Meet Muffin :)

[ycbm]

Many congratulations I hope you have lots of fun.
I’d really like it if you would start a hoof diary thread with photos starting when the shoes come off to show how they change.

Since the forum has made it so easy to post photos and you ask so nicely, I will He will have some big changes. He has naturally small feet which have spread in shoes. They are the wrong angle, and his feet have, like many (most?) TBs migrated to the front of his legs and the back of the shoe is under the front of his cannon bone, not under the middle where it should be. I suspect, from the way he stands, that when I take a close look I will find that one of them is not level, either, but has one wall higher than the other.

I'll post the first set, with the shoes on, in a new thread soon. Watch out for it

 

[Mule]

Since the forum has made it so easy to post photos and you ask so nicely, I will He will have some big changes. He has naturally small feet which have spread in shoes. They are the wrong angle, and his feet have, like many (most?) TBs migrated to the front of his legs and the back of the shoe is under the front of his cannon bone, not under the middle where it should be. I suspect, from the way he stands, that when I take a close look I will find that one of them is not level, either, but has one wall higher than the other.

I'll post the first set, with the shoes on, in a new thread soon. Watch out for it

It should makes things easier that he only has fronts on.

 

[Mule]

I'll be interested to follow his transition to barefoot. The beast has very very flat hooves with extremely thin soles. His sire is a flat racer and his dam was an ISH. The cross has resulted in dinner plate hooves.🙄 Dressage training has made him more muscular and heavier with the increased bulk.

I take the beast out of shoes for a couple of months each year. The farrier can take the toes further back when he's not attaching a shoe. He'd be a good candidate for barefoot. The farrier is keen on it too. It will probably happen at some stage.

 

[Carrottom]

He looks fab, and in good condition if he's been roughed off for a few months. I do love a shaggy tb. Look forward to hearing more about him.

 

[Reacher]

Since the forum has made it so easy to post photos and you ask so nicely, I will He will have some big changes. He has naturally small feet which have spread in shoes. They are the wrong angle, and his feet have, like many (most?) TBs migrated to the front of his legs and the back of the shoe is under the front of his cannon bone, not under the middle where it should be. I suspect, from the way he stands, that when I take a close look I will find that one of them is not level, either, but has one wall higher than the other.

I'll post the first set, with the shoes on, in a new thread soon. Watch out for it

Thanks - will be very interesting to watch the changes.

 

[oldie48]

Good luck with muffin. I also love the name and your barn set up!

 

[ycbm]

Well I've ridden him and he's as quiet as a lamb and as green as grass. Just what we expected. He was bemused about where I wanted to put my legs, right down his sides, but not worried. if I treat him like a newly backed four year old I think we'll have it about right 😊

He has viral ear plaques at the moment (which hurt horses a lot) and he can't be bridled without taking it to pieces, even the reins, but I'm working on that. So far, I have got him to accept having a hoop of hose passed over his head. That will continue until I can touch his ears with it when taking it back off again, and get my hand fully onto his ear to push it forwards. At the moment I can touch the bottom third of his ears. He just needs working with every day.

His character is very sweet and quite submissive (just don't touch my ears!) and this morning I caught the pair of them on the barn cam having a mutual scratch, already. I thought we had a separation anxiety issue yesterday but it was just settling in nerves and today he was fine to go into his own stable and stay there while I did the chores.

I've had a good look at his feet. His heels are collapsed and badly under run and I am itching to get those shoes off! As soon as the clenches come up enough to buffer them up or nip them off, I'll take the shoes off and boot him up if it makes him sore.

 

[MrsMozart]

He's a lovely looking lad.

Here's to happy times together.

 

[twiggy2]

More photos 😞

 

[Tarragon]

I am looking forward to seeing his hoof photos. A bit like all the conformation and saddle fit photos - I learn an awful lot by seeing the photos and reading the responses

 

[ycbm]

More photos 😞

It's been too cold! Wednesday when I have a helper, if the weather isn't too dreadful 😏

 

[ycbm]

I am looking forward to seeing his hoof photos. A bit like all the conformation and saddle fit photos - I learn an awful lot by seeing the photos and reading the responses

I think he will make quite a good 'thoroughbreds can't go barefoot' case study. His feet are so typically TB in all the wrong ways. First post on Wednesday I hope, weather permitting. Look out for a new thread.

 

[ycbm]

Sorry, photography assistant peed off to town to buy me more presents, so no photos for you today, either. Some things just have to take priority 😅

But I have ridden him outside for the first time, mounted from the stirrup for the first time, and trotted for the first time. He's never been in an arena before, and you can tell. Straight lines are a challenge, and sticking to the side is not in the vocabulary. Neither is leg yield or bend or flex. So much for him to learn and me to teach him. He is mistrustful of his own body and will only swing forward instead of cramping backwards with encouragement. Definitely a backward thinking horse, but with no malice or laziness, just a basic lack of understanding of how to use himself. All he needs is time and work. And he's a lovely contrast with my 3 year old, who is very forward and moves very differently.

