1966-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1966 December Voice | Page 30

protective grease substance on her be­
fore and after working her. This pre­
vents any rubbing by the chains and
Chapter 3
still gets the same action.
Going back to the article on train­
ing by Winston Wiser (which we quot­
Our filly has responded to training ed in Chapter No. 1) we find the fol­
very well thus far. Last month she was lowing comments which apply very
still in the process of becoming bridle well at this point in our training pro­
wise and learning what “whoa” meant. gram. He says, “when I get a colt
In the last 30 days however she has squared in a good running walk, I
started to work in earnest and to pay take him back into a flat foot. Usually
attention to her trainer.
I put trotting balls or rollers (achiev­
It has been interesting to observe ing the same results as chains) on his
the training procedure for this parti­ front feet and take him out in a field
cular filly. She is somewhat indepen­ where there is soft, plowed ground and
dent and full of life and her tendency where it is plenty rough going for the
was to want to “go on” all the time. colt. This type ground, together with
Up until about two weeks ago her the rollers, forces the colt to settle
trainer was content to let her pick her down into a flat foot walk and at the
speed, which was akin to a “running same time develops his reach and
walk” although pacy. At that time stride”.
she still had keg shoes on her front
Our colt is being worked in a long
feet and had not been worked with hall that is covered with loose shavings
boots or chains. She was still not shod and sawdust, getting the same results
behind, which, according to our trainer as rough, plowed ground.
was an asset for the time being. The
After two weeks with chains on her
way she was, she was striding well
front feet, our filly began to settle
with her back end, over-steping up to
down and work very well. At this point
two feet at times, and had good
our trainer decided it was time to
rhythm, so he decided not to take a
make some real changes. He had her
chance on breaking this timing up by
shoeing her in back. One could listen
to her work and hear the smooth 1-2-
3-4 beat as she would slip into a true
running walk for a few steps.
Two weeks ago our trainer decided
it was time to advance her training a
bit and put light weight chains on her
front feet. This was quite a problem
at first and he had to put a twister on
her to get them on the first time. The
idea of the chains, as we understand
it, is to develop more reach and
shoulder action as the colt attempts to
pick the front feet up and out of the
loose chains, and by so doing achieve
the same basic results as gaited horse
trainers do with spring shackles.
Keeping in mind the new ruling re­
garding scar tissue on the fore feet of
two year olds in 1967, our trainer pro­
tects the colt feet with a spat (made
of inner tube rubber) and also puts a
LET’S TRAIN A COLT
30
re-shod with heavier toe-weight shoes
in front. Leaving her un-shod behind
he went to work with good results.
The first few times she worked under
these new conditions, she appeared to
be having trouble finding out