Pigeon toed

Not the kind that pigeons wear with pride, but Cheyenne.

Rick, Anne, and I ran into Hoppy in Dover Saddlery on Sunday. Anne started asking if we knew that person over there, I thought she meant someone else, and she dragged me over to see who she was looking at. Hoppy! I tore Rick away from the glove display and pushed him in front of me, and made him start the conversation. I'm such a wuss. Still, it was a little like seeing a celebrity.

With Hoppy was her daughter. She rode Gene back in the day, and won tons of ribbons and trophies with him. She told us some stories about how he could do everything and anything (but is scared of elephants... he saw elephants?), and we invited her to come by for a ride. She seemed interested to get back with her old buddy. :)

So, now we know that Gene has also done endurance races. He's also fox hunted. Is there any damn thing this horse hasn't done? Well, he hasn't done the big lick.

He also went by the name Genie during her time with him. His full brother, Sparkling Bart, went by the name Sparky. I was wondering what they could call him that was... um.... manly. Neither could be called Bart, as that was their sire's barn name.

Anyway, we discussed Cheyenne. We also got to hear Hoppy's opinion that there are two types of appaloosas - ones that are worth their weight in gold (like Gene, she added), and those that are best suited for Alpo cans. From what I've seen, Chey is a jewel of a mare.

She'd prefer to work with Chey the same day that Dawn does, and that would have to be once Anne owns her if she owns her. As Dawn put it in a later email, Hoppy straightens the horse out, and Dawn trims the straightened horse. Hoppy believes that her adjustments stick better that way. Anne is totally on board for that.

Dawn is optimistic about Chey's feet after being shown some pictures. Heels long, forward, and completely out in front of her legs. Fronts too square. Bottoms too flat. The flatness of the trim is contributing to the pigeon toes. Recovery would be slow and gradual, with Chey making the changes herself - just like Gene did.

I think Leeandra will probably come out and do a lesson of sorts with Cheyenne and Anne, where she goes over her and talks about her future usability. Then, Anne might actually get to ride her. She hasn't yet because of her legs. Leeandra seems to think from the pictures that there should be no problem, that her body has probably become accustomed to the conformation fault. Depending on how she's tracking, it might just show as nothing more than a paddle effect when she moves. I know she tracks short, but I don't know anything more than that since I really don't know diddly.