# critique Cricket, be harsh be kind i dont mind



## Thatgirlsacowboy (Aug 17, 2009)

Well I can say one thing... Your Cricket is definately better looking than my Cricket!


----------



## AngelWithoutWings54 (May 24, 2010)

She looks like she toes out in the hind... Maybe I'm wrong. SOmeone correct me if I am!


----------



## Skutterbotch (Dec 1, 2009)

AngelWithoutWings54 said:


> She looks like she toes out in the hind... Maybe I'm wrong. SOmeone correct me if I am!



That's what I thought too.


----------



## Poco1220 (Apr 6, 2010)

Her feet look like they need to be done pretty badly. She also appears to be both cow hocked and sickle hocked on the rear. On the front she appears slightly camped in. 

She is a very pretty girl though


----------



## Thatgirlsacowboy (Aug 17, 2009)

Poco, I thought that cow hocked and sickle hocked were the same thing?


----------



## Hukassa (Jun 10, 2010)

^^I believe cow-hocked is where the hocks are set closer together that the feet and sickle-hocked is where the hocks have to much of an angle. I think her front pasterns may be a tad to angled also.


----------



## westerncowgurl (Jul 14, 2010)

i think shes cute, her legs arent that bad


----------



## reining girl (Jan 30, 2009)

ya i took these pics just before the farrier came. i have to get her feet done every six weeks, they grow so dam fast. Well i was on the fence about selling her, but now i think i definantly want to.


----------



## reining girl (Jan 30, 2009)

woops sorry, dont pay attention to the (Well i was on the fence about selling her, but now i think i definantly want to.) i was on the phone talking to my friend and she was telling me that exact line lol, i hate when i type what people are saying. IM NOT SELLING CRICKET. Like i said, i realy whish i could cut her legs off and put some better ones onm but unfortunantly they havent come up with that transplant. I mean, every confo fault a horse can have on there legs, i think she has.


----------



## Deerly (Apr 18, 2010)

I'm not a fan of her feet  Especially her front feet look like a mess. Are they entirely different after the farrier comes? I would get a new farrier if my horse's feet ever looked like that but you know better, if they just grow out that way then there's not much you can do I guess. I can't get past her front feet, it looks like her pasterns are going to snap if something heavy got on her. She's def also toed out in the back.

She's got a really pretty face  

Her legs look kind of short proportionately to her body but that could just be the pictures?


----------



## reining girl (Jan 30, 2009)

they really look that bad... guess im gonna have to get a new farrier


----------



## mom2pride (May 5, 2009)

Honestly, while she has a bit too much angle in certain places, and she toes out slighty, I have seen much, much worse conformation in a horse, and those horses have held up to trail riding, and some gymkhana. 

She's NOT that bad. She is underrun in her front feet, and that seems pretty common in horses with smaller feet like she seems to have. You just need to see if your farrier can't start leaving more heel, rather than taking it all off. Does she need shoes, or is she ouchy without them? I think if you could get rid of those, and be able to file her feet, especially toes, between trims, she may do even better. But that is something you and your farrier need to discuss.


----------



## reining girl (Jan 30, 2009)

she does need shoes if im going to be trail riding which i do, but during winter she will be shoeless as i dont ride hardly ever in winter since i dont have an indoor arena and if i do ride its in the arena. ill have to talk to him next shoeing and see what can be done. thanks mom2pride


----------



## mom2pride (May 5, 2009)

I have trail ridden barefoot ever since I was a kid...but I think it may depend on how rough/rocky your terrain is. 

My mare has 4 white feet and is doing fine barefoot, and we have some pretty rough footing where I ride (outside the farm)...I find barefoot to be so much easier to maintain, than having a horse shod. But that's just me, hahaha.


----------



## Thatgirlsacowboy (Aug 17, 2009)

Uhg. Forget this post, my computer keeps messing up. My post is below.


----------



## Thatgirlsacowboy (Aug 17, 2009)

Deerly said:


> I can't get past her front feet, it looks like her pasterns are going to snap if something heavy got on her.


 

I'm really sorry if I'm asking too many questions... But I know absolutely nothing when it comes to conformation and this is really interesting me... What is the pastern supposed to look like then? Her pasterns look normal to me.


----------



## reining girl (Jan 30, 2009)

deerly, i want to know why you think her front feet are so f uped. i mean what do you think needs to changed.


----------



## Deerly (Apr 18, 2010)

reining girl said:


> deerly, i want to know why you think her front feet are so f uped. i mean what do you thin needs to changed.


