# Please critique my mare



## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

She doesn't look fat or thin, but healthy! That's a good change around here

I'm not sure if it's just her position but her front right knee looks off (not lame off, but conformationally off) but I can't say without other angles

She's really cute, though.


----------



## EdmontonHorseGal (Jun 2, 2013)

proper conformation photos would help us here.

get a shot from each side with her head up and level and all four feet standing square. another photo from behind showing her standing up square to judge her hind leg conformation, and one more photo from the front to show her front legs.

an eating pic in the semi dark with her head down won't get you much response other than 'she's cute' in my opinion


----------



## Reneetubbs (Jan 7, 2016)

Thank you


----------



## Reneetubbs (Jan 7, 2016)

Ohhhh I thought I uploaded another picture..... I am sorry but thank you!!


----------



## Reneetubbs (Jan 7, 2016)

*Fancy*









This still isn't the pictures you asked for but it is what I thought was attached before.


----------



## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

She's light on bone in the front. I'm not a fan of her hind legs at all. They're overly straight, especially through the stifle. Looks like she's got a bit of a hunter's bump going on. Her neck is rather short, compared to the rest of her body (at least it looks that way in the pic). Her throatlatch could be a bit cleaner for my taste (again, could be the pic). Not sure if it's the way she's standing, the pic, or what, but her right front leg looks nice and clean through the knee, but then her left looks VERY tied in and almost buck-kneed. She does have nice, short pasterns with good angle. 

Overall, not horrible. I wonder if better pics would give an overall different (better) impression, though.


----------



## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

I second more photos, I think a lot of what Drafty is seeing is because of how she is set up in the picture. She looks like a nice mare to me.


----------



## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

More photos with square both in stance and camera's angle. 

We also need flat ground. Do you have some wood or a concrete area she can stand in? Grass tends to distort the hooves


----------



## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

NICE horse. Maybe a bit over at the knee, but that is more blemish than unsoundness. 

I like this horse quite a lot! What is her breeding and what is she bred to???


----------



## Reneetubbs (Jan 7, 2016)

Thank you Elana! http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/sharp+dressed+woman 
Hopefully that link works. She is bred to a beautiful palomino but his name slips my mind at the moment. He is supposed to be an all around show horse that is undefeated in halter and has a great mind. We are pretty anxious to see the little one. 
Hopefully I will get better pictures up sooner rather than later but the weather and kids are not cooperating....


----------



## Smilie (Oct 4, 2010)

I agree that better pictures are needed, with her standing square to the camera, in side views
I don't like commenting on legs, if a horse is not standing square, so won't comment besides saying that her hocks are higher off the ground than is desired, and she appears to be built somewhat downhill
Just saw here pedigree, and see she is running bred, which shows in her conformation
I agree that overall, she looks like anice mare


----------



## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

i dont' see overly straight hind legs, in fact, they look pretty good to me. the canon bone is a bit long, in both front and rear, but if she is thoroughbred, it may be rather typical. her overall balance is good, and I especially like her shoulder and neck. her front legs are the one area I look at with a tiny bit of concer. the front right looks really straight down from the knee, and I'd check and make sure there is no sign of bowing of the tendon there. a better side view shot could make what I just said totally off base.

overall, I like her a lot.


----------



## Reneetubbs (Jan 7, 2016)

http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/ima+dusty+moment
This is who she is bred to. With a little luck I will get better pictures today. Thank you for looking:blush:


----------



## EdmontonHorseGal (Jun 2, 2013)

found the mare's sale ad with more pics and pics of the sire she's bred to. hope it's not against the rules to post it here. interesting how the seller hasn't taken down their ad yet though?

Gorgeous all-around show mare - in foal to stunning palomino For Sale | Buy this Horse at Equine.com



i'm not a fan at all of the sire's back end. typical post legged halter horse conformation that is popular but does the horse no favours. hopefully the mare's genes will be stronger and the foal won't end up looking too 'halter'. 

as for the mare, the pics in the ad aren't much better for confo critique, but i do see she is light in the back end and does have some fairly fine bone in her legs for her size. doesn't look too terribly downhill. her back leg movement in the video in the link seems a bit odd to me at times (see the last bit where she's trotting) and she looks to be on the forehand often but could just be her way of going or due to the way the rider is riding. her front legs look good from what i can see although there is shadows. good breadth of chest. she seems like a smart mare with a good disposition.


