Home Current News News Archive Shop/Advertise Ridecamp Classified Events Learn/AERC
Endurance.Net Home Ridecamp Archives
ridecamp@endurance.net
[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]

RE: Re: [RC] Club foot - heidi

If I'm remembering correctly RC Muffin had a club foot. He was a tremendous 
horse and I believe is in the AERC Hall of Fame. I was at the ROC one year 
when he came in first. All the way through the ride the vets had noticed his 
"funny" gait caused by his club foot. The final vet at the post ride check 
chose to say it was lameness, and he was pulled. It was absolutely heart 
breaking.


I really hate to see this sort of misinformation continue to be perpetuated 
about RT Muffin.  He had high-low syndrome, not a club foot--and it was well 
under control with good farrier work (by Darla's husband Terry).

His odd gait did not come from his high-low syndrome--he was gaited and would 
"trot" in-hand with a perfectly symmetrical 4-beat gait.  He got THAT from 
having two gaited grandsires.  Gaitedness can and does occur in Arabians.  

I had an extensive discussion with Kerry Ridgway about RT Muffin's ROC pull at 
the finish when Kerry and I were vetting another ride together about a year 
later.  Muffy was at that ride as well.  Terry took Muffy straight to Kerry at 
the vet-in, figuring he'd just take the bull by the horns and go right to one 
of the vets who thought Muffy was "lame."  Kerry stated that Muffy was 
"bilaterally grade II lame on both front feet."  Carol Mylius (the third ride 
vet) and I both took Kerry aside and insisted on having him watch Muffy move 
again, pointing out his gaitedness, and that we did not penalize the TWHs and 
other gaited horses at the ride for not having a 4-beat trot.  Kerry's response 
was, "But Arabs are not gaited!"  By the end of that ride, Kerry had come 
around to realizing that what we said was true--he took more time to analyze 
the "head bob" to see that the head was descending when the forefeet hit, not 
ascending, and also took the time to listen to the gaitedness in the history of 
the Arabian breed.  By the end of that rid
e, Kerry, at least, realized that Muffy had been really "done wrong" in that 
pull.

But I'm really sorry to see that the "club foot" myth about Muffy is still in 
circulation.

Heidi

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=