CC on TB ex racer coming out of winter

Probably before any of you wee mites were born, we put rope halters on horses and tied them to rings without hay baler twine. But we are the evil ancient generation.
 
madmav said:
Probably before any of you wee mites were born, we put rope halters on horses and tied them to rings without hay baler twine. But we are the evil ancient generation.
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And I thought i was cruel by some people's standards.. Shame on you! :eek::D
 
That's not a proper thoroughbred! She's got weight on her and her withers don't stick up like the rock of Gibraltar! Next you'll be telling me she has good feet and stays sous after five minutes in the field...

Seriously, she looks fantastic. Well done you!
 
nosenseofdirection said:
That's not a proper thoroughbred! She's got weight on her and her withers don't stick up like the rock of Gibraltar! Next you'll be telling me she has good feet and stays sous after five minutes in the field...

Seriously, she looks fantastic. Well done you!
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Haha thank you! You know she has got great feet however she is a serial self harmer, her greatest thoroughbred trait I think!
 
She looks pretty typical of a TB in light work coming out of a pretty rubbish winter, and certainly alot better than when you first got her imagine! I have the type of halter you have and omg have been known to wrap it round a fence.
Would it be very cheeky of me to put my TB photo on your thread op?
 
redriverrock said:
She looks pretty typical of a TB in light work coming out of a pretty rubbish winter, and certainly alot better than when you first got her imagine! I have the type of halter you have and omg have been known to wrap it round a fence.
Would it be very cheeky of me to put my TB photo on your thread op?
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Not at all I invite pictures! :)
 
Oh you've done it now...donkey TB overload!!
Please dont be thinking he always looks so sad...he was very annoyed in the first few pictures as we had to give him a bath which he hates, but I made the mistake of thinking it would be nice for him to have an hour rugless while the sun was out...needless to say he decided to turn hippo and came in caked in thick clay mud. He is a 10 year old TB clipped...all but badly as he is like a giggly teenager as soon as you go near his man bits, out 24/7 with free access to yard and shelter and hacked with light schooling.
The 3rd photo is him in nov and the last one is from the summer. I think he is looking OK, not particularly fir but capable of a 3/4 hour hack so Im pretty pleased with him...over to you :)
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Sorry - I am going to go back to the halter thing and I know I'll get jumped on.
But I believe those who pointed out it shouldn't be used for tying up are correct. I have exactly the same one, which I use with my rising 2 yo WB. He's a lovely horse with good manners but at the age where now and again he'll try it on. He respects that halter when being led. 99% of the time he's very good in a standard headcollar but he will not try anything on with the rope one.

It may not be a "pressure halter" per se but it does provide more pressure than a headcollar due to the thinner material and knots, and as such I personally would never tie any horse up in one.

Sorry!
 
She's got a proper grass belly and no muscle, but in terms of weight looks ok. Can you see/ feel her ribs? I think she may almost be verging on chubby tbh- you need to be able to feel her ribs easily, and when she moves just about see them- it's hard to tell with such a thick coat!

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This is Al's little TB, after being off work since October. She's 6, and came into 'real work' in May before being injured in October. This was taken January. She's lost weight since, but gained considerable muscle, especially over her topline.

Can't find a stood up photo of Reg, who is in amazing shape atm- he's one of those who begins walk work and a week later is back to full fitness and looks like he's never been off.
 
To be honest, I'd rather she had a little less on her, given that so little of the weight she is carrying is muscle. But that carries the proviso that her coat does make it hard to tell. And I do like them erring on the side of skinny.
 
You can see and easily feel her ribs all the time, I like to see a horse with a good hay belly, she goes through stages where she gets extremely tucked up and skinny so to me its a sign she's relaxed and eating what she should. She has no fat pads, she's only been walked with a bit of trot all winter so I don't expect much topline yet, she's always had a weak backend, I suspect mostly due to a mixture of lack of school work, kissing spines and conformation. Her workload will be upped soon.
 
Can I just say that the rope halter OP has her horse tied up with is far far kinder than the English halters you all tie your horses up with!
It has no harsh metal buckles that can get in eyes and scratch skin!
The extra length on the lead rope means that you can just loop the rope through baler twine or a special tie up ring. If the horse pulls back, it wont hurt itself as the leadrope will just slip through. Short leadropes, mean when horses pull back they are more likely to get hurt.
I agree that IF it was a control halter OP should not have used it to tie up with - BUT ITS NOT!
OP, horse looks great, although lacks muscle over back end (which may give the appearance of having a bit of a belly).
 
She was bought as a pity buy, underweight, no vetting, no history know just a punt. I spent time just getting her healthy then began work last year, I then found out a couple of months ago that as a 3 year old she was diagnosed with mild kissing spines which was treated. Since she has been with us she has had no issues with her back so as long as she is happy and healthy her workload will continue to increase, which will include a lot of groundwork schooling and more hacking.
 
ImmyS said:
You can see and easily feel her ribs all the time, I like to see a horse with a good hay belly, she goes through stages where she gets extremely tucked up and skinny so to me its a sign she's relaxed and eating what she should. She has no fat pads, she's only been walked with a bit of trot all winter so I don't expect much topline yet, she's always had a weak backend, I suspect mostly due to a mixture of lack of school work, kissing spines and conformation. Her workload will be upped soon.
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Hay bellies are never a good thing, but are exceptionally common with TBs coming out of racing and stopping all work. Their stomach muscles essentially relax and their belly drops. It'll go as she begins to work again- have you tried lunging/ long reining? We can't keep Reg looking good if he's not in work, he drops condition rapidly, so when he first started being ridden again (he looked v. similar to yours, slightly thinner) it was a real play off between riding him enough but not too much.

What do you feed her?

amymay said:
Now that is very smart!
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Thank you! She's a monster, but will hopefully be rather special. She needs to be, or she'll end up lasagne ;) This photo makes her look a little over at the knee, which in reality she isn't- we need to do another photo now she's looking much more grown up as her neck has got a lot bigger, and she's balanced out more.

(this was being fed a scoop of hi fi and a handful of pony nuts a day through the winter... If we didn't KNOW the mother and father, we'd swear she was a connie cross!)
 
Personal opinion :) I prefer to see my horses that are in no or little work with a hay belly rather then all tucked up, I expect it to go once her work load is upped. Her feed is stated in the OP
 
Can i just add ... having always used headcollars.. i have Never managed to get a buckle in my horses eye ??:confused:

Perhaps if Stevie Wonder was putting the headcollar on then yes there would be an issue but you would have to be rather clumbsy to do such a thing....
 
On the note of the rope halter, I find they have much more give then a traditional headcollar, if a horse pulls violently against a headcollar it doesn't give at all, if a horse pulls suddenly and hard against a rope halter it will loosen. So I do prefer the halter :)
 
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