New Totilas Video - Problems!

:-( Tongue over bit too. This was supposed to be a freestyle demo. Coach had to come in and work on the issues.

Get Embed Code

Tags:

Comment

Comment by Barbara F. on February 8, 2012 at 11:15am: Ok, well if you are always right, then I leave you to your certainly.

I am more open to any number of possible scenarios, so we can agree to disagree on this one.

Comment by E. Allan Buck on February 8, 2012 at 11:12am: Barbara:

I darn sure can say when it comes to stating what I see wrong with the muscle structure I have not been wrong...though I have often discovered "more" wrong when palpating a horse.

You say you are seeing "the results of tension". No, tension is the result of stress. Tension is usually distributed throughout the body equally.

Jackie has stated quite well several aspects of the visual ques that show the horse has tetanic contractions throughout the lumbar, pelvic and hamstring regions.

Comment by Barbara F. on February 8, 2012 at 11:11am: p.s. Just to be extra clear, I'm neither defending nor condeming Rath. Maybe the horse is sore, maybe he isn't sore. I don't know, I wasn't there and I have never seen the horse in real life, in schooling or behind the scenes in the barn, getting tacked up, etc. just on video clips.

I just think too many people jump to conclusions based on video clips. I ride at an international barn. Some of the top dressage riders in the world have ridden here. Olympic and WEG mounts, and they are all treated with beyond-belief care and ridden superbly, with such skill and beauty it would make your jaw drop to see it day after day. If Rath and his team are anything like the international riders I know, they are beyond obssessed with Totilas' health, soundness and wellbeing. It is unfair to judge based on video snippets. Just sayin'!

Comment by Barbara F. on February 8, 2012 at 11:01am: Hey Jackie,

I'm not seeing what you're seeing - or we are interpreting it differently. I am seeing the results of a tension, but I guess time will tell. I hope the horse is fine. he sure is gorgeous.

Allan, even the finest, most experienced vets in the world have been wrong - and I'll bet none of them would make a diagnosis based on a video, rather than a clinical exam. If you have NEVER been wrong, you are the only person in the world with that ability! It's hard to have a productive conversation if you are going to just say you are right 100% of the time! where, exactly is this horse showing lameness? Please point out where you see it so we can continue the conversation productively. Thanks.

Comment by Jackie Cochran on February 7, 2012 at 6:45pm: :33, this was my first difficulty with the ride, as he goed around the corner, just seeing the rider, it looks like the horse is moving like a canter.

1:14 on the diagonal I get the impression that the hind legs are not working equally, sort of like one stays on the ground a millisecond more than the other, and his left hind seems to have a different arc than his right hind when in the air. I am getting the impression he is periodically breaking into the canter from this later,

1:53 again, the arcs of the hind legs when they are off the ground are different.

4:44 goes from the piaffe into the terre-a-terre, a high school air no longer used in competition.

4:58 I get the impression here that SOMETHING in his hind legs is bothering him, possibly something in his back

5:00 it looks like he is changing leads on his hind legs while his fore legs stay in the correct lead.

9:14 it looks like his right hind comes further up than his left hind.

10:18 his right hind leg looks like it is "hitching" up compared to his left hind.

He seemed to move better the further BTV his rider kept him (the consistant BTV helped steady the horse).

I am sure there may be more, but I am just an ignorant FS rider, I don't often watch dressage horses this closely.

I only picked this up because I spent the whole video just watching the horse's hind legs.

Comment by E. Allan Buck on February 7, 2012 at 6:15pm: Barbara.....I do equine myotherapy on horses and I have never been wrong when it comes to dissemenating where the muscle structure is in tetanic contraction. Totilas has as back and hindquarter with tetanic contractions.

Comment by Barbara F. on February 7, 2012 at 5:46pm: Gee, where is he lame, guys? At which mark exactly in the tape? I am seeing a horse who is tense, probably from the brief warm-up or from something else, but we'll never know why for sure. I have certainly ridden a tense horse and that's how they go when they get "all in a knot" mentally from something. My last horse was not tense at all, but when he had to go near a parked car he became beside himself with tension and he looked tight and half-cantering/half-trotting. Another horse I had became so scared after one of the judges fluttered something in the judge's hut that I ended up riding an entire PSG test cutting off a quarter of the ring. I'm glad no one judged me as abusing my for those things, because there was nothing I could do in those moments.

Again, I'm seeing a horse that is tense. I've been there. He did his best and it was unfortunate. I'm not seeing a lame horse or abuse, just a very challenging ride in a difficult situation.

Comment by wildehex on February 7, 2012 at 2:06pm: No time to warm up (he was also riding the other two stallions)...on a horse which is usually warmed up for a very long time. The problem is always having to trying to convert a horse which has been ridden compressed to something else, not easy in the best of worlds. The soundness question is one which has plagued him for some time, so we shall see going forward. And now he is in active breeding which he has not been nearly so much as before.

Comment by Marlene Thoms on February 7, 2012 at 2:09am: Aiyeeyaya. Gives me a backache just to watch. Give Totilas a holiday. R&R, then rehab. Six months to a year is my guess.