That’s Jeffrey Fetzer with SWAT. Nice horse!!
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Thanks! If you’re going to be there all week, I’d appreciate your thoughts (and any pictures) as the week goes on.
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I have a longer video - that horse just floated!!!
We leave today - I was lucky enough to be able to tag along for the weekend but my farm needs me back home so I must go.
Tremendous classes. The hunter class was terrific and I really wish they’d open up more divisions of it because there were 20 in the class. It is proving to be highly competitive.
It may be just my perception, but I saw a lot more natural never cut tails this year, not just in the hunters but in other divisions as well.
Lots of newcomers ribboned. I had two friends for whom it was their first year take a 3rd and a 6th in competitive classes (respectively).
I’ll post some more photos & videos when I’m off of hotel wifi, but I thought largely the judging was excellent, the horses of super high quality, and lots of very good riders and drivers. It’s nice to see full classes, in my region some classes only have one or two, which isn’t good for the industry IMO.
One of the things that I love about the saddlebreds is that there are so many people of all ages competing. William Shatner, of course, was there driving a roadster. Today’s classes that I will miss include the 10 and under Equitation.
My husband wants a roadster pony. I think this is the first time I’ve taken him to a horse show that he ever indicated any interest in participating himself (and I have dragged this poor man to AQHA, and USEF hunter/jumper shows all across the country for the last 20 years). Actually he’s in love with the hackneys altogether and was explaining to me how we have some smaller stalls that they would fit right in (which I always secretly thought would be good for hackneys but shhh let’s let him think it is his idea). So I see a hackney purchase in my future!
More soon!
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Good to hear about your husband 
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Oh I hope your husband gets a hackney so we can hear all about it!
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I promised more pics and here I am!
As I mentioned I was super excited to see the hunters. Though they are definitely not hunters like hunter/jumpers are, they still were a really good class. The horses I picked for first and second were placed that way, which is nice. The qualifiers were really hard since they only allowed 20, and I know a number of people who got pretty disappointed that they didn’t split it or have more divisions - maybe someday.
Hopefully these load!
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has there been any word on what caused Nosey Rosey to die?
I haven’t heard anything, in fact that article has more info than I had originally heard. Poor kid - waiting for the judge when the horse suddenly rears and collapses. My guess is maybe aneurism? Although they normally just drop, don’t they?
No clue but what a freak accident. That mare was spectacular and always took care of her kid. What a loss.
Read that the little girl had surgery but will make a full recovery.
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Totally scary for the other kids in the lineup too. That’s got to be traumatizing for all.
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thanks, I read one article that the show officials/vets really wanted to know the cause in case it was infectious.
Horse was 8 or 9 it appears, and was a very success junior exhibitor equitation mount The barn is based in the Houston area
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Yeah, they did send the horse for necropsy but I don’t know how quick those results show up.
Heartbreaking all the way around.
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I heard from my trainer (he’s there) it was an aneurism.
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Rosey was really a nice horse
Thanks for the update, loosing one unexpectedly is very hard.
When daughter’s young Morgan had to be euthanized after a pasture accident, that was something that was very hard.
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So, I haven’t posted in awhile because a lot has been going on. But I thought I’d post a small update and see how the rest of you were doing.
The 10 year old finally has recovered from a bad shoeing incident, and is progressing nicely. Here are some quick clips from his long lining session today. He is out of shape but really had a lot of power today. I’m not asking for any collection, just for him to be forward and straight.
The 8 year old went a bit feral. I had to be away for about a month, due to my husband’s work, and he “forgot” all of his training. So we are just focused on doing simple things like trotting on the circle in the lines without bolting. He is spicy right now. Which I’d like to harness into forward instead of being ridiculous, which is his preference. I’d like to be able to jog him but not in this state.
Anyway, how’s everyone else?
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Resurrecting this thread because it has been very unseasonably warm lately (59 degrees yesterday in February in Iowa!) so I have gotten tack back on my horse. We’ve been jogging 10-15 minutes every other day, trying to slowly get some muscle tone back on his pudgy butt.
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Nice!!! I was working them every day and then we had a snow storm hit that took us out for about a week and I’ve been loathe to get started again lest it do that again. Thinking about it this weekend though, it’s supposed to be 75! I have a feeling we’re going to get hot quick this season.
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Maybe this thread is a good place for me to ask this burning question. What determines whether a Saddlebred is trained to rack? Do some rack naturally?
Thanks,
Owner-of-perhaps-the-worlds’-only-5-gaited-OTTB
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Very few gait naturally although there are some who will amble. They usually don’t train them to be 5-gaited though if they amble naturally becuase they will have a soft trot, and in order to compete they need all 5 gaits (although no one really cares about the canter - even though they do canter - it’s the funniest thing).
From what I have read and understood from trainers there are a few things when selecting a horse who may be a racking prospect, although some trainers try to rack all colts and the ones that take to it stick with it. First is a very strong bone and hind end - racking is very intense for a horse and they need to be able to hold up. The horse has to be naturally fairly forward and high energy - a slow or lazy colt won’t rack. And then they have to like it and look good. A trainer will pick the division that will show the horse off the best.
From what I understand also, though I’ve never done it, loads of breeds that are not traditionally gaited can be taught to do some approximation of a rack. It is a matter of breaking up the timing of the footfalls - and there are something like 100 different “rhythms” that horses can do. It is not entirely dependent on the gaited gene that they’ve identified, as most saddlebreds who end up 5-gaited don’t have it. I suspect that there are more genes related to different abilities to gait than the ones that we have found thus far.
Does your OTTB actually rack? That’s super cool. I’m not a speed demon so I’m considering a slower walker as my next mount, but I’ve thought about seeing if I could break up my main horse’s (saddlebred) walk into a gaited horse walk and then maybe a little foxtrot. Though they aren’t traditional gaits for them, I think it might keep me riding him despite my bad back and hips 
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