The brutally honest confo thread!

Dave is such a beauty!

I've been trawling through photos and realising that I have approx 689453894 between-the-ears shots taken out hacking and zero proper confo shots. These are the closest I can find - sorry.

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Dave's Mam said:
This is the best side on pic I have of Dave. He's not standing properly, it was more of a pretty photo to be honest. Feel free to critique.



ETA He's 4 & half in this pic & not yet backed, rather chubs & very woolly.
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i am totally out of my depth with conformtion, but you dont need to be an expert to say that this pony is just perfect..
 
FfionWinnie said:
My brutally honest opinion is can none of you take decent photos of your horses stood square with their entire body on show including their feet and a plain back ground and the camera at a decent angle to show a true picture of the poor beast.

Oops. Did I say that out loud.
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In defence of all the posters who have got involved in this thread - I don't think many people feel the need to have properly stood up confo pics. Folks have done their best with what they had available.
 
JulesRules said:
Is anyone able to tell me why my pics aren't working. It's driving me slightly bonkers!! What am I doing wrong?

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I think you are copying the page code, rather than the picture code (from address bar, not image itself) If you hover over the image and right click, you should get the option to "copy image address" - do that and then paste the code into the image box on here
 
My old boy, about 5 in this pic

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Current girl, last summer.
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Possibly the only shot I have of her stood up, must try and get a good one as I'd like to see how she changes through the years
 
EKW said:
Yeah there is that too! I have some pics of mine that make them look truly awful! When in reality they aren't that bad just because they are stood wrong at the moment of the picture being taken.
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Very true! Taking a decent shot isn't as easy as I should be.

I find it very interesting how different things can be inferred by different people just from photos.

The one I find most interesting is the first grey -
DabDab has assessed him pretty much as we did when we bought him, we also had slight concern on a fractionally short neck (which he has). As a 5yo he came 4th in a massive BYEH class at a big international. In the last 6 months he appears to have turned into a flipping hunter, he is virtually unrecognisable from that initial photo.
Wagtail commented on 'severe muscle wastage from a too tight saddle' which made me smile as it had barely worn a saddle, it's just a raw under muscled Irish horse
 
Best stood up pic i can find, where he also doesn't look like a bog pony lol

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In comparison, this was him as a young 5 year old (march i think)
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Feel free to rip to shreds, isn't going to change his ownership as is with me for life :D
 
JulesRules said:
Is anyone able to tell me why my pics aren't working. It's driving me slightly bonkers!! What am I doing wrong?

0LQqw


https://m.imgur.com/gallery/0LQqw
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I don't know how to post pics (asked early on in the thread), then put up a photobox link that I thought would work, but doesn't seem to as I haven't had a single comment although I did reply to the ones that had posted before....... bit disappointed to be honest :(
 
LCH611 said:
I don't know how to post pics (asked early on in the thread), then put up a photobox link that I thought would work, but doesn't seem to as I haven't had a single comment although I did reply to the ones that had posted before....... bit disappointed to be honest :(
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I did a brief explanation of how to upload pics in reponse to the post you quoted. Give it a go
 
This is Chilli. She is 16 this year! Full TB who has evented and been through Riding Club with her owner. She is now with me (blooming heck, it's almost been a year!) and only recently have I found the direction for our career together to go in that we both enjoy. We're out competing dressage at N level and schooling E at home, with the hope to move up in a few months. :o

Pic of her when I first got her. She'd been on holiday for around 8 months, had no shoes during that time and had generally been chilling with her herd of sheep. :)
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And more recently (october, but the last pic i've taken of her from the side!):
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only_me said:
Best stood up pic i can find, where he also doesn't look like a bog pony lol

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In comparison, this was him as a young 5 year old (march i think)
DSC08135.jpg


Feel free to rip to shreds, isn't going to change his ownership as is with me for life :D
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Hind leg a little straight, ditto with front limbs, looks like he is toes out as well but hard to tell from a side-on picture. Pasterns slightly upright but looks as if he has clean limbs. Good sloping shoulder and wither with a nice length of rein. He's got nice depth and is overall an attractive sort. His quarters have come on a lot since the bottom picture!
 
rosiesowner said:
This is Chilli. She is 16 this year! Full TB who has evented and been through Riding Club with her owner. She is now with me (blooming heck, it's almost been a year!) and only recently have I found the direction for our career together to go in that we both enjoy. We're out competing dressage at N level and schooling E at home, with the hope to move up in a few months. :o

Pic of her when I first got her. She'd been on holiday for around 8 months, had no shoes during that time and had generally been chilling with her herd of sheep. :)
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And more recently (october, but the last pic i've taken of her from the side!):
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Attractive head with a good length of rein but the neck is set too low which makes her withers rather high. The shoulder is slightly upright but the humerus is long so I bet she can snap those legs up pretty well and has a good long stride. She is a little over at the knee (better than being back at the knee) and her pasterns are quite long. The croup is set rather low as is her tail, and sickle hocked. She looks like she could also be cow hocked in that photo.
 
