# Once again...



## Allegro (Nov 16, 2012)

His shoulder is pretty upright. I don't know how down hill he was before but his butt is higher than his withers. It might just be the way he is standing, but he also looks ewe necked. He is buck kneed on the front but that usually doesn't cause soundness problems. I would also like to see a picture of his front teeth because he looks parrot mouthed to me (upper jaw extends farther then the lower jaw) which can interfere with his ability to chew food.

Overall, I would say he's not too bad. The length of his back looks good and his hind end looks pretty good. What breed is he?


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## Reno Bay (Jul 8, 2012)

Allegro said:


> His shoulder is pretty upright. I don't know how down hill he was before but his butt is higher than his withers. It might just be the way he is standing, but he also looks ewe necked. He is buck kneed on the front but that usually doesn't cause soundness problems. I would also like to see a picture of his front teeth because he looks parrot mouthed to me (upper jaw extends farther then the lower jaw) which can interfere with his ability to chew food.
> 
> Overall, I would say he's not too bad. The length of his back looks good and his hind end looks pretty good. What breed is he?


He is still a bit high in the butt, but definitely not as bad as it was before. He may have been standing on a slight slope as well to make it look worse. He was a racer, don't know if that has anything to do with his neck/shoulder/whatever (I think he has a little more muscle in the neck now than he did before). Here's how his butt was in March/April...though maybe it isn't any better and my eyes are playing tricks:








His knee may or may not be from an old injury (bowed tendon, completely healed, 100% sound). I'm not worried about that since he has no problems moving around (everyone loves how floaty his trot is...I'll get some movement shots up XD). Let's see if I can find a good shot of his teeth somewhere. His lip may have been a little droopy cause he knew mommy had carrots for him XD When I checked for his tattoo, they didn't look off to me. He also eats fine...with vigor, in fact. Ah here's a decent one:








Is the neck purely just how he's built or could that be something improved upon with time and work? He's not really meant to be anything fancy, especially being my first horse and a rescue at that, but maybe we could pull off lower levels of dressage...


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## Allegro (Nov 16, 2012)

Never mind on his teeth then, as they look fine in the picture  He does look better when I compare the two pictures because of the slope of the more recent one... He is ewe necked as both pictures show the same neck shape, but he should be fine in lower level dressage. The difficult thing about ewe necked horses is getting them to stretch their heads down when you are riding....they usually prefer to be star gazers. When you are riding him, I would just work on lateral flexion on circles to loosen his back which may help him stretch his neck more. His neck appears to be of good length so the ewe neck shouldn't affect his balance.


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## Kayty (Sep 8, 2009)

Right well he is very much downhill - that will be a big limiting factor if you want to Jump or Dressage him. This can be somewhat evened out under saddle by developing his strength and balance until he is able to work in collection. But he will never be uphill. This makes it difficult for him to reach a high level in these discplines. 

He has long canons and his hocks are very high set, but with a good amount of angle to them - I'd say he'd be able to bend his hocks quite well, which *may* compensate for the weak placements of the lower hind limbs. 
The steep shoulder and long cannons will probably give him quite choppy paces, along with the ewe neck you will have your work cut out for you, to develop stretch and relaxation in a longer, lower frame. As Allegro said above, he will prefer to stick his head up in the air, than stretch down and forwards. 

If he were mine, I would be doing a lot of work on leg yielding on the circle in trot and canter, with millions of trot-canter-trot transitions thrown in to build up the strength of his back and haunches. Don't even think about him being 'on the bit' at the moment, I want to see him reaching forward and down for many months to build up that topline and get him relaxing.


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## Reno Bay (Jul 8, 2012)

He makes faces for food >->

I don't personally ride him yet, as he is still far too green for me, and I for him. From when I am able to watch him being ridden, he is doing relatively well with being able to stretch. Perhaps never as far as beautifully-necked horses, but he's giving it a good effort. I'm so glad I have a wonderful trainer who cares about the horses first, riders second XD He did have a habit of bopping his head up a little when we first started lunging him, but it seems as though he was just unused to it since that significantly improved.

Circles is a BIG thing he's being worked on.

Kayty: He is still very early on in his retraining from the track. Most of the work is just circles, bending, getting him used to everything (including a posting rider XD). As far as I know he's not being cantered just yet. He actually has pretty nice gaits, nothing particularly choppy...at least not how I picture choppy. We also rotate the herd in two different fields depending on grazing, and at least one of them has a decent hill in it. It may take long and hard work, but we'll get somewhere.


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## Allegro (Nov 16, 2012)

Good. Sounds like you have a good trainer. Reefing (flipping their head up and down) is a common thing with thoroughbreds. My guy does it too, though not as often as he used to. It gets better with training as they get more comfortable with the tack and riding.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Reno Bay (Jul 8, 2012)

I definitely don't expect anything near GP level out of him, maybe not even on par with her Andalusians. I took one look at him and had to have him, didn't care if I would ever be able to ride him or not (and I'm one of those who go _insane_ if they can't be on a horse). I didn't get him to be a competitive horse, though the experience will be good. When all else fails, if he doesn't cut it in front of judges, I'll still just do freestyle stuff in the home arena XD


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## Allegro (Nov 16, 2012)

That's great I'm the same way. It's all about the personality of the horse. I had trainers tell me to "sell him while you can" and "he'll never amount to anything". He is the most awesome horse with the best personality and now that I can't ride, it is so important. He saved my life once which gives us a special relationship. In the end, it's not about the conformation, it's about the personality. I hope you too have a great time together. Thoroughbreds can be nutty at many times, but in my opinion, they have the best personality.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Reno Bay (Jul 8, 2012)

Allegro said:


> That's great I'm the same way. It's all about the personality of the horse. I had trainers tell me to "sell him while you can" and "he'll never amount to anything". He is the most awesome horse with the best personality and now that I can't ride, it is so important. He saved my life once which gives us a special relationship. In the end, it's not about the conformation, it's about the personality. I hope you too have a great time together. Thoroughbreds can be nutty at many times, but in my opinion, they have the best personality.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


He's actually one of the calmest horses I've seen, which is saying something considering he'll be five in March. My trainer and his rider try to work him at least three days a week, but every once in a while someone can't get out and he'll be unused for a week...and even then he's straight back in the game like there was no break at all.


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## Allegro (Nov 16, 2012)

That's great!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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