Welsh D's - do they all dish?!

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Snowfilly

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Prefacing this by saying I am not a Welsh person, so maybe it is a breed thing and I'm just an idiot.

Friend got a few videos of a nice 6year old D, but he dished very badly with one foreleg and a bit with the other. We decided not to go and see him because of this - 150 miles round trip - and seller claimed that all welsh D's dish and my friend should accept it as normal for the breed. Friend wasn't looking for a D so hadn't done a lot of research into them.

To be honest, we might have gone to look if he did it with both legs and was closer, but unlevelness is a big no no in my book so we didn't.

Then discussing it with someone else, they turned round and said that most D's are like that and we were stupid to turn it down. Thoughts?
 
Dishing does not equal unlevel, and it certainly wouldn't put me off looking at horses that have a flamboyant action that is typical for their breed. I have Spanish horses, which are also noted for this type of movement (indeed, the Welsh cob may have acquired this action from a generous dollop of Spanish blood in their ancestry), and I would prefer a horse that dished over a flatter, more boring mover.
 
A lot of them do.
I suppose it’s your money and your choice, there will be plenty of people that put a high priority on moving completely straight (I’m not one of them), but if it were right in every other day and you were wanting an all rounder it does seem a bit daft not to view
 
Not all but a lot do - it’s nothing to do with lameness - as long as the foot lands flat it’s just its way of going and not a problem unless you are extremely into showing and want a straight movee
 
conniegirl said:
No definitely not all of them do!

Depends what you want to do with it as to whether it is a problem
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blitznbobs said:
Not all but a lot do - it’s nothing to do with lameness - as long as the foot lands flat it’s just its way of going and not a problem unless you are extremely into showing and want a straight movee
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I've produced a few at county level, not one did so.

It's so generalizing to say they all dish, like saying all shetlands are nasty, all thoroughbreds have bad feet....
 
Mine was generally straight but would dish if he got very excited and trotted either really quickly or, if I wouldn’t let him, his stride would go all short and choppy and he’d dish a bit then too. Was sound as a pound his whole life until he developed knee arthritis at 25.
 
blitznbobs said:
Not all but a lot do - it’s nothing to do with lameness - as long as the foot lands flat it’s just its way of going and not a problem unless you are extremely into showing and want a straight movee
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A lot of the top show cobs dish so badly I don't know how their handlers don't get tripped up!

Not all D's dish. My mum's D moves straight as a die!
 
Mine wasn't straight when she was unfit but she never dished. She has got to be almost completely straight as she's developed though.
 
My Ds moved straight and didn't dish.

When they are young though some Ds can look a bit pigeon toed until they mature and their chests widen to their adult size.
 
catkin said:
My Ds moved straight and didn't dish.

When they are young though some Ds can look a bit pigeon toed until they mature and their chests widen to their adult size.
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Exactly this, D’s can look weak in front for a long while until they fill out properly.

My old girl was very well and traditionally bred and moved straight as a die. Unfortunately there’s a lot of poor examples of the D breed. A bit of dishing wouldn’t bother me though what with their extravagant trot.
 
I'm not overly sure if mine does, I think he does a bit when hes being a knob but not in general

I'd be more inclined from the general comments about them on here and my own experience they are good at making a drama out of nothing, mine walked fine past a bouncy castle with people on on a hack once (I'd completely have understood him being terrified of it) but flattened poo or mud on the road causes a bambi like stance and snorting in absolute terror.
 
Cortez said:
Dishing does not equal unlevel, and it certainly wouldn't put me off looking at horses that have a flamboyant action that is typical for their breed. I have Spanish horses, which are also noted for this type of movement (indeed, the Welsh cob may have acquired this action from a generous dollop of Spanish blood in their ancestry), and I would prefer a horse that dished over a flatter, more boring mover.
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Oooh didn't know they had Spanish blood in them no wonder they are quite fiery as I've mostly seen people on here saying Spanish horses are quite sensitive
 
No, absolutely not! Mine did not, I wouldn’t have bought him if he had done - I don’t think it’s necessarily a sign of unsoundness, it’s just something I don’t really like
 
Neither of mine did but it's not uncommon for the breed. A lot of them have high knee movement which would make it easy to confuse the two.

It wouldn't put me off for low level stuff, especially not on something as sturdy as a Welshie.
 
Mine doesn't but he does have a very flamboyant trot with good knee action. When he gets a bit wound up the legs go so fast I think you'd need slo-mo camera to actually see whether they are dishing or not!

In my experience they do make really good sports horses - if you have a sense of humour and an ability to cope with random acts of drama - I think its called character :-)
 
both my 17yr old and 3yr old are straight movers, I'm trying to get a sales video of the 3yr olds movement in the field but she is too friendly and doesn't get why she should trot away when I may have treats/scratches for her so I have plenty of her trotting towards me to prove this lol!
 
Snowfilly said:
Prefacing this by saying I am not a Welsh person, so maybe it is a breed thing and I'm just an idiot.

Friend got a few videos of a nice 6year old D, but he dished very badly with one foreleg and a bit with the other. We decided not to go and see him because of this - 150 miles round trip - and seller claimed that all welsh D's dish and my friend should accept it as normal for the breed. Friend wasn't looking for a D so hadn't done a lot of research into them.

To be honest, we might have gone to look if he did it with both legs and was closer, but unlevelness is a big no no in my book so we didn't.

Then discussing it with someone else, they turned round and said that most D's are like that and we were stupid to turn it down. Thoughts?
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I was talking to a judge at the end of a competition about this as a have a welsh cross/ possibly with Friesian who dishes slightly and she said it is not something that is desirable.
 
Maybe dishing is like marmite. I saw a PRE doing it in a dressage test. It was extreme dishing though, not just a little bit. It looked odd to me because I'd never seen it before.
 
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Dishing is considered a problem because it can predispose a horse to lameness. Dishing suggests a horse's front leg conformation isn't true - with correct conformation you should be able to run a line straight down the front of the leg and it should bisect all the bones, knee joint, right through the centre of the hoof etc.
So dishing is the result of poor front limb conformation, is an inefficient way of moving, and means that the forces are not being transmitted in the straightest possible way, putting additional strain on parts of the limb.

I have two horses - one has straight front limbs, one is very knock-kneed.
Guess which one had splints as a youngster, and now has ringbone?
 
I have had horses that dish (PRE's) - some of them A LOT - for more than 25 years, the majority of them were straight in the limbs, so not poor conformation - dishing tends to come from the upper limb/elbow. The only horse that I've ever had to put down for arthritis/ringbone was a straight moving PRE.
 
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