King of Broken Hearts

affectionately called "Joey"

Standing at Vision Quest Appaloosas
AllBreedPedigree.com

In summer of 2006 when then three year old Joey came in for training, he had been removed from a well known national champion producing training facility in California by his owner Darlene Neisuss. Joey was severely underweight clearly showing ribs and was noticeably lame in both front feet. He moved with a shortened choppy stride, stabbing his front feet into the ground with virtually no forward swing of either front leg. Although the breed registries have printed new movement requirements in their rule books, this quality of movement has been and is still favored in the western pleasure ring. Joey was shod with aluminum wedges and pads at incorrect angles for his pasterns. When we pulled Joey's shoes we discovered that all four toe nails had been driven in behind the white line resulting in an even lameness in both front feet. In addition, Joey's neck had been damaged and due to severe muscular adhesions and vertebral misalignments was physically unable to round his neck. We used massage, acupuncture, chiropractic care and infra-red therapies to help this boy become pain free in his body. After Joey was rehabbed for several months with correct trimming and light work that was designed to restore his natural movement, we were able to appreciate how much damage was actually done to this young horse. We believe that Joey was purposely maimed in order to produce the kind of stifled movement that is being favored in the breed show ring today. The body work, farriery and correct training we did has been critical in returning a very beautiful, natural way of going in a young horse that was harmed by the training methods used to achieve a deathly slow, mechanical, robotic performance.

Spot O'Rama video

Ride the West 2007 Trail Challange

Sandpoint Appaloosa Show - Sep 16, 2007

Joey was Hi Point Western Horse & Western Equitation Champion!

Spot O'Rama - Aug 11-13, 2007

Summer Colors & Summer Sliders
Evergreen Equestrian Park in Monroe, WA

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This stallion was one of the finest horses I have had the opportunity to work in my career. At only four, Joey competed in four disciplines in 2007 show season, plus earned his ROM in Appaloosa Halter. He did dressage tests in the beginning of the season, scoring over 70% at training level, then we did trail, western pleasure, Hunter Under Saddle and finally, Versatility. Joey was an Appaloosa World Show Qualifier in 2007 and was the WSH NEZ Hi Point English Pleasure Colored Horse. He was a joy to train and compete after completing his rehabilitation in the Relational Riding program.

Shoeing - Jul 30, 2007

The old shoes were very narrow towards the heel.