I've been in dressage for almost 50 years and never seen anyone put hair spray on a saddle.

Around serious riders, that would make the person a laughing stock. People would have hysterics and make fun of them.

Dressage people are fairly notorious for having really wicked senses of humor. Once when my horse started bucking the trainer yelled out, 'I'm sure you'll be fine, but if not, can I have your saddle?' Another time my friend's orthodox priest dad showed up at the barn to pick up his daughter - the trainer yelled, 'You're going so slow I had to call a priest to give you the Last Rights!'

All the hard work gives us a really, really weird and twisted gallows humor. In that sort of environment, anyone who showed up at a show or clinic with hairspray would be 100% FGFT (Fair Game for Torture). If Guantanamo wanted to really do a good job, they would have hired a dressage trainer to head up interrogations.

There is a spray on stickum someone might have mistaken that for hair spray, or tried to use hairspray. Good way to ruin your saddle.

Yes, a fair number of people use stickum, but it comes in a little tin or rollon container. It's better than pulling a bunch of muscles when you're trying to compete in the pouring rain. We put it on our reins too.

My saddle conditioner has some natural stickum in it, my gloves are Neumann's, they are soaked in some oily stickum before they leave the manufacturer. They never slip.

 

But I have heard of hair spray on your tack to make it shiny for dressage.

There is a product (by Feibing maybe?) called SaddleLac that is a lacquer finish for tack. It holds in the moisture while at the same time protecting the leather from dirt and dust. It does give the leather a sheen. I've used it for years on my stock saddles and I believe it has lengthened their using life. I'm still riding a saddle I bought in '76! that I have used it on after every major tear down and oiling and feel it has added to the saddle's useful life. It's my "everyday" saddle, so it's seen a lot of use. But hairspray?!? Isn't there alcohol in hair spray? That would REALLY dry out the leather!


Rusty​