# Critique my Gelding please!!



## TexasBlaze (Oct 4, 2010)

I know he's never gonna be a halter horse but im still interested to see what people say. He's fat right now but soon will be going back to work. He's a grade and he's my best friend. He is my drill horse for this year and he is a tennessee walker cross. He's also kinda fuzzy because its winter. And sorry about the trees in the way. He wouldnt square up anywhere else cuz he likes to be difficult.


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## Tejas (Jan 31, 2011)

Id say he's 100% cute!


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## Mecate (Sep 16, 2010)

He looks to be a very sturdy guy with no flaws that really stand out to me. He's cute!


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## TexasBlaze (Oct 4, 2010)

Thank you both. I keep thinking his neck looks a LIL short to me.. but then sometimes it doesnt. I think the fluff makes him look a lil less like himself. I wanna use him as a halter grade gelding at the district 4-H horse show just for the fun of it. Theres usually not very many good ones and its just something else for me to show him off with LOL


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## Fiyaero (Dec 11, 2010)

Sickle hocked (or just me?), has a short neck, extremely narrow chested, out of condition, and his croup seems a bit funny to me.

He is cute though, I love his color.
He looks ashamed to be wearing "girly" braids! LOL
His expression is,

"MOM! No pictures! I look like a mare!"


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## TexasBlaze (Oct 4, 2010)

Thanks =) im hoping once we start 2 a week drill practice he will bulk up and be less of a fatty. HOPEFULLY thatll fix or at least improve upon his narrowchestedness and out-of-shapeness. 
Not too bad for a 600$ grade i got when i was ten from a local farmer though xD


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## Fiyaero (Dec 11, 2010)

TexasBlaze said:


> Thanks =) im hoping once we start 2 a week drill practice he will bulk up and be less of a fatty. HOPEFULLY thatll fix or at least improve upon his narrowchestedness and out-of-shapeness.
> Not too bad for a 600$ grade i got when i was ten from a local farmer though xD


Aw! How sweet! He really is not the worst I've seen- in fact he is far from it! So if I made it sound that way, I apologize.

Take it slow conditioning him.

A lot of people just hop on and ride after a dull winter- when in reality, a horse needs time to build his/her back muscles again. Some good things to do for him would be to manually stretch his limbs, practice backing up and down hills, lunging him in a large circle on a hill in both directions, lots of flat ground work, and building up your riding time until it's back to normal.

Enjoy him, I love seeing horses with caring owners.


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## TexasBlaze (Oct 4, 2010)

Fiyaero said:


> Aw! How sweet! He really is not the worst I've seen- in fact he is far from it! So if I made it sound that way, I apologize.
> 
> Take it slow conditioning him.
> 
> ...


I didnt take it that way at all xD So far ive been lunging him for about 40 minutes every day. Not enough to make him sweat or anything but loping and trotting partly to get his leads and partly to get him used to drill uniforms. Ive been working him in boots lately and at first he would pop his legs haha! In drill we usually do a lot of conditioning by working our way up to more works in a week. On off season we work 2 times a month and not very hard. Then after Feb we will start working once a week and in around April we start 2 times a week. I personally *not a professional opinion* think he is quite georgeous for a horse period. A lot prettier than a lot of BYB registered horses ive seen. And his color brightens up a LOT when its in the summer time. He gets this fiery red glisten to him. And his mane regularly will come down past his neck and shoulders. And his tail will drag the ground if it isnt braided. He's my best friend. Always has been though it wasnt him i wanted when i went out into the farmers pasture LOL! I had always dreamed of a BLACK horse and Mr. J calls the horses and all i saw was a black horse and a bunch of mules. I was sooo excited until he walked in and grabbed the little fat butter ball red horse. He was a 3 year old gelding and i was a 10 year old girl who had always DREAMED of owning a horse. AND a horse was a horse. I remember my first ride on him. I was like..  TALL! But he has always been a sweetheart. He can tell the experience level of the person riding them. He knows if i let my neice double with me and will not pull ANY tricks OR if it's just me he tries tricks he knows woulnt hurt me. We sometimes have stubborness wars. Like when he is doing a warmup lope he'll give a little kick to see if ill discipline him. And im the only person he really LIKES. He absolutely HATES men. My brother tried to play "trainer" with him while i wasnt there. But THATLL never happen again. He actually saved my life too in a wierd way. My brothers were both racing on their mares and neither Blaze or I care for break neck speeds so we were loping behind them and he slipped in the mud and i fell off and landed on my tailbone on a treeroot. I wasnt able to walk for a week BUT thanks to him i ended up going to the doctor and found out i had scholiosis. I ended up having to have surgery on my back because my backbone wouldve grown into my heart and lungs if they hadnt of found it. And they wouldnt have found it if i hadnt fallen off him. After all... he's never thrown me off to be mean. Either i was gettin a little to brave on him or something uncontrollable happened like the saddle slipping and stuff. 

Oh wow... just noticed i wrote a NOVEL lol!!!


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## hisangelonly (Oct 29, 2011)

it is okay. it is a good novel haha. i think he is an adorable fluff ball. i love the expression on his face. . he is so cute


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## soenjer55 (Dec 4, 2011)

He looks like a strong horse that can get things done. He looks nice and balanced to me, good proportions, nothing that stands out. Heck, do halter anyway, I like him more than a lot of the bred halter horses I see most of the time


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

I don't think he's sickle hocked as in the first pic he's standing a little bit bunched. In the later pic his canon bones line up nicely with his hip. Neck is a little thick at the throatlatch but he's what I call "ranch built". He's a little and I repeat little narrow in the hind end but still good. Same on the front. Overall he's pretty good. Show us some pics when you get him all dolled up for his first halter class. Have you also considered showmanship? All the impeccable manners he needs for showmanship will score brownie points with the judge in halter. A judge does a lot of scoring by how well you and the horse enter the ring.


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## Clementine (Sep 24, 2009)

> So far I've been lunging him for about 40 minutes every day


That much lunging can be really hard on a horse's joints. I think just riding him once or twice a week would actually be a lot less work for him, and definitely better on his legs.


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## blue eyed pony (Jun 20, 2011)

The one thing that jumps out at me is that his knees may be a bit offset? The foreleg definitely isn't straight from chest down and it looks to me like the deviation is at the knee. I've always been kind of bad at knees...

If so it's considered a fairly severe unsoundness and I agree with the people saying that 40 minutes of lunging is WAY too much for his joints, especially with the way his legs are.

Other than that though he's kind of nice.


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## soenjer55 (Dec 4, 2011)

Clementine said:


> That much lunging can be really hard on a horse's joints. I think just riding him once or twice a week would actually be a lot less work for him, and definitely better on his legs.


....where are you getting this information? I have never heard that it was bad, if the horse is in good condition and is lounged in large enough circles. If you're taking a horse that is out of shape you'd have to work your way up to 40 min, but still, I've never seen or heard anything that says it's bad for them.


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