----------



## Reneetubbs (Jan 7, 2016)

EdmontonHorseGal said:


> found the mare's sale ad with more pics and pics of the sire she's bred to. hope it's not against the rules to post it here. interesting how the seller hasn't taken down their ad yet though?
> 
> Gorgeous all-around show mare - in foal to stunning palomino For Sale | Buy this Horse at Equine.com
> 
> ...


I found that also and thought it a little weird that the add was still up.... The seller said her movement was a little off because she was so pregnant. In the mares defense I run funny also when I am pregnant. 
I really really appreciate your input, especially since I still have not gotten proper pictures. My daughter has discovered riding and I just don't get much time with my horse now.


----------



## EdmontonHorseGal (Jun 2, 2013)

Reneetubbs said:


> I found that also and thought it a little weird that the add was still up.... The seller said her movement was a little off because she was so pregnant. In the mares defense I run funny also when I am pregnant.
> I really really appreciate your input, especially since I still have not gotten proper pictures. My daughter has discovered riding and I just don't get much time with my horse now.


how many months pregnant at the time of that video? she doesn't look too far along at all but the ad says due Feb 2016, so maybe the video was made some time ago? and if she's having any proper mobility/leg movement issues due to pregnancy and they are riding her, then i would question the seller's horse knowledge to be honest.

i've seen mares much closer to popping out a foal that move just as true as they do not pregnant while trotting. that's not pregnancy doing that in my opinion, but a conformation fault causing it and the seller saying that so you hopefully wouldn't ask any more questions and just buy the horse.


----------



## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

I really wish she was bred to a different stallion. I think that judges pinning these horses in halter that have seriously falty conformation is unconscionable (and I am a German Shepherd person in dogsport so I have seen far too much of this). 

That said, you might get a buckskin out of this breeding and if the foal follows in Daddy's footsteps, will be saleable. 

This mare would do well to be bred to a really good AQHA sport horse with get on the ground so you know what the sire is prepotent for. I do like the mare and she may well be worth that expensive stud fee... Just sayin'!


----------



## Reneetubbs (Jan 7, 2016)

Did yawl find something about Ima Dusty Moment-I can not find anything except all breeds and a few adds for his babies.....


----------



## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

EdmontonHorseGal said:


> found the mare's sale ad with more pics and pics of the sire she's bred to. hope it's not against the rules to post it here. interesting how the seller hasn't taken down their ad yet though?
> 
> Gorgeous all-around show mare - in foal to stunning palomino For Sale | Buy this Horse at Equine.com
> 
> ...


I agree with all this, pick up the video at 1.38 or so as she crosses the road, that is when I really saw the odd movement, and then I just kept seeing it. I must admit before that my attention was split between horse and rider, so I may have missed it.

As to the ad, if you have advertised in lots of places, sometimes you don't remember to take all the ads down. Maybe this seller is as unorganised as me, doesn't have a list of all the places she was listed.


----------



## EdmontonHorseGal (Jun 2, 2013)

Reneetubbs said:


> Did yawl find something about Ima Dusty Moment-I can not find anything except all breeds and a few adds for his babies.....


that's all i could find too. so that says to me he's not being actively or very well campaigned as a stud. usually studs have themselves featured on the website for the barn they are at or at least have a poster of sorts circulating to some degree on the internet.

and that makes me wonder why we can't find anything. is he not that good a stud/interest in him is low/his babies didn't turn out as well as people thought?


----------



## Reneetubbs (Jan 7, 2016)

Here is a picture of the sire. The people that have him and sold Fancy are changing gears from show to barrel racing-that is why they sold her and are not advertising him anymore.


----------



## Corporal (Jul 29, 2010)

I really like this mare, but it's probably bc she has enough TB in her to look great in the English show ring. I am curious about the comments regarding stepping odd. Did you do a PPE? Have you ridden her? Does she ever trip? In the video she looked like she may have slipped on the road, understandable if she was shod, and once on the shoulder, but we don't know and cannot see the footing there.
I don't want to raise ANY alarms, and you know your horse better than the photos and videos can show US. Certainly, even my hardly ridden QH trips sometimes and he is sound as a board.
Here's hoping it is just a one time thing. I'm betting the foal is going to be QH beefy. I don't care for that, but there is a market out there, if you need it, for that, too.
Praying for a safe delivery and a healthy foal!


