Weight and Conformation critque please :)

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Con234

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As title really, Id be interested to get peoples thoughts on her weight and conformation (good or bad) following a comment made by someone at the yard. Also Any guesses on what breed? Sorry they arent the best pictures it was very windy so she wasnt keen to stand still.

I am fairly new to the forum so will introduce her properly after.

Thanks :)

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Hi there. Lovely sweet looking mare. I would say she is spot on weight wise. She does have a 'hunters bump' which makes her look quite boney over her quarters, but this is not a condition issue. Her conformation is not great, sorry. She has an upright shoulder, and quite a low set neck, but the neck could be improved by correct exercise. Her hocks are rather straight which could cause problems in her joints. The bump on her quarters is often indicative of some bone remodling, caused by sacroilliac dysfunction, but often it is strain that has been in the past and she may be over that now. I suspect that her straight hocks may have contributed to this. She also has quite long pasterns, which again can cause problems with excessive stress and strain. Good points are she has a nice length from croup to hock and nice short cannon bones. She needs a lot more top line to look her best. Breed wise, I am not sure. She looks like a TB or TBxID to me.

ETA: Her hocks look quite straight in the first pic, but better in the other two, so are not as bad as on first impressions.
 
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Wagtail said:
Hi there. Lovely sweet looking mare. I would say she is spot on weight wise. She does have a 'hunters bump' which makes her look quite boney over her quarters, but this is not a condition issue. Her conformation is not great, sorry. She has an upright shoulder, and quite a low set neck, but the neck could be improved by correct exercise. Her hocks are rather straight which could cause problems in her joints. The bump on her quarters is often indicative of some bone remodling, caused by sacroilliac dysfunction, but often it is strain that has been in the past and she may be over that now. I suspect that her straight hocks may have contributed to this. She also has quite long pasterns, which again can cause problems with excessive stress and strain. Good points are she has a nice length from croup to hock and nice short cannon bones. She needs a lot more top line to look her best. Breed wise, I am not sure. She looks like a TB or TBxID to me.

ETA: Her hocks look quite straight in the first pic, but better in the other two, so are not as bad as on first impressions.
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would agree with most of that one thing I see which may just be the picture is she lacks bone for her frame and has very small feet. Weight wise she looks good but needs topline but that may make her look even more top heavy.
She is a lovely allrounder type and what does it matter if you love her and she is staying sound and working for you
 
I always feel a bit :o when appraising someone else's horse, as a horse can look as if it is thrown together from spare parts and still be an absolutely fab horse :)

Good points
Lovely expression, lovely markings and I like her :)

Points to note (but not a reason to dislike her :))
As mentioned before, straight shoulder and long-ish pasterns but the pasterns should smooth out any jarring from the straight shoulder.
Straight hocks, however, any horse I have ridden with straight hocks jumps the moon

Points to note with a bit of concern
Her feet would need a closer look - the pastern/hoof line looks broken to me in the second picture.
Her feet look too small in one photo and then almost like they don't belong to her in the others (probably the photo) - why is she shod with quarter clips?
The bump on her quarters (as mentioned before)

Conditionwise, hard to say without a hands on but looks fine, perhaps a bit more topline however it is February.

Breedwise, she has a part TB look about her but then again has too full a tail. My friend has a WB that looks just like her, in fact I had to do a double take.

The point about conformation is to be aware of things, particularly in areas where they will cause a strain or where you will need to take any limitations into account when training the horse.

I love that horse with the white face in photo 2
 
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OP - have you gone away? I was wanting to know what her breeding was? Her hind feet and tail say Irish Draught, but she is lighter built, so more TB?
 
Thanks for the replies. Summed up what i thought of her conformation wize, which although not great so happily competes up to Novice and is great fun but someone had commented on her being skinny. She was very fat when we first got her and her muscles were even more upside down than she is now but maybe now that shes at a more normal weight that prompted the comment so was just interested to hear other peoples opinions.

Unfortunately she decided this winter that she didnt enjoy going out in the field and jumped the gate to come back in almost every day after 10 minutes so she has been in all winter. I hate her having to be in but unfortunately she thinks nothing of taking on a gate even with it made higher/electric fenced off etc. The grass is really starting to come through in her field now so i am a bit wary of her weight as she will probably put on quite a bit once she is back out as like i say she was very fat when we got her.


Shes a Czech warmblood :)
 
she is a long way from skinny she looks in almost perfect condition she just lacks topline and muscle over her back. She has a lovely round tummy and no ribs showing
 
I know nothing is a quick fix but any tips on helping build up her topline and back muscles?

When she first arrived she didnt see the point of flatwork at all (i think she had been well schooled in the past, then it had been forgotten and she just hacked out in what ever shape she wanted) but now she is really beginning to enjoy it and is working more consistently long and low and is lunged once a week. Her biggest problem was that she would become very tense through the neck when ridden but this is so much better now and i think was as a result of her being 'pulled into shape' for competitions. She is slowly getting stronger and beginning to come up more of her own acord and carry herself.
 
Sadly it is work work and more work in a good open outline working from behind so letting the front go as much as possible so she works down and round before picking her up to travel in a very light contact. Hardest thing for a rider to do is ride from their back and legs and forget about their hands. Good quality high fibre, high oil diet with if she is young a slightly higher protein uptake so she has plenty for muscle power. No cereals but it can be done quite well with a good balancer like topspec too as it provides the building blocks the horse needs there is a huge tendency now to allow ad lib forage so you get fat tummies and full guts which can hang down as well So lots of good work and quality food and she will look wonderful if a little top heavy better than way than lacking in muscle
top spec baby before she was backed so feeding not work
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She's not skinny OP, a bit more muscle would be nice, but I certainly wouldn't say she's skinny. Wagtail pointed out all the confo things that I can see too. She has a lovely face on her and looks a good sort.
 
Won't go back over her conformation, as it's all been covered. I would like to see more muscle on her and a tad more weight.
Lovely, lovely horse op.
 
What a beautiful girl, just the type I like.

Just one thing to consider, may help as it helped with my mare who used to struggle with working properly through her back as a result of incorrect schooling, some massage sessions may help her to relax. I am very lucky to have a friend who specialises in equine sports massage and have found the treatments have helped immensly and the results have been fantastic. May not be everyone's cup of tea but could be worth a try :)
 
Thanks FoxTrotx. I am very lucky and also have a friend who does equine sport therapy so she gets regular massages. It's really helped her to relax and definitely I'm proved her way of going (and of course she loves it too so it's great to watch her enjoy it).
 
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