Anyone Good With Conformation? Take A Peek At My Funny Looking Mare

J

JinglebellJessi & MistletoeMagic

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Hello all you conformation smarty pants!

I don't really know much about it unfortunately but I'm interested in knowing what you intelligent people would say about my mare. I've never really been overly bothered about it before but I had a new vet down the other day and he said she was funny looking. Tiny head and neck, large body, long back and chest and tiny legs he said.

I think she's stunning but I'm curious to how her conformation may affect her in the future and abilities.

She's a 14.2hh, 5 year old Appaloosa X Newforest mare. 402kg in weight and 5'9/6'0 in rugs, incase it helps.

Any contribution is fine :D


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Standing sort of square

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Trotting

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And just standing
 
Ok i've just gone back and read all your post...

She's a little bit behind at the knee - 15ish years ago we believed this would conrtibute to tendon pullings etc, i think MSK research is way more intuitive these days and this is not the major risk

She is long in the back I suppose but strong in the shoulder and plenty of scope for muscle in the rump so don't worry to much about this...

By the by...I have a horse who is conformationally perfect...he's barely done a stroke of work in his life...my other horse is too tall, too bony, long in the back, too narrow, no topline etc etc...he is a 1m40 BSJA horse with more than £600 winnings...so it goes....
 
If you love her, nothing else matters. Just enjoy her :)


By the way she has a lot of good points too. Her movement is great, she's got wonderful feet, she's pretty, she's got a super chest. I could find more I'm sure if I saw her in the flesh.
 
No such thing as perfect conformation IMO so I wouldn't worry. She's clearly got some growing and filling out to do and if she does what you want just have fun and enjoy her :D
 
My general not very expert opinion....

I think she just has a long back really which is common enough, her neck does look a bit short but that may be exaggerated because of the back, possibly the same with the legs which don't look particularly tiny to me!
 
Thank you (: I was simply curious as i had read an article in a horse mag about conformation. All pics were taken when i bought her in april. i was going to put a recent pic but she's embarrassingly hairy and filthy. She has a lovely jump though.

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Winter Woolies


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She's okay for a baby....

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Me, not so much.... :o Same exact jump, First pic take off and second landing. I'm just bloody useless.
 
gorgeous girl. Love appaloosas :D

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her height should generally be then same as her length and her head should be the same as her neck and her wither's. she not perfect but she is pretty close :D her neck back end is a bit high and her neck is a tiny bit to long ( or her head is too short, which ever way you want to look at it :D)

(these are just general rules that i have been taught and don't take into consideration breed characteristics)

below an example of a pony with very good conformation(still not perfect though) just to give you a better idea of what i am talking about :)

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She looks better in her woollies as she appears to have filled out a good bit. She is a bit long in the back, not such a bad thing in mares, and her neck is a bit upside down and set in low on her shoulder. Her legs are quite good with enough bone, good feet, very long and deep shoulder, lots of room for muscles on the forearm and gaskin. All in all a very nice cobby pony that should give years off good service and happy riding.
 
Horsesforever, i always think she's looking skinny, i asked the vet and he said she looked alittle overweight if anything. That was the same day as the woolie pic. He said she had alot of padding around the withers but i can feel the last few ribs through he fur if i press down. Shes being fed a fair amount: 1 scoop speedi beet, 1 scoop alfa a and a scoop of pony nuts twice a day and 24/7 turnout. Shes not doing much work this winter, just enough to keep her ticking over (: x
 
In all honesty, no I don't think she has the BEST conformation ever but you know what, it rarely matters! My horse has some poor conformation faults. He is quite dipped backed, has quite a narrwow chest, upright shoulders and upright pasterns. However, I got him as a 4 yo and he looked pretty gangly and BSJA up to newcomer, has done dressage, ODEs, X-Country, you name it he's done it. He is now 21 and has never been lame (other than the odd abscess) so i can safely say his conformation has not affected him in the slightest! If they do what you want them yo do andyou love them then it really does not matter.

As an aside I remember a rather hideous looking horse (conformatoon wise) I saw at a SJing competition a couple of years back. Blimey it could jump! It was fantastic!!!
 
What kind of work could i do to improve her neck? Shes lovely to ride, if a little lazy. And if i work hard with my position she'll go on the bit quite well. She has quite a low head carriage when ridden, and loves to stretch long and low (:
 
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