# A little bit of everything critique- dressage, seat, and conformation



## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Hi, will leave others to comment on your riding.

Confo... need better pics. Please check out the sticky on that. 

Looks like he's well put together, but has a very pointy croup/TS region. Maybe something going on there I think. His feet also look like they need a good trim, look long, run forward heels. Right fore is a bit clubby?


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## lostastirrup (Jan 6, 2015)

@loosie, he's in for a trim on Weds. Unfortunately my ability to get a good critique photo is largely dependent on whether he will stand still. I took advantage of the moment I had.... I figured with the old photo- the structure of the legs was well visible, and not something that really changes. His back, neck and topline- those all develop, so I figured the photo was adequate. He's always had a hunter bump, but it's starting to dissipate- is he chubby, oh yeah! he had all summer for turnout and to run around and be feral, of course he got a bit rotund, which is okay with me as temps are dropping and he slims down too much in the winter on average. 


I have a picture zoomed out. Attached.


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

What breed is this horse? I will critique later when I have some time.


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## lostastirrup (Jan 6, 2015)

@waresbear German riding pony/arab

Out of a mare with mostly polish lines and by Nijinsky, who had a lot of Arab in him


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Love the GRP's! A friend of mine who ran a very upscale equestrian centre but has since moved to SC, raises them. Their foundation stock is from Germany where her family is from. The Patchwork Ranch specializing in purebred German Riding Ponies.


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## lostastirrup (Jan 6, 2015)

waresbear said:


> Love the GRP's! A friend of mine who ran a very upscale equestrian centre but has since moved to SC, raises them. Their foundation stock is from Germany where her family is from. The Patchwork Ranch specializing in purebred German Riding Ponies.


I'd never tried one before Nick, but I'm pretty fond of how he's been put together. He acts and looks very Arab so much that people don't think he's a cross, but I think he's better put together for dressage due to that blood. 


I don't know if I would have ever bred his dam or his sire though. I like Nijinsky but his conformation is Okay and not great, and mum was nothing special either. I got a nice pony out of it, but I think both had that predisposition to a pointy hip and dad didn't carry muscle well across his back. Not the worst breeding, but with my next horse (after I finish school) I want to get a GRP that screams quality.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

first of all, kudos for you for seeing the diamond in the rough. He looks like a prince now, from a bit of a pauper, then.


You ride really quite well. Becuase you have a very long torso, it's easy for you to start looking down from those great heights, and get a little bend in your shoulders. it also seems to sort of dampen him a bit, and then it seems like you end up 'pumping' the tiniest bit.


perhaps think more forward yourself. mentally look forward and have your hands more 'open' and forward, too. Its not that they actually move much forward, but rather you have this feel , as if you are offering your horse something. like, "after you", so that he passes through the door before you. or, like you are holding a silver tray, and you are a butler, offering it to a guest. It honors his honesty in moving forward.


if you bring your hands up a tiny bit, and point your thumbs , like a LASER, at the bit rings, and thik 'here you go', I think he'll step more into that invitation, meaning you don't push him with your torso, but 'ride' the front of his wave.


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## lostastirrup (Jan 6, 2015)

tinyliny said:


> if you bring your hands up a tiny bit, and point your thumbs , like a LASER, at the bit rings, and thik 'here you go', I think he'll step more into that invitation, meaning you don't push him with your torso, but 'ride' the front of his wave.


I actually really like this visualization and try to use the pinkies as my directional. Pointing at where I want the horse to go. When I ride I think I'm doing the things I ought to enough and then she video and go "I Need to do more of the right things" I like to think of posting through the hands like skiing, they stay in place,and the body moves through. I'm a bit snatchy on my left hand, which I have definitely gotten in trouble for. It's good to see it so I can chastise myself for something I don't usually notice. Other than "gee he's over bent to the inside I wonder why"

I'm probably pumping a fair bit. No stirrups after all means that you are to generate the energy to get out of the saddle. I'm still struggling with stirrups. I have a lesson in two weeks. I'm hoping the trainer can put me back together.


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

You ride well. Your horse moves like an Arab, in fact his way of moving reminds me of my daughter's late beloved Arab. You do need to bring your shoulders back more and open up your chest, that will actually improve your hand position. When you ride, think about bringing your shoulders together at your back, a good exercise that helped my posture and position immensely. Any other fine tuning I can't make out in the video, and I won't fault your posting because unless you ride sans the pedals regularly & post, the struggle is real, lol.

