# Critique?



## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

Holy copper penny, Batman! lol Boy, is she shiny!

Okay, so her neck looks a bit long to me. Her shoulder angle looks pretty decent. Her back may be a touch long? I like her hind legs, but something about the way her barrel ties into her hip bugs me. Not sure what it is, though. Sorry, keep getting distracted by the shiny. lol I want to say there's something going on with her knees (not sure if she's over at the knee or if she's tied in behind the knee...or both?).

Overall, she's beautiful and looks like she's well-cared for. Anything conformational I'm seeing is relatively minor, honestly.


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## yourcolorfuladdiction (Feb 19, 2012)

Lol thank you... I think she has an undescended testical  she's got a crazy stallion shine. She does have big knees, if I showed you a pic of the front it might help, they just seem to be large. I think that might be what your seeing?


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## yourcolorfuladdiction (Feb 19, 2012)

As for her back I think maybe it's because she has the "jumper butt" croup so where it should tie in there's an extra little mound?


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## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

You know what, I'm crazy. lol Guess I was tired last night when I was doing this critique because I don't see the funky thing I was talking about where her barrel ties into her hip (it's actually more where her barrel ties into her flank, but I think it's just an effect of the shadow/shine).


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## yourcolorfuladdiction (Feb 19, 2012)

ah okies  this picture of her is a bit blinding lol


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## GeeGee Gem (Oct 14, 2011)

she's beautiful  x


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## yourcolorfuladdiction (Feb 19, 2012)

Thank you very much


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## Lins (Nov 8, 2011)

Wow, I can tell that this horse is loved and well cared for! Her neck is a bit long, hard to notice anything else because she's so shimmery!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## yourcolorfuladdiction (Feb 19, 2012)

Thank you


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## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

She is pretty nice. I would like to see her in a photo over a fence. Her shoulder is nice but the angle at the point of shoulder is quite closed and I wonder how she looks in front in the air. She is a little straight behind (her hind legs) but she has a nice roomy hock. Pasterns and bone look to be adequate. 

Oh wait.. is that her jumping in your Avatar? If so, she is jumping EXACTLY as I would expect. She is doing her best to get her knees up but that is about as far as she can get them up because of her shoulder conformation. Notice that she is folding her feet up to carefully avoid hitting the jump instead of raising her knees.. they are not level.. though they are also not pointed down which is dangerous. 

Her neck is a bit heavy and seems a bit low set and her head is a bit over sized. That being said, she looks like she is worked farily correctly and she does not have a huge underneck muscling. Her Scalenus could be less pronounced and her photo indicates she is at the early stages of using her "ring of mucles." 

I know you are not doing dressage, but dressage can improve the jumping horse. Here is something for you to look at:
Biomechanical Riding and Dressage 1


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## yourcolorfuladdiction (Feb 19, 2012)

Elana said:


> I know you are not doing dressage, but dressage can improve the jumping horse. Here is something for you to look at:
> Biomechanical Riding and Dressage 1



I actually do a lot of dressage work with her, I only jump maybe once or twice a week and I've mostly been working on developing the "into the bridle" feel over fences, which has improved her jumping 10 fold. The picture above is old, it's from September 2010 but I don't have anything more recent in the way of a conformation picture.

This is her doing dressage:








The bit in her mouth is a rubber covered tom thumb connected like a boucher bit with no chin chain or 2nd rein on the lower [leverage] ring. I was waiting for my rubber covered boucher bit to come in at this point in time.

Here are a few more of her jumping:








This is the one from my avatar, it's from March 2011.









This is a more recent image of her jumping, it's from August 2011.









More from August 2011.









And one more from August 2011.


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## PintoTess (Aug 18, 2010)

Nothing I can say that hasn't been said but she sure is purty!


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## Rhen (Feb 20, 2012)

Holy cats......LOVE HER COLOR!!! Shes quit pretty!!!!! How tall is she???