----------



## Reneetubbs (Jan 7, 2016)

I just cant seem to get pictures that are any clearer than whats up. I did however get videos of her moving. The video that is up from the seller was supposedly taken of her straight out of the pasture after 2 years of not being ridden. I saw the movement on the road and seems to me like she just isn't sure about the road but keeps going. I did ride her in an arena, down a gravel road and around a pasture. She never seemed to trip or anything like that. I am however very far from an expert or even very knowledgeable. I haven't ridden her since I brought her home because I don't think its fair to her to start riding her 1.5 months before she has a baby considering how little she was ridden the rest of the pregnancy. 
She does seem to have a very sweet disposition and has great ground manners. Well pooh I have to figure out how to attach a video....


----------



## Reneetubbs (Jan 7, 2016)

https://youtu.be/b8O0TqRj2HA
https://youtu.be/YV2Q0XeX57E


----------



## Corporal (Jul 29, 2010)

Your videos and the seller's video show ME no problems on a good surface. When I first got my horses, in 1985, I had a partner and she knew how to give shots. I did not. It was June, so I signed up for a Community College course, "Horse Health Care," taught by a local Vet, exclusively Equine, at we drove to his clinic, complete with two operating theaters. Great Vet!! He showed us examples of chronic colic and chronic lamenessess and any other examples of clients at his "hospital" at the time of the classes. I learned that to tell a lamness, trot your horse on driveway gravel. If he of she hurts, it will hurt more and you will notice the head bobbing to compensate. Sometimes your horse isn't lame, but just has sensitive feet. I had one of those, who never pulled up lame, but screamed ouchy! when you rode him on gravel, and mostly my horses were barefoot. That is why I commented on the shoulder of the road.
I like everything about her training, except her backing. My excellent old herd never backed well, although everything else was practically perfect about them all. Buster Brown (my QH) backs like my diesel truck in gear without the accelerator pedal, and I have taught him to do this on the ground. You can teach her this, too, because it will not tax her to practice without a rider. I just use a halter and lead and I started with a whip that has a long shaft and a short popper. I asked for only a step back at a time and every day. Then, two, then four, to get him to stop square. She'll catch on and you can keep going. You are looking for calm obedience, btw,
Tell you what...you keep the foal and I'll borrow your mare for awhile. =b


----------



## EdmontonHorseGal (Jun 2, 2013)

she looks sound, but there's just something about her back leg movement that doesn't seem quite right to me. 

i've been dealing with stifle stiffness issues in my own mare off and on for the past year, so i'm very critical of leg movement in her and that's how i can tell something just doesn't seem quite normal on your mare.


----------



## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Yes, and the odd movement hinted at right rear, stifle. I think.


----------



## Reneetubbs (Jan 7, 2016)

EdmontonHorseGal do you mind telling me more about your stifle problem? Is it genetic problem or injury? How did you diagnose and what are you doing? She does have a spot on her rear right that the seller called a windgall......:sad:


----------



## EdmontonHorseGal (Jun 2, 2013)

Reneetubbs said:


> EdmontonHorseGal do you mind telling me more about your stifle problem? Is it genetic problem or injury? How did you diagnose and what are you doing? She does have a spot on her rear right that the seller called a windgall......:sad:



my mare is a young standardbred, and the chiro i've had out for her mentioned to me that some standies can have the equivalent of growing pains in their stifles and that chiro saw it a fair bit on a number of local standardbreds. it's something that my mare just has to grow out of i've been told and looks like she is doing just that. she's not even 5 yet and i've seen a marked difference over the past year in how she moves. we have days where there is no stiffness evident at all and she moves 100% normal. and then there are days where her back legs just seemed to not quite move correctly/are stiff/not reaching as far under the body in stride. it is very subtle and i've had horse folk say 'she's fine, quit worrying!' but i know my horse too well to ignore even the slightest difference in her movement. thankfully lately there hasn't been the same degree of stiffness in recent months that i saw late last year/early 2015. 

windgalls are different than stifle stiffness, but may be related due to the horse being sore from the injury or tendon sheath tear that caused the windgall and not moving properly and that could result in stiffness in other parts of the legs/body. windgalls are synovial fluid built up mainly around the fetlock joint area from what i've researched.


----------



## KWPNowner (Sep 25, 2012)

She looks quite well put together to me, I don't see straight behind or anything glaringly concerning. She does look under muscled and unfit, but as she's been out in a field, that's so be expected. 

I didn't see anything particularly concerning in the initial video regarding her movement - it looked like she was reacting to the surface of the road when she crossed it to me. You could always have a vet come out and do a lameness exam if you were worried though. 

Windgalls are generally considered a blemish rather than an unsoundness. They're not uncommon and I wouldn't consider a windgall a reason for a horse to be unsound.


----------

