Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Phew, the "tail" thing

Well now I feel better!  I linked a couple of old videos of G trotting and galloping in a field back in 2003 and he held his tail to the left in both.  So phew, nothing new! 

Now I'm wondering is it normal for horses to hold their tails one way or another?  Since he was trained to show, and I know his tail wasn't cut, can the tail sets effect the way a tail sets?  Or is it like any creature just normal?

I guess as long as it sways in a relaxed fashion he's good.

I've been enjoying Mark Rashid's novel "Out of the Wild" and sure wish I had an afternoon to just sit and read it straight through.  It was a little hard to start, but once it got rolling it's been wonderful.  Not knocking it mind you, but I know some people will stop reading a book if it doesn't capture them from the first page.  Give this one a whirl, you'll be glad you did!

2 comments:

Tammy in TX said...

Here is what I have been told by an Arabian breeder in CA 20 years ago. My Arab Fawtal, his tail cocked to the right. And when he ran, as most Arabs do, his tail went up, but still cocked to the right a bit. I was told that was because the left ligament on the tail was ever so slightly longer than the right and that is why it cocked to the right. She told me that horses destined to be top show horses had surgery to fix this and that it was only a cosmetic issue. Hope this helps and I hope she was right.

Kate a.k.a. MBG said...

Interesting, thanks for sharing that! I'm going to get the massage therapist out to look at him anyhow. Last night he was having a hard time picking up his canter, and seemed really stiff in the poll. After riding he was ground tied in the aisle and when I stood at his side he turned his head toward me and I heard a loud pop in his neck. So I did a little massage and then tried to get him to stand square and he wouldn't. Either one front leg or one back leg would be forward. I'm thinking something is going on in that hip of his.

Lisa posted a cool link to horse yoga, and I'm saving my pennies to get the video. He definitely can reach to the right more than the left.