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## Hidalgo13 (Dec 24, 2010)

I think this is one of the nicest quarter horses I've ever seen (that isn't a competition horse).  Her coat is beautiful and I love her build.


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## yourcolorfuladdiction (Feb 19, 2012)

PintoTess said:


> Nothing I can say that hasn't been said but she sure is purty!


Thank you 



Rhen said:


> Holy cats......LOVE HER COLOR!!! Shes quit pretty!!!!! How tall is she???


Thank you very much. She's a centimeter or two under 14.2hh.



Hidalgo13 said:


> I think this is one of the nicest quarter horses I've ever seen (that isn't a competition horse).  Her coat is beautiful and I love her build.


Thank you, I've actually considered doing some QH showing with her but I haven't put her in my name since I bought her from my trainer (to keep the list of names on her papers down). She's actually turned out to be quite the little event horse, she's going to be attempting to qualify for Novice AEC's this year and probably Training Level GAIG/USDF Region 1 Championships. Keep your fingers crossed for her 

I do know her head is a little big and her back and neck are a little long but it's harder to notice when she's going well under saddle. And I do notice that she has to tuck up a lot more and isn't as free in her shoulder over jumps which makes me think that her limit will be around 3'7" (or prelim eventing) as long as she stays in good shape. She might be able to jump bigger but I've always considered that her maximum due to her size and build.


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## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

Looking at the one photo of her doing dressage she is on the right track but in that photo she is on her forehand (go to the article I linked to). She needs to better utilize her ring of muscles. 

In the jumping she has the same issue in all photos. Her knees are not up and they are uneven. There is NOTHING you can do about that. It is her comformation.. she has a closed angle at the point of shoulder. She physically cannot even her knees OR bring them up. It just means she must jump a bit higher and make up for it by folding her front a bit more which she is doing in every one of these photos. 

You are doing what you can to help her. She is a nice horse but (like every other horse out there) not perfect. You have taken her where she can go.. and more dressage.. more getting her to work her "ring" will only help her go as far as she can physically! 

Good job!


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## yourcolorfuladdiction (Feb 19, 2012)

Elana said:


> Looking at the one photo of her doing dressage she is on the right track but in that photo she is on her forehand (go to the article I linked to). She needs to better utilize her ring of muscles.
> 
> In the jumping she has the same issue in all photos. Her knees are not up and they are uneven. There is NOTHING you can do about that. It is her comformation.. she has a closed angle at the point of shoulder. She physically cannot even her knees OR bring them up. It just means she must jump a bit higher and make up for it by folding her front a bit more which she is doing in every one of these photos.
> 
> ...



Thank you Elana, at her stage (in that photo) I was not as worried about her being a little on her forehand we had to overcome a lot of mouth issues and backing off from the bit and she wasn't ready to rock back much more than that. I was just happy she was going forward and starting to be a little more even in the reins and lifting her back and working over her topline (instead of throwing her head up in the air, arching her back, and running trying to avoid what she thought I might do).

Like many Eventers, Dressage is not her favorite thing, although she LOVES lateral work and we spend a lot of time on that. I fear she might be a bit confused about how far under herself I really want her hind legs (and when she gets confused she gets upset :/). I also might think it's a little hard for her, conformationally wise because her back is a bit long. With her elevator bit I've achieved a full-on FEI quality medium trot where she's up and forward and even in the bridle (I've been riding bareback, which seems to be helping her immensely), but I don't want to overuse that bit because I need it to be effective when we jump... So I've been contemplating the idea of getting her a double bridle (with a happy mouth weymoth and bradoon because she doesn't like metal bits) and use it more as a teaching tool once or twice a week. (I'll be posting a thread on this under Horse Tack and Equiptment later tonight to get suggestions.)

We probably work 4-5 days a week on dressage and she might get jumped or conditioned or lunged once a week, and then a girl takes her on 30 to 45 min trails on the weekends at the walk (whether or not I have already ridden her because I believe a horse can never be walked too much). So she works 6 days a week, most of which are dressage.


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