# Opinions on my mare's conformation?



## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Nice! She looks like a decent sort. Not like a lot of these modern quarter horses you see. 

She looks to be a little straight through the stifle & sickle hocked. Her rump is quite... peaky. Perhaps this is due to her being(well, in some pics) rump-high.

In some pics she looks to be quite upright/high heeled in front, and she appears long toed behind. Decent size feet & legs by the look of it tho.


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## Captain Evil (Apr 18, 2012)

My opinion is, Wow! What a beauty! Her name suits her too.


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## cbar (Nov 27, 2015)

I really like this mare!!


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

The only thing I don't like in her build is how her hindquarters peak then slope off dramatically. Otherwise, what a looker! I wouldn't refuse her if someone said: Here. You need one more.


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

Pretty mare. I'd suspect she could do with a chiro adjustment-- the lack of development along her topline speaks of something not quite right-- either she's not moving properly because of saddle fit, or something sore-- likely over her SI joint. She's a bit goose-rumped which doesn't help, but I bet if you find what's bothering her and let her muscle up, she looks a lot better. 

She looks like a nice all-around ranch-type mare for you. Enjoy her!


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

she is nicely balanced with respect to shoulder size and angle, neck length and torso length. But, like others, I see her being a bit 'Goose rumped'. 



It would be fun to see video of how she moves.


Her coloration and overall appearance is very nice. sweet face, too.


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

^As SM said, I sus her HQ is likely at least partly postural, rather than 'conformational'


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## WalkTrotLope (Jan 4, 2019)

Thank you all for your answers! Some of these pictures make her hindquarters look a little different than they are in real life and a little more ‘peaky’ than they really look—they were mostly taken with older iPhone cameras which tend to warp the photos a little. She is an amazing horse and I’m glad to hear these good points on her conformation as well as some of her flaws to pay attention to. Open to more opinions also, thanks everyone!


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## WalkTrotLope (Jan 4, 2019)

tinyliny said:


> she is nicely balanced with respect to shoulder size and angle, neck length and torso length. But, like others, I see her being a bit 'Goose rumped'.
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What exactly do you mean by goose rumped? I’ve never heard that term before.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

it means the sacrum points more upward, and there's a sharper slope down toward the tail area. Here is a much more extreme example of that:


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

^I've gleaned what it means by the horses it is used to lable, tho I've only heard the term here. Just looked i up & Wiktionary says '(of a horse or donkey etc) having a steep, sloping croup, a narrow rump, and a low set to the tail'. Which does seem a little ironic, considering geese don't generally have steep 'croups' or low set tails... tried to attach pic of one of my Toulouse geese but attachments not working.


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## The Equinest (Dec 18, 2019)

Cons: 

She's butthigh, and has a low neck emergence which won't help you if you're trying to do more uphill work. For work where her head is wanted lower, like reining however, I think she'd probably be fine. You may need to work harder to get her to engage in the hindquarters and lighten on the forehand because of this. Your mare looks to have a slightly steeper hip than most people consider ideal, but it's not something drastically straight. She's also quite a bit sickle hocked, which combined with the straight hip and being BATK will make it harder for her to engage herself and lighten up the forehand, but not impossible. 

Things I would watch - reining is a high-stress sport on the hindquarters, specifically the hocks. Keep an eye on them, as well as the pasterns. She's pretty lacking in topline as well, which is necessary to get really good, fluid movement. 

Pros: 

I _believe_ that she looks to be built uphill - when you compare the neck emergence, the lumbosacral gap and her pillar of support(you may read what that is here:https://www.hcbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/2018-Functional-Confirmation-draft-revision.pdf, it's a very good anatomically based system of judging conformation of all breeds that doesn't follow very incorrect and outdated methods of measuring conformational "correctness"), only the neck emergence is actually below desirable. The POS is slightly forward of the wither and from what I can see of the LS gap, it's close to the point of hip, though it's hard to tell with the bump. Her pasterns also look to be of a good length - not too long, not too short. I really like her shoulder also - it's very nice and sloped, rather than upright which will help her out a lot in movement.  

I think her movement probably wouldn't be the _best_, perhaps a bit choppy and short-strided in the hind but I think with proper training and riding she probably could move decently. She looks like she has a decent amount of proportionality and functionality that she'll be able to move pretty well to me. The part that worries me the most would be her legs - if you want her to stay sound, you'll need to watch them. Amateur reining or ranch riding might not put a ton of stress on her, but with her leg conformation and her not being a super uphill horse, it's something to pay attention and keep an eye on at least. There's plenty of horses in upper levels with worse conformation, so I think if she's taken well care of she'll be fine.


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## sharon1927 (Aug 17, 2015)

The overall picture is beautiful. However, there are three things that jump out at me, two of which have already been mentioned in other comments. She is goose rumped and sickle hocked. But the other thing that I noticed right away is that her pasterns are a bit short and upright. Shorter pasterns don't offer as smooth a ride and it can also predispose the horse to joint issues. Other than those things though, she is a beauty!


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

keep in mind that when asked to do a confo critique, people look for any thing to pick out as different or incorrect. For the most part, that's a really nice mare.


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## WalkTrotLope (Jan 4, 2019)

Thank you all so much! I will keep in mind these things about her conformation and especially about her legs for her riding and training in the future. In some of these pictures she was not under consistent work and was not using herself properly(which we are working on) so some of her muscles/top line were a little underdeveloped. Thanks for your kind replies :gallop:


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