 |
| Connor hinds |
“No foot, no horse,” as the saying goes. One of my most vivid memories of having
Castleberry’s Protégé (Shae) as my Training & Handling II horse in college
was when his owner/the chair of the equine department, Dr. Marks, brought him out
for a conformation analysis in a class that may or may not have been related to
conformation. A self-professed 'lameness
nut', she’s obsessively studied everything to do with lameness, including foot
and skeletal conformation, and it wasn’t uncommon for her to slam her binder
shut and declare that we were leaving the classroom and going to the barn to “molest
some horses” (aka, study their conformation/movement or perform lameness exams
or something). Equine college was
awesome.
Much of what she said that day regarding Shae has been lost
on me, though I can imagine she focused on his nice shoulder angle and
well-tied in neck, his beautiful hindquarters and dinged him for his very slightly
offset knees. Not even her most
treasured and wished-for pony escaped her critical eye, as she declared “barn
blindness” to be a terrible disease, and said you should always be aware of
your horse’s conformational and behavioral faults because none of them are perfect. The one area in which she praised him without
end, though, was his feet.
 |
| Connor R hind, three days post-trim. My one defined white sock... |
 |
| Connor L fore |
“Would you LOOK at those
feet? I’ve seen textbook drawings of
hooves that didn’t look as good as those feet! Nice and concave, hard, fores are round, hinds
are slightly pointed, nice looking heels. That’s how you
know Lisa bred him, she puts feet like that on all of her Cobs. More people should breed for feet like this.” A teaching moment for sure, since some of
these girls might breed future generations of sport horses.
And it was true, when I met Lisa
and her ponies for the first time, I noticed that all of their feet looked the
same, and like nothing I’d ever seen on the Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds I’d
grown up with. Big feet, strong feet,
perfect feet. “Good gravel-crunches,
right there!” was another Dr. Marks-ism regarding Cob feet.
Connor inherited these good Cob
feet. I intend on keeping him barefoot indefinitely,
and I think my farrier is breathing a sigh of relief as I say that, Jen says he
swears Connor’s feet are going to break his tools one day every time he trims
him. Visitors regularly exclaim that his
feet are bigger than many of the full-sized horses’ feet.
 |
| Connor L hind |
That doesn’t mean he’s invincible
to lameness, or that his feet never chip and crack – they do, especially in this
drought when he’s stomping at flies on ground that hasn’t seen a proper rain in
nearly two months. But his feet, good
bone and good conformation give him the best chance to stay sound as the things
I ask him to do get more physically demanding.
I love Cob feet!!! I did have to get used to the different shape though.
ReplyDeleteEnvious of those great barefoot feet...and think of all the money you save!
ReplyDelete