# 11 y/o TB gelding



## paintgirl96 (Oct 6, 2012)

Pictures taken 4/29. Getting him back in shape after a rough, lazy Winter. I tried to get him squared as good as possible. Critique away.


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## Corporal (Jul 29, 2010)

We could use a side shot. Looks like the back legs are a little bit too straight. This is just another example of a TB that looks a lot like a QH. Otherwise, he looks athletic to me, and fairly calm, which is also important.


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## paintgirl96 (Oct 6, 2012)

He isn't good and squared in this photo but here is a side shot or him today before I chopped his mane! :lol:


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## paintgirl96 (Oct 6, 2012)

Also forgot to mention his front is in a bit of a downhill!


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## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

Very nice horse. Good bone, good shoulder and nicely placed hocks and knees. He is slightly downhill. Looks like he could jump. Might make a nice hunter or event horse. 

He NEEDS GROCERIES. He would look MUCH better with more weight. The areas circled show this. He has a dip in front of his withers, a hollow below his withers, his ribs show and the area cricled on his rear end show "Poor Lines." 

While I know some horses show poor lines.. a well conditioned horse (yes I know he is coming off winter) does not. This horse shows poor lines not for a lack of work and conditioning but a simple lack of good calories over the winter. Check your hay. It is most of what a horse eats and needs to be good quality and enough quality to keep a horse from losing weight over winter.


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## paintgirl96 (Oct 6, 2012)

How is he underweight?


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## Hang on Fi (Sep 22, 2007)

Visible ribs, he isn't severely underweight, but could certainly use some gaining 

He's a cutie though!!


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## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

Added photo above. Hope that helps. You have a really nice horse here that could do very well and I believe has the physical attributes to compete.


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## Sahara (Jul 23, 2010)

nevermind, elana responded.


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## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

I do not say this too often, but I wish this were my horse. I like this horse's look that much. Hind leg looks correct too. I forgot to add that.


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## paintgirl96 (Oct 6, 2012)

You are critiquing the picture where the sun isn't in our favor. As you can tell in the other photo's, his ribs aren't that visible. He is on Strategy feed and on pasture 24/7 along with alfalfa hay. He's wormed regularly and his ribs still show some.


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## paintgirl96 (Oct 6, 2012)

Elana said:


> I do not say this too often, but I wish this were my horse. I like this horse's look that much. Hind leg looks correct too. I forgot to add that.


Thank you!


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## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

He is still too thin. I chose the photo I did because it shows he needs weight clearly. I could use this one too, but due to the angle of the photo it seems less noticeable. The poor line is still there. The ribs are there. The dip in front of the withers and the hollow below the withers. 

He would look a ton better with another 100 pounds on him.. and he is worth it. 
Thoroughbreds are not always easy to keep weight on. You might try adding a half cup of corn oil to his grain 1X a day. It is a source of concentrated calories and can make a large difference. At 11 he may have some points on his teeth as well so that is another consideration. Being on pasture may mean a worm load.. but I think you know all that and are keeping up on it.

Just a side note.. if that area he is standing is representative pasture, that is more weeds than good grass and would need hay fed too. I realize this may be one patch on large acreage.. but those yellow flowers and bare spots indicate poor pasture.


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## CLaPorte432 (Jan 3, 2012)

I agree he is under weight. A good 100 pounds would do wonders.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## paintgirl96 (Oct 6, 2012)

I've owned him for 6 years and as far as I can remember and see in the photo's directly after I bought him, he's also looked like this, a part from being less muscular. He gets 10 pounds of Strategy feed a day with a multi vitamin supplement and 4 flakes of good alfalfa hay along with being out on over 300 acres of pasture.


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## paintgirl96 (Oct 6, 2012)

This is his ottb half sister. She has the dip in front of her withers and the line on her rump. Most TB's I see online look way worse than my boy. Slim and just odd built.


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## paintgirl96 (Oct 6, 2012)

His half brother up in NY. I keep up with him. When he's in hard work his grain increases to a moderate ration instead of maintenance, he's wormed regularly, he has hay, grass, always has fresh water.


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## Hang on Fi (Sep 22, 2007)

I'm not a huge fan (personally) of Purina feeds. I have had incredible success with Blue Seal. 

I had my old man (well 21 years old) On Purina Senior and he went no where. 10lbs+ of feed twice a day, beet pulp, corn oil, the whole 9 yards. You could count his ribs, it was terrible. I moved him onto Blue Seal and 3x a day feeding and he's "fat" as a tick. Couldn't be happier, his coat shows it too. 

Remember you can give all the grain they can stand, but at the end of the day it is a good quality hay that wins the race in weight gain. 