Now your beautiful horse, I like him. I love his movement, I can see the Arab but that mini WB German Riding Pony jazz is there too. His legs are good, decent bone, not much muscle on his forearm on the fronts, but not a big deal. His looks pigeon chested, and his neck ties in high on his shoulder, hence the dip in front of the withers. All of his faults are minor in my opinion because my horses have these faults as well and it hasn't caused any functional problems. Thanks for posting, I enjoyed critiquing.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

lostastirrup said:


> @waresbear German riding pony/arab
> 
> Out of a mare with mostly polish lines and by Nijinsky, who had a lot of Arab in him


Unless there was another horse called Nijinsky I can say that Nijinsky was pure TB! His stud fee was very high and I would bet my bottom dollar he didn't cover anything that wasn't pure TB!


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

There was a KWPN named Nijinski that is a well known stallion. Jumping mainly.


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## lostastirrup (Jan 6, 2015)

This is pops. He has a lot of the same faults Nick does, and then ties in a bit odd in the neck. I don't have a picture of mum. 

But yeah this is dad. The facility that owns him is Fairview sport ponies.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

You ride him very well so he's going to improve with more work to get that topline and his quarters in better shape.
He's at a disadvantage because he's got high withers which makes it harder to get a nice neck position and he's got that hunters bump which weakens the area of the back around the sacro-iliac but you can do a lot to make positive changes. It helps that he's short backed as longer backed horses suffer more problems with that weakness there


The German Riding ponies were mostly all produced by crossing quality Welsh C's & A's, Connemaras and New Forests with smaller WB's though they also bought a lot of purpose bred British (show) riding ponies which are a type not a breed bred by crossing those same native ponies with arabians and TB's. 
The German Sport ponies look more like the British Show Hunter ponies which were a result of introducing more 'body' into the show pony types
If you cross a German Sport pony with an Arabian then you get what you have - a pony with a lot of Arabian characteristics that looks more like a British show pony


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

Foxhunter said:


> Unless there was another horse called Nijinsky I can say that Nijinsky was pure TB! His stud fee was very high and I would bet my bottom dollar he didn't cover anything that wasn't pure TB!


 The Nijinski the OP's pony is sired by is what's being called an American Sport Pony 
He's got a lot of Arabian bloodlines plus New Forest and Welsh A, random ponies, TB and Trakhener.


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## lostastirrup (Jan 6, 2015)

@jaydee The hunter's bump is actually going away! muscle is being built and then Im doing soem stretches and massage a friend showed me that helped with her horse's hunter bumpy hip. I think he will always have a remnant- just because that damage is not reversible, but good haunches and a strong back will overcome the weakness at least enough to get me to my bronze and silver medal I think. 
@waresbear thank you! Ive been working really hard on my shoulders and my "driving hands" they are getting better but its hard without eyes on the ground. I looked up your friend's ranch. Do you think they would sell me a pony in a few years? When I graduate I want to grab up a youngster and get him going. Im partial to the arab cross (who isnt?) but would probably behoove me to get a purebred if I want to do Grand Prix some day. Something with a little better structure than Nick- though he has all the best things- is sound, uphill, and barefoot. so with how my life has been going now he's the perfect horse!


Since he's coming into shape we get a really good day where we can push collection and get neat beautiful simples with the occasional flying change that is not too terrifying, but because hes going from being worked approxiamtely 1/7 of the time to being worked 6/7 of the time, he gets tired and worn out so I've committed to always riding for "happy rides" even if it means not pushing the things I want out of him. We are doing a LOT of poles- mostly because the QH trail people at my barn leave them out. so I think that will help on the days he doesnt have the umph for collected work or the tough transitions. He's on the aids, he now just needs the muscle. 

I also changed his grain to something with higher protein and fat (before he was just on a balancer) and am including a little bit of flax seed oil in his feed on top of Red Cell. He is not blanketed in the winter so I want to keep his weight up .


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## SteadyOn (Mar 5, 2017)

Riding-wise, your base looks great but a couple changes from the waist up would help. I would say to lift your sternum and let your shoulders drop down and back. Lift your chin a bit and bring your head back and up a bit more. Right now there's a bit of a rounding of the shoulders and your chin and head are pushing out down and forward. By lifting your sternum and opening your chest, and getting your head up and back, you'll have a more stable upper body and you'll be able to engage your core better. I agree about the hands benefitting from coming up and forward slightly, too, for the reasons tinyliny stated above.


