Funny, I just found an article on the Internet about cruppers and it says, "Confirmation of acceptance must be done on the lunge at the canter until all bucking stops." Yah, we'll keep working on this.
WHP, we are both careful to adjust it so you can turn your hand sideways between the strap and the rump and when the horse is trotting around it's loose. Like you said cruppers should only tighten on hills. She is clamping down on it and that is how she galled herself, bucking with her tail clamped down repeatedly.
I have a rubber Zilco one but my leather one seems more horse friendly so that's what I'm using for now. It looks just like yours in your photo in your blogpost on cruppers.
You can see it in the photo where Eryn holds it up victoriously after our trail ride.
I really don't mind walking and huffing up these hills to let Eryn get a chance to have fun and experience Mara on trails. She agreed with me that Mara still doesn't know what to do with her legs/feet on hills.
For me it's fun to hear her observations and watch Mara think things through.
I hope we can do this regularly. It's fun.
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5 comments:
You could try wrapping the crupper, very smoothly, with vet wrap. A trainer suggested that for Pippin... and suggested making it very large and soft!
I posted a picture here: http://livingadream2.blogspot.com/2012/03/hobby-horse-blog-hop-5-shopping-spree.html
I had only bad experiences with leather crupper tailpieces. I had two come apart (same day! different horses!) and discovered that the inner bits are held together by staples (!!!!) The clue was the blood running down one horse's rump. Yeah. #badplan
The soft rubber tailpieces can be "lubed" with vaseline or even spit. I had much better experiences with those.
What news on a saddle? Getting a saddle that fits you both is going to help So. Much!
Hoping she accepts the crupper sooner rather than later.
I didn't wish to suggest that you don't know how to adjust a crupper. Still, when I ran a string of horses in the high mountains, needing to negotiate thirty degree slopes, even then only a minority actually needed a crupper. Your mare doesn't look as if she lacks shoulders. Is the real problem saddle fit? I've been surprised on some terribly steep slopes having bought a saddle that fits really well - it simply didn't move when I was asking why on earth I was riding in such a crazy place. So why is your crupper engaging when you seem to be riding in gentle terrain?
Mara is so gorgeous!!!
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