His half-brother in NY is also too thin (for my taste) but I have been soured by people claiming it is the "Thoroughbred look." Reminds me of a place I have kept my horses, every horse in the pasture was an OTTB and you could see every rib and butt bones, yet he insisted they were fine and just "looked that way." Whereas I prefer below: 








(NOT my horse, random image on Google)


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## sarahfromsc (Sep 22, 2013)

Ten pounds of feed is a lot. And four flakes of hay is nothing. I feed my 11 year old Arab (who weighs a mere 807) 17 pounds of hay and Triple Crown Safe Starch a day in the winter! Four flakes is nothing.

We had a hard winter here and my gelding came through without dropping a pound. It is ALL in the weight amount of hay, and quality of the hay. Never just go by flake count.

Also keep into account that with all creatures as we age, our nutritional needs change. What worked six years ago may not work now.

But he is a nice looking horse!


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## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

Hang on Fi showed the horse as he is supposed to look. Your horse is NOT in race training, has just come out of a winter off and should be (if anything) a tad fat. 

I fed about 22 pounds of hay a day (grass hay that was about 9% crude protien and low NDF.. it was tested) and grain with some oil on a Thoroughbred. She never had that look. 
Now this is not to say some Thoroughbreds are not difficult to keep weight on as they can be. Some have an issue of ulcers too. Most have a high metabolism. But that is used as an excuse. 

Both the horses you showed, especially her brother, are too thin IMO. 

300 acres of poor pasture is just that.. poor pasture. 

I ran a 72 cow dairy herd. I used pasture as a good portion of my feed for those cows. Pasture land needs to be tested. Pasture needs to turned over and re-seeded and fertilized and limed as shown by the soil test and a plant plot test. My rotation was 2 years corn, 7 years hay, 2 years pasture then back into corn. Horses do not need as rich pasture as dairy cows, but the soil tests and the plot tests to see what edible plants are there are all part of pasture management. 

I split my pasture up too.. so the cows were rotated between lots as they grew and some lots were hayed for 1st cutting and the second and third cutting was pastured. 

My point is that pasture is not just let go. It needs to be a managed feed stuff to benefit the livestock grazing it. You can bet the Thoroughbred farms manage their pasture (and the one I foaled mares on did a LOT to their pasture). It is a portion of the ration. 

Meanwhile, just another aside.. I worked on that Thoroughbred farm (in NY) for several years part time. NONE of the horses there had poor lines and the only horses that had ribs showing were either mares at the height of lactation OR the horses that were older (in their late teens) or any horses recovering from illness or surgery. 

You have such a NICE horse here! I like this horse an awful lot and if you have followed my critiques I do not say that very often. If you put 100 pounds on him.. maybe a little more.. you could show him in hand as a hunter and he would do well! He is a bit plain in color but you don't ride the color. I love a well put together horse any day over one that is poorly put together and is all flash and dash color! 

This is a very nice horse.. I would LOVE to see him eventing. He has the conformation for it.. and if he has a good eye. I think he could take you a ways!


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## Corporal (Jul 29, 2010)

Elana doesn't say this often, and she is our resident conformation expert! I guess I wonder about "Hunter" with the downhill build, but I want to add that it is difficult but not impossible to put weight on a hard keeper. I've owned two very hard keepers, "Corporal" (RIP, 2009), Arabian, and an OTTB, "Prime Time". I didn't keep the OTTB, but I struggled with Corporal's weight when he was in his 20's. The best thing I came up with for HIM was pasture 1/2 the year, not great, but enough, grain every day, and in the winter, 2 flakes good quality grass hay topped with one flake alfalfa. Sometimes he'd get 2 flakes of the alfalfa in the morning, if he was in his stall and it was particularly cold.
Although he was NEVER fat, I did pad him up, which is remarkable for an older horse.


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## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

Here is an excellent discussion of horse body conditions score from the University of Kentucky. Yours is like the photo with a score of 3.5 (with 5 being perfect.. and a photo is there of that too). 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=10&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CFEQFjAJ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.uky.edu%2FAg%2FAnimalSciences%2Fpubs%2Fasc145.pdf&ei=XxdhU7yeCZK02AX-8YH4BQ&usg=AFQjCNHx4K6IwhczpqvDUs8ET6_kZU8Okw&bvm=bv.65636070,d.b2I


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## paintgirl96 (Oct 6, 2012)