Enya12 said:
Attractive head with a good length of rein but the neck is set too low which makes her withers rather high. The shoulder is slightly upright but the humerus is long so I bet she can snap those legs up pretty well and has a good long stride. She is a little over at the knee (better than being back at the knee) and her pasterns are quite long. The croup is set rather low as is her tail, and sickle hocked. She looks like she could also be cow hocked in that photo.
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She is a bit 'specially' put together I will admit! This is us attempting some medium in N30. This was super tense and we can do better but it gives you an idea :)
[video=youtube;aR91BO2L_-Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR91BO2L_-Y&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 
Auslander, thanks for starting this great thread. I'm not particularly conformation savvy, so I'm finding the reply critiques very useful and I'm now trying to study the pics to see if I can spot what the proper horsey folk can see and you lucky lot do have some fabulous looking horses :)
 
Gracie stood as a 5yo. I don't think this is a great angle of her, although I'm not sure if I have any different ones stood.
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Nemo (Rising 4) Stood a few weeks ago. Lots of growing to do!
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Looking slightly better under tack. Still has many donkey features though!
 
IHW what a shame about your mare, when I looked at the grey I just thought raw athlete, though rather the opposite of Alf with regards to leg/body proportions ;) interesting that he has now chunked!

I have never heard of pigeon chests indicating cold backedness, certainly not the case here.

I do think I seem to see shoulders as perhaps more upright than they are reading this thread and wonder if that is because of what I am used to ;) there was an interesting article I saw recently about should angles being steeper than ideal on 4* eventers and the theory behind that.
 
This is Mr B two years ago, he's somewhat more muscled and fitter looking now. We did an excellent session at AM dressage last year when we looked at our horses conformation and how it might affect their ability as a dressage horse. It was fascinating and clearly trainability and correct training can overcome quite a few conformational challenges. Please feel free to critique we pulled him apart at that session so I doubt there are any surprises.
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ester said:
IHW what a shame about your mare, when I looked at the grey I just thought raw athlete, though rather the opposite of Alf with regards to leg/body proportions ;) interesting that he has now chunked!

I have never heard of pigeon chests indicating cold backedness, certainly not the case here.

I do think I seem to see shoulders as perhaps more upright than they are reading this thread and wonder if that is because of what I am used to ;) there was an interesting article I saw recently about should angles being steeper than ideal on 4* eventers and the theory behind that.
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Now dear old Alf is an interesting one. He has definitely morphed into a cob. Trust me I didn't buy him as a cob, more a quality MW all rounder. Alas his injury on the horsewalker scuppered him. This was him as a 5yo ...
 
Ah I meant Aus's Alf, sorry! Your Alf always makes me smile there is an inner sports horse in there somewhere ;) lovely to see him all sleek!

not enough ponies on this thread so :p not terribly recent, most of the time he has a habit of looking at the camera which makes his neck look even shorter!

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and a naked one
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Enya12 said:
Hind leg a little straight, ditto with front limbs, looks like he is toes out as well but hard to tell from a side-on picture. Pasterns slightly upright but looks as if he has clean limbs. Good sloping shoulder and wither with a nice length of rein. He's got nice depth and is overall an attractive sort. His quarters have come on a lot since the bottom picture!
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Thanks for critiquing :)
He isn't toes out thankfully, but is a bit upright in front which thanks to a good farrier are managed well. Limbs are clear, had 2 small splints as 4 year old which have reabsorbed so is back to being clean limbed! His white legs are also quite deceiving as looks light of bone but actually has about 8.5 inches or so.! His hind has definitely improved, as you say, although atm he is quite fat :p photo is in summer last year i think.
He's the perfect horse for me, easy to manage, fun to ride and can be not ridden for 3 months and can get back on straight away and go for a hack with no silliness :D he's here for life, he has the best personality :D
 
hehe ester, Kira is the stretch limo version of Frank :D

Taken 2 years ago, I've just set myself a reminder to take a comparison shot soon

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Great thread and very educational, thank you Auslander! I cast a critical eye over my own darling beast this morning and made a few notes. I'll be interested to see what others say. It's hard when it's a horse you ride all the time/know the capabilities and limits of - e.g. I can forgive his front legs (from the front he sometimes looks like a giraffe at a watering hole) because I know how clever and nimble he is coming down steep/rough terrain.

Anyway, here he is - three weeks back into proper work after a quiet winter.

 
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