# Lily's conformation critique



## arrowattack09 (Jul 10, 2012)

Hello! I purchased this mare a month ago. She is an 8 year old German Warmblood. Would you mind giving me a conformation critique? She will be my new dressage partner. She is VERY narrow.


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## arrowattack09 (Jul 10, 2012)

The top two photos are the most recent conformation photos. The one under the top two was when I first purchased her.


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## arrowattack09 (Jul 10, 2012)

Anyone?


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## danicelia24 (Jul 16, 2013)

She looks downhill and I really do not like the way her neck ties into her shoulder


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## danicelia24 (Jul 16, 2013)

She also looks cowhocked and has a longer back. However I am no expert so take my critique with a grain of salt.


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## BlindHorseEnthusiast4582 (Apr 11, 2016)

She is a bit downhill but personally I like her. Agree she may be a little cow hocked, but IMO her neck doesn't look bad, although the left shoulder looks a little odd. I think that's muscling or the angle of the photo though. Not a super clean throatlatch but not bad, and pretty head. I like her legs and her hip.

She isn't perfect, but no horse is, and I think she'll be just fine for what you want. Cute mare, and she seems like a willing girl, nice movement too from the pictures. Take mine with a grain of salt as well, but overall I think she's nice.


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## cbako01 (Oct 21, 2016)

I would also say she is built on the downhill side of things, looking at the difference between her stifle and elbow. I do really like her hindquarters though! She nice and long through her hip without being too steep. Hind legs are placed well, but her pasterns look a little upright. Her front pasterns are much better angle and she looks to have pretty good feet all round. In one of the photos her shoulder looks quite upright, but not so in the others, so I'm thinking its just that particular photo. I like the angles between her scapular and humerus, I'd imagine she's fairly free moving through her shoulder. Her neck set to me looks a little low, but it also seems to tie in fairly deep which can make it look lower than it actually is. She seems to have a fairly up hill way of going though in the photos you posted, so it obviously isn't drastic enough to impede her movement. I like her head too, she seems to have a fairly kind eye. 

There is one thing I wanted to bring up is her being slightly cow hocked? I thought you'd need pictures from directly behind to be able to tell is she is truly slightly cow hocked. I do agree she looks slightly toed out behind, but I thought most horses were? Please feel free to correct me though!


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## Smilie (Oct 4, 2010)

She looks fairly balanced, although slightly down hill. Nice slope to shoulder, but neck ties in somewhat low
Certainly no way to tell if she is cow hocked form those views, but one can suspect that she is slightly sickle hocked, but would need to stand her up square to be sure


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## danicelia24 (Jul 16, 2013)

Smilie said:


> She looks fairly balanced, although slightly down hill. Nice slope to shoulder, but neck ties in somewhat low
> Certainly no way to tell if she is cow hocked form those views, but one can suspect that she is slightly sickle hocked, but would need to stand her up square to be sure


Ahhh sickle hocked is what I meant. Sorry! I for the life of me couldn't remember the word.


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## arrowattack09 (Jul 10, 2012)

Super interesting to hear! Thank you for your input and opinions. I agree- I definitely think that she is downhill. Anything beyond that, I'm not great at spotting.  

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## CrossCountry (May 18, 2013)

I really like the way she looks, what a beautiful horse!


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## jgalejs (Jul 10, 2016)

The other critiques are spot on, but I always say, "Pretty is as pretty does" =)


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## DanteDressageNerd (Mar 12, 2015)

Before I critique I want to say I think she's a nice mare.

Neck- I don't particularly like her neck, it's set low, and short but in the lunging picture it looks like she can use her neck well. 

Shoulder- not a big fan of her shoulder, it's too down turned with a short humerus which reduces her range of motion and lift through the shoulder. It's not a bad shoulder, just not ideal because it limits scope in her stride. I imagine she's a flatter mover.

wither and back- I like her wither and back, she has a very good saddle placement and even though her back is short, it looks like she has a decent amount of space for a saddle.

She has a short groin (space between last rib and hip is small) which will make lateral work more difficult but a lot of times short groin horses are better built for collection (in dressage context).

hip- is pretty good. She seems to have a slightly shorter distance between the top point of her hip to the point of her hip but a good angle and is longer from the point of her hip to her stifle. Her stifle is in a decent position but her gaskin seems built out behind her. Her hocks may be slightly sickle shaped, it's hard to tell for sure from the pictures but her hind cannon bones are on the longer side. 

Front pasterns are a fairly good angle and length, hind pasterns look a little short and upright. I think of the pasterns as shock absorbers pasterns that are too long puts more stress on the ligaments and tendons, too short allows for less absorption of concussion, too low set stresses ligaments and tendons and too upright is a more direct impact each time the foot falls and pushes off. 

Id say she has a general downhill balance and is a flatter mover but that does not mean she cant eventually carry herself uphill and collect but I think it will be more difficult to develop collection (in dressage context) and to develop the strength for her to sit and carry behind. To me she looks like her natural tendency is to be on the forehand in a lower frame and not really engage her hocks underneath her. She can be developed to carry behind, it's just going to take more time to develop.


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## arrowattack09 (Jul 10, 2012)

Thank you all for your critiques! 

Her neck does tie in low. She is naturally a pretty flighty and hot mare, so her neck is normally really high. We are working on relaxing (and that's about it at this point), and are asking her to relax her body all over and bring her neck down a bit. 

Her shoulder is odd. She's very narrow through her chest, and her shoulder is really bony. 

At this point she is pretty weak all over and doesn't have much muscle, but she is having a hard time shifting her weight back. We get a couple good strides out of her and then she looses it. I'm hoping that with time, this will improve. 

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## arrowattack09 (Jul 10, 2012)

I'm not sure if I attached this correctly? 

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## arrowattack09 (Jul 10, 2012)

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## arrowattack09 (Jul 10, 2012)

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## LittleBayMare (Jun 2, 2014)

Yeesh! That neck is severely upside down. That muscling should be on the top instead of the bottom. That will take a while to fix. The cause of that poor muscling is the way her head is tied back in those side reins. She should be stretching down into the contact, not sucking back behind it. If your trainer disagrees you need a new trainer ASAP. Try to get lessons with someone who teaches true classical dressage. These modern methods do not do any horse any favors.


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## arrowattack09 (Jul 10, 2012)

I just purchased her after she had months off. No side reins here.  

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## Smilie (Oct 4, 2010)

I like that last picture of her, as she looks fairly well balanced. Certainly don't see a ewe neck, just a neck that ties in low


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## Zexious (Aug 2, 2013)

I think the angle of the photo may be a little deceiving, and therefore making her neck look less appealing than it actually is?


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## Yogiwick (Sep 30, 2013)

Let me put it this way, she is pretty but not overly impressive in the first pics, but then the "action shots" are gorgeous!! As that's what matters and there is nothing dramatic with her conformation I would definitely say you picked a good one . Plus she's falling asleep which isn't helping the wow factor in the first few! Conformation details have been given, she's very nice. Congrats!!

I'd love to see her again after you get her going!


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