horse tripping

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hardy14

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i have a standerdbred gelding who has been a harness racer,now he is being ridden he is proving very easy much easier than my other x pacer.the problem i have is he has a tendancy to trip over in trot a little but more so in canter he has been checked so it dosent seem to be pain related has anyone had a horse that trips or any tips to make him pick his feet up thanks hardy
 
Tripping Is most commonly caused by poor foot form. How do his feet look? In canter, this is almost always balance related... Pain related even though you say it is not pain. Have you checked his back?
 
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Is he working from behind or pulling from the front. My boy used to trip a lot when he was working on the forehand soon as he learnt what his back end was for he stopped tripping.
 
Have to agree with vanner too, although, being a harness racer, I am sure he knows where his backend is... Retraining is always tricky. It is a process of elimination.
 
Half halts, lateral work, circles and serpentines, transitions. Keep working on those and hopefully you will have a mor balanced horse :)
 
he has had back checked also i have only been riding him a few weeks,he does seem to be working from behind and he is lovely and forward he just does not pick hios front feet up all of the time
 
Well, keep going. A few weeks is early in a retraining programme... If the tripping continues after a few more weeks the reconsider the pathology of tripping. What method of training are you pursuing?
 
Tripping can be many things, but with my cob he tripped as he was on his forehand - which looking at your horse's history could well be the problem. Choose your instructor carefully, it is suprising how many really don't understand how to get a horse off its forehand.

It took quite a lot of training (including retraining myself) but it is now a distant memory. I would say it took a lot more than a few weeks - I think he was still growing and had to develop strength in the correct places as well.

Good luck.
 
My boy used to trip a fair bit and to cut a long story short he was diagnosed with arthritis in one of his front fetlock joints, he was given a steroid injection and hasn't tripped since. I don't know for sure it was down to that but in hindsight I believe it was.
 
Meg trips quite a lot. This is (I think!) due to her being on the forehand and leaning on the bit.
It's not relative to her hooves, as she does it whether she's due a trim or just been done and farrier doesn't seem to think it's related.
She only does it in walk. Will be watching this thread with interest!
 
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