Who would like a Conformation Critique forum on here?

H

htobago

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 March 2007
Messages
2,937
Location
Oxford and London
Visit site
Just a thought!

Lots of other horsey sites have a special forum/sub-forum for Confo Critiques - just wondered if anyone else feels it would be interesting and helpful to have one on HHO?
 
its a personnal choice (tho there is a standard) i have a super horse mixed discilpines who looks fabby ridden (dressage) jumps well (eventing and sj) who did very well in ridden and working hunters (before the lumps and bumps and scars) but if you photo d him undressed now looks like an old yoke. but he scrubs up well and rarely comes home out of the ribbons!n but his basic confo is good.
 
JoBo said:
I would. It would be a good way for us that don’t know a massive amount about confirmation to learn I think.
Click to expand...

I agree - I know that there are quite a few highly knowledgeable people on here, and I think a Confo forum could be very educational and useful.

I've spent a lot of time reading books and articles on conformation (yeah, I know, I should get a life!), but there is nothing like seeing photos of real horses in Confo forums and reading different people's critiques of their conformation - it really helps one to develop a better understanding of this subject, I think.
 
I think it would be cool... But although we all like to read about it, how many people would actually go and confo critique? Sometimes unless it's a prolific member, there seem to be few responses to those kind of posts... so a whole forum of them might be a bit overwhelming to those who do like to do it now and again. I would be pleased if it worked out though as i love reading them and thinking 'ah yeah i see that now'
 
somethingorother said:
I think it would be cool... But although we all like to read about it, how many people would actually go and confo critique? Sometimes unless it's a prolific member, there seem to be few responses to those kind of posts... so a whole forum of them might be a bit overwhelming to those who do like to do it now and again. I would be pleased if it worked out though as i love reading them and thinking 'ah yeah i see that now'
Click to expand...

I do take your point, but on the other sites I've visited, the Confo forums generally seem to be quite popular, with people asking not only for general confo critiques but also for specific advice on confo-related matters such as what discipline their youngster would be best suited to, what type of stallion might be a good match for their mare, and so on...

But I don't want to be pushy or anything if this isn't something many other HHO members would like on here.

Anyone else have any thoughts?
 
how many of you would be happy to hear behind the knee, weak in neck, long back cr** hocks , dodgy pasterns etc? all the confo posts are gorgeous i want. lovely, stunning etc. when you look at them in truth it would be .. wouldnt give it space, ugly unless you like..., bad breeding, unselective breeding fine if you keep it for life etc. and yes beauty is is the eye of the beholder. soundness and good conformation isnt. would a specific CC forum work? only if truth be told.
 
I like the idea! (:
I think only people who didn't mind hearing their horses faults pointed out would post anyway (if they have any sense) - and really, surely we can all be honest the EVERY horse has it's faults. (Danny's being his shoulder, too upright, and his legs being so damn close together its amazing he ever stays upright! amongst other things :p)
And I'd hope people were mature enough to not just point out all the bad parts of a horse and leave it at that? :/
 
ofcourseyoucan said:
how many of you would be happy to hear behind the knee, weak in neck, long back cr** hocks , dodgy pasterns etc? all the confo posts are gorgeous i want. lovely, stunning etc. when you look at them in truth it would be .. wouldnt give it space, ugly unless you like..., bad breeding, unselective breeding fine if you keep it for life etc. and yes beauty is is the eye of the beholder. soundness and good conformation isnt. would a specific CC forum work? only if truth be told.
Click to expand...

It wouldn't have to be people asking for their horses to be critiqued; it could be people posting pics of horses to illustrate particular confo faults that may or may not limit the activity a horse can do. Antifaz has windgalls, pigeon toes and is a bit straight through the hock for instance. I would find a confo forum very interesting and if I didn't want to know what people thought of my horse, I simply woudn't ask.
 
I love conformation critique posts, it helps me test my knowlege and helps me learn.

I am always happy to comment although no expert and still learning so be warned may bet it wrong but please correct additionally I would love to know what other people thought of the conformation of my obviously 100% perfect horse, no really would be only want to hear the truth good and bad! And if he was e.g back at the knee would want to know!
 
Fab idea, though I won't be posting any pics of ours, unless it's in the 'examples of' section - to which I would happily contribute.

I have read the Conformation book by some showing person and frankly, the pics weren't that good, were a bit dated, mostly of show horses (so plenty of well covered ones) many were his ex Wembly winners
c033.gif
and I am certain we could all do much better!
c032.gif
 
Well, judging by the responses on this thread, and on the other confo thread which was prompted by this one, it seems that quite a few members would indeed like a special Confo Critique sub-forum!

On such sub-forums on other sites, I have seen debates on all kinds of confo-related issues, people posting links to interesting articles on specific aspects of conformation, breed-type and other related matters, as well as recommending books and other useful sources of information - it's not all just critiques of members' horses.

Of course, as with all forums, there is the potential for unpleasantness and hurt feelings, but as various people have pointed out, those who do not wish to see their horses critiqued are under no obligation to post! And I would hope that we are all grown-up enough to be reasonably tactful and courteous in our comments?

It might be helpful to have a sticky at the top of the sub-forum with some basic guidelines.

But I'm getting ahead of things - do you think we should go ahead and ask Admin if we can have a Confo sub-forum? And if so, how does one go about this? Would they need a 'petition' of some sort with enough supporters before they would consider providing a new sub-forum? (Please forgive my ignorance of the protocol on all this! I'm just assuming that a new sub-forum means more work for Admin, so they probably don't just hand them out like sweeties every time somebody asks?)
 