Well firstly I wouldn't use such strong language, haha!

Here are some basic pastern diagrams: FAQ Pastern & Foot Conformation

I'm sure someone who is a farrier or w/ more experience can answer better but this sort of issue I've come to recognize as its something I have specific experience with the horses I know.

If you look at the shape of her hoof her toes are really long and her heels are really high giving them a strange shape and probably making her walk incorrectly. Also, in that first picture (but it could just be a trick of the colors) it looks like the front of the hoof flares out at the toe and isn't the same angle all the way down.

The thing that really stands out to me are how sloped her pasterns are. In the first picture especially, it looks like any weight applied to that leg would push the heel down and snap the foot up -- like if you landed badly on your wrist and broke it upwards. Not that this is going to happen to your horse but it looks like she could be easily prone to hurting her tendons and developing other issues because she's not stepping correctly.

I hope that makes sense. I just stated that if it were my horse I would not like to see his feet in that shape and would probably use a different farrier. My horse had become completely lame and un-ridable largely because he had an unbalanced trim with toes that were too long for a long period of time (before i adopted him). Another very young horse developed ringbone and had similar (although more dramatic) feet so that's why it stands out to me  

Good news is -- with proper trim and shoeing my horse recovered!


----------



## reining girl (Jan 30, 2009)

i see the hoof problem but not the pastern problem. to me her pasterns look fine, can someone take one of her pictures and draw the lines on them so i can see.


----------



## kitten_Val (Apr 25, 2007)

I'd say she has a longish pastern, but they are not extremely long or something. She toes out on back, but from what I was told (don't remember it was my farrier or my old trainer) many horses have it and it's better than be toe in. :wink: 

Her front hoofs (including angle) look somewhat strange (and it was already pointed out by other people). That's what came to my attention the most from looking at those pics. BTW, with the good trim you usually don't need shoes for trail riding (if hoofs are tough enough). 

I think she's a very cute horse with the gentle expression on her "face".


----------



## masatisan (Jan 12, 2009)

Maybe post some "after trim" pics so we can see what her feet look like when she's not at the very tail-end of her last trim?


----------



## payette (Jun 3, 2010)

I think she is a nice looking horse. Her back may be a tad long, but nothing terrible. I would reccomend hoofboots for trail riding and leaving her barefoot- it may help her feet a lot. 



mom2pride said:


> She's NOT that bad. *She is underrun in her front feet, and that seems pretty common in horses with smaller feet like she seems to have. You just need to see if your farrier can't start leaving more heel, rather than taking it all off.* Does she need shoes, or is she ouchy without them? I think if you could get rid of those, and be able to file her feet, especially toes, between trims, she may do even better. But that is something you and your farrier need to discuss.


I agree with most of this post. I don't think, however, that she doesn't have enough heel. I think she has too much heel, and it is contracted and underslung, because her feet grow so much between trims, and the heels, which on a barefoot horse would flare out when too long, are instead curling under the hoof and contractin because the back of the shoe holds them in a relative position to the toe. . . . urgh. . . hope that made sense!
www.barefoothorse.com is my favorite website!!! Check it out, it could help you a lot with your mare's feet. Even if you choose to continue shoing, the hoof they nail the shoe on to should look like the horses' hooves on that website.


----------



## FGRanch (Feb 9, 2008)

Randy don't be so hard on that mare, she doesn't have ever leg issue that there is. She's toed in, I don't think she is sickle hawked or camped under. It's just the way she appears in those pictures. 

I do think she is a touch long in the pasterns but that's not going to affect her. Better long with a smoother gait then shorter with a jack hammer gait! 

I would like to see a barefoot farrier go at those feet and fix em up.


----------



## reining girl (Jan 30, 2009)

there really are no good barefoot trimers around here, were definantly a "shoeing" area as we just have such hard rocky ground. Im going to go down today and take some pics of just her hoofs, and post the pics in this thread http://www.horseforum.com/horse-health/horse-hoof-experts-i-need-some-62933/ i still think im screwed. and made a bad decsion on buying her


----------



## flytobecat (Mar 28, 2010)

I thought when they had an underslung heel, it meant there wasn't enough heel & too much toe? (I'm still learning about feet).
Her heels look long to me, but in pict #3 the fronts do look underslung.
Also, could the toe out in the back be from the inside of the hoof being shorter than the outside? or is it always a conformation issue?
I don't know what you want to do with her, but I think she is a nice looking mare.
Both my horses are barefoot, and its pretty rocky where I live.


----------

