Orca
Well-Known Member
To be fair, though I actually think it makes it worse not better, I think it is one incident that made the holes (though not the other weals, they are extras).
I think the spur dug into the horse and dragged back over the skin for several inches as he swung his leg back over a fence (you can see the weal if you expand the picture enough). By then, there was a bunching of skin at the end of the arc, and the spur then cut across the top of three wrinkles, leaving three holes of decreasing size.
So it was a one off injury in causing bleeding, but a fairly substantial misuse of the spur to have caused such a mark.
Agreed. This was my take on it from the outset. It's a shame really, that no-one sought to address his leg position with him at some point before this. The toe out/ heel in and swinging leg style of his jump stance is not conducive to safe spur use. There is one 'scrape' and numerous wheals, all of which could have been avoided.
I understand that it can be difficult to hold a good position over high jumps but it is not difficult to be aware of where spurs are at any given time. In fact, that really is a prerequisite to using them at all.