# Would like conformation critique on my APHA filly and Saddlebred gelding



## MyBrandy (Jan 19, 2011)

Hi guys, I would love some critique and suggestions on my 2 horses.
1) Myy filly is a year older now - I had few pictures of her here on the forums as 2 year old. She is 14.1" APHA filly now 3 years old, cow bred, so she is a shortie, but started to really muscle up this year  She is very level headed and calm, athletic little thing.. Funny thing is that she was started as 2 year old, now this year I actually use her as my "ranch hand" and I was ponying my greenie saddlebred (below) off her all of this year on the trail  She knows she is the boss and knows what to do. I am hoping to start doing some barrels (for fun), poles etc.. when she is around 5 years old. I was really hoping to get into reining, cutting, reined cowhorse, but there is nothing like that close enough where I live  I did take her chasing cow 2 times and she did great, she was actually trying to bite the cows in the butt the 2nd. time, no fear of them at all.. 

2nd. is my ASHA (American Saddlebred) gelding, he is also bay and white tobiano (yes go pintos!) he is 4 years old, very sweet guy, wants to please, learns very quickly, very sensitive. I started him end of this February, he's doing great, been on many trail rides, but now I want to start thinking which way to take him next year.. Is there anything you see in his conformation that suggest he would be suitable for a certain discipline? He was ridden western all of this spring till I got him a little more broke, recently I started riding him in my English saddle.. I have never taken any formal lessons on any specific type of riding, but I will want to take some lessons with him maybe next spring to help find his "niche". To me it seems his shoulder is too steep to do any kind of jumping.. but maybe dressage? I have not seen too many saddlebreds do dressage though. :?

Critique and pointers is very much appreciated  Thank you


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## MyBrandy (Jan 19, 2011)

And here are pictures of the 4 year old Saddlebred gelding


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## MyBrandy (Jan 19, 2011)

Hi, so many views but no opinions? Anybody please? Thank you..


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## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

Horse #1:
Nice horse. She stands over a lot of ground so she is a bit long. That being said, she has a strong coupling, and nice bone. Roomy hocks that are placed a bit too high, so she has a bit more angle in her hind legs than I like. She has a nice long hip and decent muscling behind. Her neck is set on correctly and her shoulder is adequate. I would like the point of shoulder set a bit higher. She has decent withers and appears to not be a down hill horse. In front she is wide chested and is a bit knock knee'd. I bet she paddles or wings when trotting toward you. Nice horse over all. 

Horse #2
This horse has a nice front end.. very typical of Saddlebreds although his neck is set a little bit low. His shoulder is correct with a nicely placed point of shoulder and a humerus has adequate angle with a nice open angle at the point of shoulder (compare his shoulde to horse #1). After his shoulder he falls apart from his rib cage back. His coupling is weak and his flat croup is short over unsubstantial hind quarters. His hind legs are over straight through the hocks and his bone is light throughout. He may be a little back at the knee. He stands close behind and I suspect he may interfere sometimes (hoof to fetlock joint) just like the picture. He is narrow in front as well and he toes out. He is a pretty horse with a quiet eye.. looks like he has character. He is the weaker of the two horses.


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## MyBrandy (Jan 19, 2011)

Elana - thank you for your critique I appreciate any input I can get



Elana said:


> Horse #1:
> Nice horse. She stands over a lot of ground so she is a bit long. That being said, she has a strong coupling, and nice bone. Roomy hocks that are placed a bit too high, so she has a bit more angle in her hind legs than I like. She has a nice long hip and decent muscling behind. Her neck is set on correctly and her shoulder is adequate. I would like the point of shoulder set a bit higher. She has decent withers and appears to not be a down hill horse. In front she is wide chested and is a bit knock knee'd. I bet she paddles or wings when trotting toward you. Nice horse over all.
> 
> <------------ yes I have noticed she paddles a little bit at trot, doesn't seem to bother her, she is not hitting herself in any way... Can you tell me how this can affect her performance?
> ...