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## DanteDressageNerd (Mar 12, 2015)

Your overall position and fluidity in your hip is nice. I quite like that. You have movement in your pelvis, it isn't held stiff or still. MUCH MUCH rather see motion in the pelvis and fluidity than no motion and total stillness because it's like having a hose and putting a kink in the hose that blocks the back if too still. 

Some things in the canter. His canter to walk is quite fluid, you should be proud of that. But with the canter I would work on getting a bit more jump, try leg yielding in on the circle and leg yield out and think of your hip of encouraging him to come up like a big ice cream scoop inviting his back up into your pelvis as you're inviting his shoulder up and his neck out. Sit a smidge more on your pocket when you think of sitting his croup down and lifting the front end, I like to project the imagery of rocking back a saddleseat horse and the neck coming up into the pommel with the croup lowering but without the back hollowing. I dont know how to describe the physical mechanics of it too well but I'll try! It's like you allow in the hip then hold your core and sit them down on the hind end and then relax your core and allow and hold again but at the same time like you're both inviting and drawing the shoulder and withers up into your pelvis. Like get them to respond and let go again. I actually really like to use squares in the canter to really get that jump up into the hand. There is also something a clinician I trained with called "professional" falling in and falling out which is a really good tool of basically being on the set 15m circle and stepping into the inside stirrup and having the horse follow your weight coming to a 12m circle and then stepping into the outside stirrup having the horse fall out back to a 15m circle. 

There is also inviting the shoulder in by bring the outside closer to the wither, while open the inside rein out to invites the horse's shoulder in when falling out through the shoulder. Or opposite when the horse is falling in on the shoulder.

It's not always inside bend, it's moving them off outside aids and then moving them off the inside aids and back again which helps them "hang" a little more in the bridle. Not lean but take the contact and get a bit deeper and lifting out the base of his neck. Try putting an occasional loop in your inside rein molding him around your inside leg and half halt the outside rein. The "uphill" or collected feel really comes from that inside hind jumping into the outside rein but also doing some counter flexion and having that outside hind jumping into the inside rein. 

Another trick to is sometimes haunches in or shoulder in on the circle in the canter can really loosen up the canter and get them to take the contact out. I'd like to see him a bit deeper in the neck. Here he is overly relying on the inside rein and leaning to the inside and is less in the outside aids. That inside hind leg into that outside rein is a lot of where collection comes from, for example on a trained FEI horse it is like you engage your core, slightly close your both legs around the horse and it's like you half halt down into your seat without getting "heavy" and rock the horse back with less forward motion in the seat but still and upness to it. It's very hard to try to describe because I can feel it but to put to words is difficult. 

Also when teaching horses to "sit" and gain more "suspension" I do a lot of how far can you come back hold it 10 seconds okay a little more forward out of it, okay come back how far can you do it and let out. The letting out is important because if you only hold you lose relaxation and swing. With laterals sometimes you exaggerate your expected bend, so that the horse REALLY understands the expectation. Being strong and intentional, so the horse understands and then you can be light. 

Instead of just moving his neck, think of moving his rib cage and possibly shoulder or hind quarters. When activating the hind quarters your leg does go back and you sit a bit more to the inside, sometimes even lifting the outside seat bone of the saddle for the bend. You can also move your heel up near the shoulder for shoulder in to move the horse off the outside rein when the horse is learning. If I have a horse who isn't as I'd like off the leg yield cue, I go to turn on the forehand. If a horse goes through the outside shoulder and ignore my outside rein I do a turn on the haunches with the idea of moving their shoulder around with my outside leg near their shoulder, outside rein and outside leg on to remind them to move the shoulder around. I also do this on an imaginary square and think of half halt or halt and square the corner with turn on the haunches or turn on the forehand. 





If anything doesn't make sense let me know. It's very hard to translate feeling to words because you said you learn best through description.


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## lostastirrup (Jan 6, 2015)

Thanks all. I had a good ride yesterday with a lot of Pizzazz on his end which made it easy. I worked on my shoulders and did simples, some collection and poles. We had a coming to Jesus about shoulder in going right. I think it helped. Really broke apart my aids. I also think he's due for a chiropractor adjustment. He's a little sore I think just above his croup and below his rib cage. 

I'm trying to go slow, and take plenty of time for warm-up and cool down, which he doesn't like- he'd rather warm up half way through after some good canter work.


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