CC opinions please

Persephone

Persephone

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In this instance CC refers to conformation, condition and contructive criticism!

She is a 17hh ID/TB just turned 4 years.

December 2012



Today 5 weeks into starting her education properly



Sorry she is slightly in the gully in the second pic.

Interested to know what people make of her :)
 
She's nice, I like her, nice depth and in proportion, should make into a lovely mare, would prefer her darker chestnut but that's one thing you can't change!
 
She's lovely! Nice & trim, good weight, pretty, those pasterns should mean a pretty comfy trot for you. She looks like she needs to catch up her fornt growth a little - withers look slightly lower than her rump but if she's only just 4... :)
 
Thanks everyone, a nice dark bay would have been better ;)

GP she had caked muddy feet in the first pic. In the second you can see the fronts are quite flat which is something my farrier is working on :)

GinaB , next time she hacks me off I'll send her to you :)
 
Nice and in another 3 years time, very nice and a lot bigger, deeper and heavier, could be a middleweight hunter in the making.

Her fronts are going to need taking care with and for me, she is a tiny bit light on bone for her stamp, but photo's are misleading and she has pale coloured legs. I would also have to dye her bright bay with black points.

Good luck, she will give you loads of fun.
 
:) Thankyou all for your opinions! I have never been brave enough to ask for CC before :p

AA I have to admit I do feel she is a little light of bone myself, then there is the optical illusion of the pale coloured legs as well.

She is having a set of fronts on next time the farrier comes. My vet suggested 4 point shoes(?) to support her feet. I'm not good on Farriery but luckily have a great Farrier and Vet who work together well. Nice to have people you can trust :)
 
Oh and another point, she is measuring 567KG on the weigh tape. I know that they are not accurate but I'm just using it as a rough guide to see if she goes up or down.

I'm not sure if I should be trying to get a little more off her to give a buffer when the spring grass finally arrives?

She is currently fed true Adlib hay ( she eats around 15 - 17 lbs a night and there is always plenty left over from her 20lb net)

Out in the day on poor grazing, enough to nibble, but not many calories. Oh and it's on a massive hill.

I feed her the recommended amount of Baileys Lo Cal Balancer with a token amount of Speedibeet and HiFi.

I think I could soak the hay to cut back on calories but there isn't really anything else I can reduce I don't think.

She is now working 6 days a week for up to an hour a day, consisting of lungeing/longreining/ridden lungeing.

Any comments welcome, I really don't want to mess this up!
 
She's gorgeous :D.

The flat feet are something that really needs to be addressed by diet - there's not a lot the farrier can do about it, unfortunately.
 
You can send her my way if you ever get bored! Seriously nice mare.

BTW, just remember, she'll still be growing until she's about seven so go steady on the work and don't work her if she grows unlevel as it won't help her limbs or her balance, give her some regular time off to recharge her growing batteries. Diet sounds fine though once the grass comes through I'd cut out the beet and HiFi and just feed the LoCal purely because she is still growing so does need fuel for that.
What's her breeding BTW?

PS, you could add brewers yeast and linseed which would help with the condition of the feet and coat too.
 
Persephone said:
How would I do that?


ETS they have actually improved a bit, they were flatter when I got her at 2 1/2 years
Click to expand...

Trimming will help to an extent by keeping flare under control, but what can really make the difference is work and diet. Work you're on top of, and the diet doesn't sound bad either... however given that you've still obviously got issues there, I would start by switching to a better balancer. A better mineral balance (copper and zinc in particular) can make the world of difference to hooves.

I use the Forage Plus balancers, but Pro Hoof or Pro Balance + are also good places to start.
 
ETS for Maesfen!


http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/bosulval+tegan

^^ That's her breeding :)

I am very aware of overworking her, but I am finding it difficult in that she becomes a pain if not worked, so I tend to throw in longreining in walk, working on steering etc.

This 5 weeks has been the longest period of kind of formal work she has done. This week is her first full 6 days of work and we have very recently moved on from 1/2 hour sessions to the longer (up to an hour) ones we are doing now.

It is something that is very much on my mind though, although how do you carry on working a horse, but giving consolidation breaks?

I do think though that she will be being ridden off the lunge pretty shortly, and hopefully then we can dispense with the lunging before rider sessions which will lighten things up!
 
TwoStroke said:
Trimming will help to an extent by keeping flare under control, but what can really make the difference is work and diet. Work you're on top of, and the diet doesn't sound bad either... however given that you've still obviously got issues there, I would start by switching to a better balancer. A better mineral balance (copper and zinc in particular) can make the world of difference to hooves.

I use the Forage Plus balancers, but Pro Hoof or Pro Balance + are also good places to start.
Click to expand...

Thankyou for that, I will look into it :)
 
Her diet sounds fine for the amount of work she's doing, which is quite a lot for her age & breed. There's lots you can do without a rider, your long lining is a great idea - how about loose schooling? Throw in some pole work, some bending, ramps, spook-busting, a ball - anything to keep her mind occupied, but go easy on the lunging for her joints sake :)

I love Baileys Lo Cal, and you can also feed MagOx for her feet - I'd be careful about copper & zinc as they're easy to overfeed, whereas with Mg you can tell if you've given too much by their poo going runny/soft, and rectify immediately. If your farrier's doing a good job it'll be a few months before major changes happen anyway - keep up the good work I say, you obviously love her & she's looking fine! :)
 
Redequus said:
Her diet sounds fine for the amount of work she's doing, which is quite a lot for her age & breed. There's lots you can do without a rider, your long lining is a great idea - how about loose schooling? Throw in some pole work, some bending, ramps, spook-busting, a ball - anything to keep her mind occupied, but go easy on the lunging for her joints sake :)

I love Baileys Lo Cal, and you can also feed MagOx for her feet - I'd be careful about copper & zinc as they're easy to overfeed, whereas with Mg you can tell if you've given too much by their poo going runny/soft, and rectify immediately. If your farrier's doing a good job it'll be a few months before major changes happen anyway - keep up the good work I say, you obviously love her & she's looking fine! :)
Click to expand...

Thank you :o She has her moments :p

I did try introducing Magnesium last summer and her droppings became runny during the introductory stage so I stopped, however I have changed yard since then so I'll try a gentle introduction again I think.

I'll put my thinking cap on about the work, we did a lot of tteam type spook busting last year which she enjoyed a lot :) It had kind of slipped my mind :o We have had a little go at pole mazes too which she found fun. It's so sweet seeing her work out where her feet are and pick over them :)

I always buy horses intending them to be keepers so I certainly don't want to wear her out at 4, I am hoping this little bit of high intensity will not take long and then we can get onto some quiet and calm hacking. I'm not planning on really doing anything much else until she's 5.

Exciting though isn't it :D
 
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