<--------"His coupling is weak and his flat croup is short over unsubstantial hind quarters. His hind legs are over straight through the hocks and his bone is light throughout. He may be a little back at the knee. "
=== can you tell me how this affects his performance? What disciplines I should avoid to keep him sound in the long term? He is very pretty mover, super comfortable ride.. I do want to take him some direction next spring after doing 1 year of just trails and basic arena work.. at this point he walk, trot, canters, does nice transition using seat / leg aids, side-passes both directions, is light on on the bit, we are working on collection, he can collect, but not keep it there for longer than 5 seconds LOL..


I do have a video from last winter of them moving around, so you can kind of see how they move.. this is about 7-8 months ago, note the filly had a pulled suspensory on her leg at that time so she is very slightly limpy there, she is all recovered now.. They both are out of shape in that video, but you can see their movement (beyond just rolling in the dirt) - the gelding was not even started back then:





The gelding has a very short "riding video" here where he can be seen walking:
https://vimeo.com/46986586


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## MyBrandy (Jan 19, 2011)

Anybody else please?


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## PurpleMonkeyWrench (Jun 12, 2012)

Only thing I noticed that wasn't covered is that horse #1 looks very sickle hocked to me.


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## DoubleS (Jun 11, 2012)

They're both sickle hocked, more so the second horse than the first.
The first horse looks overall very nice and sturdy to me, no major flaws that I can find.
The second one looks maybe a little narrow chested, but he still looks nice and sturdy.
Cute looking horses!


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## MyBrandy (Jan 19, 2011)

Thanks everybody for your critique 
I wish somebody would help me suggest what discipline the Saddlebred should gear towards..


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## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

Back again.. for a minute. Yes to the sickle hocks in the filly.. a longer gaskin would have helped this. The gelding.. when you look at him being ridden you can SEE the weakness behind the saddle.. I am not real impressed with the gelding for this reason. His front is one horse and his back end is another horse and they are not brought together smoothly. He is narrow all the way through. This horse would benefit greatly from trotting up hills on a loose rein and lots of cavelletti work. He might make a low level equitation jumper. He would be difficult to make into a dressage horse except at the lower levels and he is too long and rangey to make a gaming horse.


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## MyBrandy (Jan 19, 2011)

Elana:
Thank you so much for your input!
"This horse would benefit greatly from trotting up hills on a loose rein and lots of cavelletti work. He might make a low level equitation jumper. He would be difficult to make into a dressage horse except at the lower levels and he is too long and rangey to make a gaming horse."
<---------- I live in Illinois and it's hard to find ANY hills here LOL.. I do not have any cavalleti in my barn, but maybe we can make some home-made ones... I think that is a great tip.. I do nave to say that the gelding is a VERY comfortable ride.. the long legs and long back contribute to it greatly LOL


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## MyBrandy (Jan 19, 2011)

You know - I wonder if riding him in western saddle would contribute to his back soundness in the long term? The western saddle does distribute pressure better than english saddle..
Here he's ridden in western saddle back in March this year (please excuse him there - he did have only maybe 5-6 rides on him in the video..
https://vimeo.com/39380811


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## star16 (Aug 10, 2012)

I don't know that much about conformation, but I do own a half saddlebred. She's 16 (never worked until I bought her 3 years ago) and has a terrible swayback! We do dressage to try and strengthen her up a bit, but it's still bad. 

So as he gets older, be prepared for that.


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## MyBrandy (Jan 19, 2011)

star16 said:


> I don't know that much about conformation, but I do own a half saddlebred. She's 16 (never worked until I bought her 3 years ago) and has a terrible swayback! We do dressage to try and strengthen her up a bit, but it's still bad.
> 
> So as he gets older, be prepared for that.


<----------- Thank you, I am definitely putting dressage up on the list


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