Читать книгу Finding the Missed Path. The Art of Restarting Horses онлайн

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I asked Cooper for the lope six or seven more times that afternoon, and while things did get a little smoother each time we did a transition, it never did feel right. So after about a total of 30 minutes and getting one fairly nice transition, we quit for the day.

Remember, just weeks before Cooper had gotten a clean bill of health from a highly skilled chiropractor, a vet, and Spencer, our dentist. His feet were in very good shape as well as being well balanced, and we had also made sure that all of his tack fit him before and during the trip. I checked his back as well as the rest of his body after our ride and could find no soreness or stiffness anywhere.

I have to admit, this was quite puzzling to me because when a horse acts the way Cooper did during a transition, particularly from trot to lope, it is almost always due to some sort of physical problem, usually in the lower back. These problems are usually easy to find by just palpating the area around the loin. Lower-back issues can also show themselves in how the horse travels downhill. Oftentimes, when a horse has trouble supporting himself properly going downhill with a rider on his back, and sometimes even without, it can also point to a lower-back issue. These kinds of problems usually show up by the horse feeling as if he has to travel very slowly and sort of disjointed downhill, or he might want to traverse the hill, rush down it, or crowhop going up or down the hill.