I've done a few cc's when I felt like it in the past, on here, but was then besieged by people who wanted their horse 'done' til it started to feel rather like work.
I tried to oblige, but quickly realised that most people don't really want an objective cc (although they all say they do), but in fact want you to say 'Oh, how lovely, he's perfect in every way!'.
S :D
 
I don't think so, because how do you know who's knowledgable on here?? Surely it's best to ask someone you look up to in real life and you know is experienced and knows their stuff.
 
JDChaser said:
I don't think so, because how do you know who's knowledgable on here?? Surely it's best to ask someone you look up to in real life and you know is experienced and knows their stuff.
Click to expand...


I take your point, but surely the same would apply to absolutely any question or issue that anyone ever asks or raises on here? One is always going to get a mixture of informed and uninformed responses. This doesn't seem to stop people wanting to ask the questions, raise the issues, request advice, thoughts, opinions, etc!

With Confo Critique sub-forums, as with other specialist sub-forums such as Breeding, Veterinary, Showing, Competition, etc., it usually becomes clear who the really knowledgeable, expert people are. And of course different people may be better qualified to comment on confo in different breeds, or for different disciplines and so on.

But I do agree that it is never a good idea to make important decisions based entirely on the comments of strangers on an Internet forum! I think most of us are smart enough to know this.
 
Shilasdair said:
I've done a few cc's when I felt like it in the past, on here, but was then besieged by people who wanted their horse 'done' til it started to feel rather like work.
I tried to oblige, but quickly realised that most people don't really want an objective cc (although they all say they do), but in fact want you to say 'Oh, how lovely, he's perfect in every way!'.
S :D
Click to expand...

I do see your problem Shils! But perhaps if there were a proper Confo sub-forum, the 'workload' might be spread a bit more, as more of those, like you, who know their stuff on confo would visit the sub-forum and give their opinions - so it wouldn't all fall on your shoulders. The people who bombard you with PMs asking for critiques would have somewhere else to go! And of course you would be under no obligation to post on the Confo forum unless you felt like it.

Also, yes, you are right, some people really just want gushy compliments, not honest critiques - but perhaps again a brief 'guidelines' sticky at the top of the sub-forum could advise people not to post their horses for critique unless that is truly what they want, as no horse is perfect and there are bound to be a few criticisms...?

This seems to work OK on other boards I've seen - people who just want 'oh isn't he cute' comments just post on the main 'general' forums or in 'photo gallery' sub-forums or whatever, while those who genuinely want proper critiques use the confo sub-forum.

Meanwhile, I've been getting PMs and emails and so on, as well as the responses on here, from people who really would like a Conformation sub-forum. So could someone tell me please how to go about asking Admin for a new sub-forum?
 
P.S. - to those sending me PMs etc asking for critiques, I should perhaps have explained that by asking for a Confo forum I never meant to imply that I am any sort of expert! I am actually hoping to learn from more experienced and expert members.

I am one of those geeky academic types who reads a lot of books and articles and so on, but doesn't have a lot of real-life practical experience! This doesn't stop me adding my comments to confo critiques, of course, but there are many people on here far better qualified than I am!
 
QR A sub forum would be nice, I don't think a whole room would be used enough. It could be part of the PG. Also a thread about how to start one would be good, i.e. Horse stood square on a hard flat surface, pref against a plainish background then a pic from front, behind (with tail held away,) left and right side all taken from elbowish hight. Untacked of course. It's just so many times people have asked for CC's and it's been god awful photo making poor neddie look a lot worse than it is!

Pretty much all horses have at least one "fault" as shown by those great confo shots in HHO the other week. Some "faults" are even desireable in certain breeds, a certain amount of cow hockedness in clydies for example so it's also a question of knowing a little on breed standards.
 
I personaly love conformation forums and would be very interested is seeing one here. However I think it is important to have a disclaimer on the top of the forum stating that people will be posting their opinions of your darling's conformation and it may not all be nice, can't deal don't post. Also more importantly I think it is vital to have something requesting that people post only their own horses or horses they have permission to post. It isnt really fair to trawl the net and bring up other peoples horses without permission. Most importantly stallions advertised on the net. Owners may get upset if people post their livelihood up for people to dissect.
 
I'd like a Critique section. Not just on confo, but for comment/critique on riding/conformation/schooling etc...basically critiquing on anything horse or rider related :D
 
Think it's a great idea, although confo critique threads can get a bit heated when things are said that people don't want to hear! Tricky one!
 
I don't think they've ever got heated for justifiable reasons though, or because of the original topic. It's normally OP's rose tinted glasses. Just need big disclaimers that these things a posters opinions and discipline relative! I think someone once was a little offended once when I said a horse had a good "coaching shoulder," to me this is a great thing, horse will have a nice wide area to have a collar and will pull easily, to a rider it implies too upright in the shoulder and a jackhammer ride, obv there are degrees of upright and a coaching shoulder isn't actually a bolt upright shoulder, it's just more up than a ridden horses.
 
There is good and bad in every horse.

And there is no such thing as the perfect horse ( although tortilas is as near as dam it ) with that in mind people should be aware that when they post pictures of ther horses not all the comments will be good, however those doing the critisism should also make sure they remember not to just dwell on the bad.

And remember it is only an individuals opinion which they are being kind enough to share although they may or may not be right if you disagree which you may well do their intention is probably good so no need to get heated.

If someone is not open to any critisism then please do not put your horse forward.
 
OK - I think this thread shows there is enough support for this idea!

Could somebody please tell me how to go about asking Admin if we can have a new sub-forum? What is the correct procedure for this?

Many thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top