The horse is a 7 year old Icelandic. She is a 5-speed (as they say here, but to me that's 6, cuz they can also gallop. Right? Walk, trot, canter, gallop, pace, tolt.).
She's well trained, has been shown, has no flight reflex. Nothing worried her, and she kept her ears at withers height most of the time.
The horse is a doll, but...
if you know me by now, you know what I don't like in pasterns. And she had that thing.
I feel bad, because I know that it might not lead to DSLD, or anything similar, but I have turned many horses down, between 2011 and 2015, due to my fear of this.
I know it's considered a smooth ride to many, and not a problem at all by most.
I see near horizontal pasterns in Haegerhof's breeding stallion, but apparently it's not a problem for the people who buy his foals.
This sweet, been-there, done-that horse would be so awesome for my sister in law. But...
When I first saw the horse my eyes went immediately to the front legs which looked suspicious to me but I didn't really know until I saw the videos on my computer that the hoof and pastern angles don't match even at a walk.
I think there is some mud on her leg making it look worse than it is here. It wasn't apparent in the dimly lit arena.
She rode the pace and the horse really powered forward from her hind end beautifully. Out in the daylight, the horse had a golden sheen to her coat. The owner jumped on her bareback to take her back to her Winter paddock.
I wish I could have been more helpful, that I could refer her to experts. I know my vet would say no, because I've sent him photos like this and he discouraged me. J's sister doesn't have a vet of her own yet.
Last night she wrote me to say she will pass on the mare. The horse was nearly perfect, but no horse is perfect. She said it's too much of a risk, not knowing if the horse will be rideable in 10 years.
I hope I can go look at more Icelandics with her soon.
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5 comments:
I would pass on her as well. those are really low pasterns!
It makes you wonder if the people who had her knew this and that is why she was being sold. How can you be so involved with horses and not understand this? Sad. Nice little horse. It is good your SIL listened to you.
MaCor5, actually her mane is just showing new growth - see how even it is, the part that sticks up? Some horses have such coarse, thick hair and the new growth has to have some length to it before it is heavy enough to lie down. My SIL saw the horse in Summer and she does not suffer from sweet itch. I'm glad you're still reading my blog - I wonder what happened to Majour.
I am not fond of pasterns like that either, but Im also of the theory if the horse is perfect to ride and shes 7 and never been lame maybe its a risk worth taking. There is no guarantee in any horse that it will be rideable in 10 years (or 1 year really). But I guess if there are a lot of Iceys around might be worth it to look at a few more.
Yikes those pasterns are scary... I'm glad she's passing. She can always come back to her if she can't find anything else as good and decides the risk is worth it. Now I want to get a video of Chrome trotting with me on him to see how low his go lol.
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