He's exceeded all my hopes of what I might be able to buy 😇.

 

[Hollychops]

He looks lovely and i hope you have lots of adventures with him...the name Muffin MClay if usually followed with 'like a bundle of hay'. Its from the Hairy McClary books by Lynley Dodd, along with Hercules Morse, as big as a horse, Bottomley Potts, all covered in spots, Schnitzel Von Krumm, with a very low tum and others.

 

[ycbm]

I have now cantered him a few strides and he is very short striding and bouncy but never in a million years going to run off with me 😊. Perfect for what I want, of course.

He's also had his first spook. My arena has a drop at one end of ten feet down into a road. Every horse I have ridden on it spooks when it first sees cyclists come up the road. Muffin initially froze, then shook a little with nerves. Many TBs at that point would explode, most horses have at least turned violently and tried to run off. Muffin just turned away and circled in walk, and then stopped and watched another two come up the hill. So this is brilliant behaviour and we now know that he isn't a overreactive horse.

Just hacking to check out now and I can't imagine that being much trouble.

Love him!

 

[Denbob]

What a lovely positive update! Looking forward to seeing many more (with some features from the lovely leggy Ludo as well?)

 

[ycbm]

What a lovely positive update! Looking forward to seeing many more (with some features from the lovely leggy Ludo as well?)

I rode Ludo as well this morning. For him, he behaved really badly 😟. He walked off two strides when I didn't have my stirrup and he stepped half a step sideways away from the jump blocks at the side of the arena 😂. He is the most amazing three year old! He's gone very looong - I think there's another height increase coming 👀

I'd love to do more with him but it would be silly while he is still growing like a weed. I'm aiming for longevity, not winning youngstock classes. This is why I needed a rideable companion, but I've got a bit more than just that in Muffin. If he isn't placed in some local Intros/Prelims this coming spring I'll be very surprised.


Ooh, also forgot to add that I carried a long whip on Muffin for the first time and deliberately touched his bum with it. Again, that would be enough to make many racers shoot off or explode but her didn't react at all.

 

[Velcrobum]

Very late to this but I also saw him on ROR website but was to far for me to go I am glad he has found a new home. I also got one from that website who is also big and very lacking in topline. Will be stunning when he has muscled up. Trainer had already taught him lots so we have steering can do circles, stands at a mounting block, I got on using the fence when I tried him is good to hack alone. Am looking forwards to the future

 

[ycbm]

Very late to this but I also saw him on ROR website but was to far for me to go I am glad he has found a new home. I also got one from that website who is also big and very lacking in topline. Will be stunning when he has muscled up. Trainer had already taught him lots so we have steering can do circles, stands at a mounting block, I got on using the fence when I tried him is good to hack alone. Am looking forwards to the future

Good luck with yours! Muffin's advert did him no favours at all - he looked as if his back legs were set on out behind him and his back was almost sway. He's not like that at all. Ex racers can make lovely horses for people who enjoy riding lightweights.

Feel free to add your experiences to any thread of mine, we can compare notes 📝

 

[ycbm]

First hack today !

Alone, because I don't have a lot of choice, no neighbours, friends all with young horses themselves.

He is a strange mixture of nervous while also being very curious. So although he was looking around him, he also kept wanting to carry on and see what was around the next corner. He didn't even really look at things like flapping bale wrapper stuck on a fence and blowing in the wind. He feels very uphill and solid, in a good way, under my seat

I did have to get off at one point. I have to go down an extremely steep hill just outside the gate, and he froze at the steepest bit and wouldn't move. I would have waited him out, but a car wanted to come up, so I was forced to get off and lead him down. I got back on off a grass bank, another first as it was more of a scramble than off a high block.

They told me that he would need sedating to clip. But today I got a small pair and turned them on near him. He shot back, rolling his eyes madly. I stayed close to him and very, very quickly he settled and let me hold the buzzing clippers on his neck. I expect to do the same with big clippers quite easily, and to give him a bib clip, without sedation, sometime quite soon.

I'm still waiting to find out what faults or problems he has, so far he's fantastic 😁

 

[JJS]

I do love a good Thoroughbred. I've always said I'll never have another, purely because my saintly Alice's shoes are too big to ever fill, but seeing ones like Muffin makes me feel incredibly nostalgic. Give it a few more years and a few more posts like yours, YCBM, and I reckon I might just change my mind!

 

[ycbm]

An apology. I realised that because of the time of year I was going to be lying around in mud and wet to take the right photos of his feet. They have to be done from ground level to show anything properly. I chickened. If you want to see great photos, take a look at rockleyfarm.blogspot.com, plenty there.

I took the shoes off two weeks ago tomorrow. His owners told me he would be crippled without them. So far, he doesn't appear to have realised they're gone. But the shoes that came off now can't be put back on, the nail holes are outside the edge of his foot. And his feet are now round, where the shoes are 150 wide by 130 long. What the farrier was trying to do, I've no idea.

His feet are already less under run and the heels are bigger and beefier, and as I hoped, his movement is freeing up as his feet support him better. And he's such a lovely character!