tl;dr: Doesn't work for Dixie.
Just over a year ago, I ordered the Woolback and was initially delighted with it. I still want to love it - it's super lightweight, Dixie gets good back scores, and it's easy to clean. (Unless you get caught with it in the brand-new clothes washer. Spouses do not like that shit.) But it wads up under the saddle, and that's totally unacceptable.
I can't flat-out blame the Woolback, because it only seems to bunch up when we're going downhill. Dixie paces downhills. That side-to-side motion, plus the braced hollow/neutral back position, just works the pad forward. There's no stiffness to the Woolback to hold it in place. :(
But getting off and untacking and straightening the pad after every set of downhills is totally unacceptable. Bottom line: Don't buy a Woolback if you have a pacey horse and a western-type saddle.
I'm trying out a Reinsman next; I'll review it when I get some saddle time again. :)
Showing posts with label pace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pace. Show all posts
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Saturday, February 6, 2010
The things I do for that horse
My husband and I went up to see Dixie, before the snow started really coming down. He took some videos of us trying to trot out in a straight line. When we got home, I figured out how to use iMovie and pasted all the relevant bits of the clips together, with titles and everything! Enjoy!
Yes, there's a 1/4" thick layer of cement-mud caked on her hooves. I tried to clean it off and bent my hoofpick on it. I guess when it warms up I'll soak her feet?
Yes, my horse still has issues with moving in a straight line. She's getting better though.
Yes, she trots sometimes and paces sometimes. IDFK how she decides what her legs are going to do. :rolleyes:
She's a good horse, wobbly pacey muddy mess that she is. Let me know what you see in the video!
Dixie's gait pattern from Funder on Vimeo.
Yes, there's a 1/4" thick layer of cement-mud caked on her hooves. I tried to clean it off and bent my hoofpick on it. I guess when it warms up I'll soak her feet?
Yes, my horse still has issues with moving in a straight line. She's getting better though.
Yes, she trots sometimes and paces sometimes. IDFK how she decides what her legs are going to do. :rolleyes:
She's a good horse, wobbly pacey muddy mess that she is. Let me know what you see in the video!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
We've got to pace ourselves...
My husband came out and took pictures yesterday! Yay!
I did some c/t to get Dixie to stand still so I could mount. It worked fantastically well. I feel pretty stupid for not having thought of this earlier. (Well, I couldn't have thought of it very much earlier; I just started clicker work with her in February. But I could've tried clickering her last February!) I suppose next I should introduce the mounting block. She is within 1/2" of being too tall for me to mount from the ground, and I know it's not good for her back for me to clamber up on her like I do.
She was less awful about the bit. Not great, not like she was in January and February at Hillside, but she wasn't trying 100% of the time to rip the reins out of my hands. I think, in the absence of any better idea, that I'll just keep ignoring her bad behavior. Don't reward it, don't punish it, and maybe it'll extinguish.
And look! I have video of the rare and wonderful* pace!
*Actually, it's common and uncomfortable.
Dixie, pace and rack (?) from Funder on Vimeo.
I think at the very end of the video she breaks into a rack for just a couple seconds. When she switched out of the pace into something more comfortable I quit urging her forward and let her come back down to a walk.
She doesn't usually pace, but that's all she did yesterday. I have five more little videos... all pacey. Weird. I'm off to read up on the pace and how to help her not do it.
I did some c/t to get Dixie to stand still so I could mount. It worked fantastically well. I feel pretty stupid for not having thought of this earlier. (Well, I couldn't have thought of it very much earlier; I just started clicker work with her in February. But I could've tried clickering her last February!) I suppose next I should introduce the mounting block. She is within 1/2" of being too tall for me to mount from the ground, and I know it's not good for her back for me to clamber up on her like I do.
She was less awful about the bit. Not great, not like she was in January and February at Hillside, but she wasn't trying 100% of the time to rip the reins out of my hands. I think, in the absence of any better idea, that I'll just keep ignoring her bad behavior. Don't reward it, don't punish it, and maybe it'll extinguish.
And look! I have video of the rare and wonderful* pace!
*Actually, it's common and uncomfortable.
Dixie, pace and rack (?) from Funder on Vimeo.
I think at the very end of the video she breaks into a rack for just a couple seconds. When she switched out of the pace into something more comfortable I quit urging her forward and let her come back down to a walk.
She doesn't usually pace, but that's all she did yesterday. I have five more little videos... all pacey. Weird. I'm off to read up on the pace and how to help her not do it.
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