We raised and bred Hereford cattle on this farm and it has over 520 acres. The pasture he is in is my "riding arena" basically, a 3 acre spot just to ride horses. The rest of my pastures are cross fenced and in sections. We use a little over 150 acres for cropland (we leased it for corn and soybeans). The fields get sprayed with 24d during the Spring to kill off the broad leaf and buttercups and then get sprayed with fertilizer. He isn't a hard keeper, has never lost or gained a considerable amount and normally stays around this same weight. I sent him to my fiance's for two months so he could have a horse to ride until his mare dropped her foal and was ready to start riding again around the fields. He was fed grain twice daily (not really sure what he feeds, we have opposing opinions on horse feed) and was on good quality horse hay 24/7, and pasture for 5 hours daily and he came home looking like crap, which could be another reason he looks a bit down. All of his ribs were clearly visible at any angle and his topline had begun to show pretty prominently. This was 3 weeks ago when I brought him home. I have to state that the alfalfa hay flakes was a supplement to his round bale and grain ration because I do ride him, he's not an ornament. He's not a "heavily" worked boy. Trail riding mostly this season with maybe a 2 acre gallop once a week for fun. 3 or 4 rides a week, if that.


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## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

So you are saying he is coming up in condition from something not so good over the winter. That I can surely understand. 

FWIW I used to run just under 500 acres (180 acres owned, the rest rented) when I had my dairy farm. The whole farm was my riding area... with one rented parcel 3 miles down the road. I had a mare very much like this gelding (your gelding is a better horse than my mare). She was a Thoroughbred and worked cattle. I don't have a photo off hand.. but she was in better condition (body score) than your boy. I fed her small square bales (50 pounders) and the round bales were for the cattle. They also had small square bales fed indoors (overhead hay mow). We tested all our hay so I always knew what the horses were fed. 

That mare produced a few nice foals for me. One was an Oldenburg filly that went FEI dressage. 

One time we were riding out in the rented land checking hay (was it ready to cut?) and there was a black bear in the field. My mare (Holly) saw the bear and decided she did not like his look and took off.. AFTER him!! It was a large field of 43 acres and the bear was a haul off.. so I just let her go. That bear looked up.. stood up.. and saw Psycho Horse running at him and he decided the day had gotten just a little too weird. He took off for the woods and Holly was _gaining_ on him.. but I knew he was too far for her to catch before he went on over the bank into the heavy brush. We got to where he went in the brush and Holly was blowing but she shook her had and pawed the ground as if to show that bear what she would have done if he had not run away. 

I should have evented Holly.. but running the farm and milking cows there just was no time and little money. 

I look at your horse... who has better bone and a nicer look over all.. and I would dearly love to see him over fences cross country. Maybe as a field hunter...


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## Sahara (Jul 23, 2010)

Best story ever! Love a horse with gumption!


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## GotaDunQH (Feb 13, 2011)

paintgirl96 said:


> You are critiquing the picture where the sun isn't in our favor. As you can tell in the other photo's, his ribs aren't that visible. He is on Strategy feed and on pasture 24/7 along with alfalfa hay. He's wormed regularly and his ribs still show some.



Then he needs more fuel....meaning feed. I like him, like him a lot, but he is thin...he has visible ribs, hips and spine showing. Like others have said...100 lbs would do him good. If he loses weight through the winter then up his feed. They NEED the proper feed to keep them warm in the winter and maintain a healthy weight. In the summer, if he's worked hard and regularly...then you up his feed to compensate for burning it off through work. A horse SHOULD maintain the same weight year round...my horse does because I adjust his feed according to what he needs as it relates to weather and work. He never changes weight...he maintains.


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## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

OK Paintgirl96 now you have a QUARTER HORSE person liking on this gelding too! And she doesn't say it a lot either. 

Up his alfalfa a little and let us see more photos when he is shed out and looking HOT. I would love to see more photos of this horse all shined up in summer coat. 

Never get enough of looking at the good ones.


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## boomboom (Feb 4, 2011)

He certainly is not skinny. 100 pounds would make him look fat! 50 pounds at the most. Sure he could gain a little bit but I have seen a whole not worse.


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## Sahara (Jul 23, 2010)

Who cares if you have seen worse? What does that have to do with this horse? You justify a skinny horse because you have seen even thinner horses? Makes about as much sense as beating a horse a little because you've seen one beat worse.


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## GotaDunQH (Feb 13, 2011)

boomboom said:


> He certainly is not skinny. 100 pounds would make him look fat! 50 pounds at the most. Sure he could gain a little bit but I have seen a whole not worse.


Are you serious? 100 lbs would make him fat? Hardly...


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## GotaDunQH (Feb 13, 2011)

Sahara said:


> Who cares if you have seen worse? What does that have to do with this horse? You justify a skinny horse because you have seen even thinner horses? Makes about as much sense as beating a horse a little because you've seen one beat worse.


Wih there was a love button for this!


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