# big quarter horses...how do they do it???



## Spastic_Dove (Oct 4, 2007)

breeding, feed, and conditioning. 

I don't like halter big. I do like foundation big though.


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## 1dog3cats17rodents (Dec 7, 2007)

It's how they are bred. Just like some people get big bulky muscles and others get stringy lean muscle. BIg muscled horses are bred to big muscled horses.... making big muscled horses.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

^^ Yep, uh-huh. LOL. I don't particularly care for the humongous muscles on horses either. I like strong and stocky that still has the capability to be smooth, limber, and quick. All those muscles don't really make them stronger so IMHO, I don't really see the point. I think they are ugly when they are that big.


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## reining girl (Jan 30, 2009)

I agree smrobs. Those horses are not fast either alot of them have to much muscle and they cant go fast at all. I think alot of them are ugly, to much muscle can be a bad thing. I like the foundation look, ther big, muscly but have bone and hooves to go with it. And they can go fast, i know of a lot of foundation bred barrel horses.


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## shmurmer4 (Dec 27, 2008)

all that can be speculated but Strength + Flexibility = Speed.


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## Chella (May 23, 2009)

I have a huge Quarter Horse, Zippo bred. People ask me if he is a draft cross or a stallion he has huge muscles huge jaw and a big backend. He is not super fast and agile. His canter is like a big drafts. He is a sweetheart though and fearless. Nothing makes him spook he knows he is big and nothing really bothers him!


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## Eastowest (Mar 26, 2009)

Some heavily muscled horses are VERY fast-- but for short distances-- more muscle mass can mean a successful quick start/sprinter--- just like humans who race 100m vs. humans that race 3200m-- both considered "fast" but totally different build and mass and distance involved.


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## SabreBaby (Jul 27, 2009)

Some Quarter Horse halter horses may also appear to have more muscle mass due to the fact the HYPP helps them appear more "cut".


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## Cremello (Jul 8, 2009)

Yup the HYPP thingy is a bigy. If you look a lot of famous halter sires are HYPP N/H (they are the really big ones like Kids Classic Style etc.). I even once came across a stallion that was HYPP H/H???(is that even legal to breed a sire like that)
So the general idea is you breed the biggest with each other resulting in even bigger offspring.


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## goldilockz (Aug 1, 2008)

Mine are teeny :lol:


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## HorseOfCourse (Jul 20, 2009)

my mare is kind of like that...










When we got her, she was pure fat but also stockily built.[<--that even a word?] and so i would just put a lead rope on her and she would trot around the pasture after me...and every time i go out to the pasture with her i do SOMETHING with her..whether its take her over jumps or just run around the pasture.


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## Cremello (Jul 8, 2009)

^
Now that is a reasonably well built quarter horse mare. For me I wouldn't go further then that. One question do you have her HYPP tested?


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## HorseOfCourse (Jul 20, 2009)

No, we don;t....we should though..she's not full quarter horse either..[we aren't even sure if she is quarter horse at all] but since she looks like it, that's what I sign her up as.


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## iridehorses (Oct 22, 2007)

HYPP is a genetic disease that originated with the AQHA halter horse, Impressive. All horses in that blood line must be tested for the disease but it has nothing to do with build. You can have an extremely well muscled horse that has no Impressive lineage and will not have HYPP.


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

iridehorses said:


> HYPP is a genetic disease that originated with the AQHA halter horse, Impressive. All horses in that blood line must be tested for the disease but it has nothing to do with build. You can have an extremely well muscled horse that has no Impressive lineage and will not have HYPP.


Yes, and the often mentioned link between HYPP and 'big muscles' in Impressive bred horses is just conjecture. Our mare Lady, her sister, and their dam are in the Impressive bloodline, are built like tanks, and they are all N/N.


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## Sunny06 (Jun 22, 2009)

The sacriest thing is they have tiny feet with those big ol' bodies..


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## reining girl (Jan 30, 2009)

Alot of foundation horses are big an muscled like that. My girl duchess is all foundation and cow bred, no impressive. And she is built like a tank, but they normally dont get the height, were my girl did she is 16 hands most are in the 14 and low 15 hand range wiht the ocassionaly ones like my girl.


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## stacieandtheboys (Jan 6, 2009)

My QH gelding is 16.3 hh. He is built more like a TB. He is full QH though no Appendix. HE does have some TB in his bloodlines but the closest one was only 15.3hh. He is an exracer.


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## Jessabel (Mar 19, 2009)

I don't like the ginormous halter bred QH's, either. They just look stiff and their legs are like toothpicks. I think this guy has the perfect muscle tone for a stallion:










Not too bulky, and not stringy. And he's got the bone to go with it. Unlike the next stud, who clearly looks stiff and waaayy too muscular:


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## Sunny06 (Jun 22, 2009)

^^ *cough* *gag*

Hate the last look! Looks so unatural or something.. 

That's got to be one heavy porker. And he's tanking all over the place on his forehand.. *gag*


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## reining girl (Jan 30, 2009)

hahahaha lol sunny.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

^^ I agree with Sunny. That is the type of horse that I don't like. He probably would not be good at much of anything outside the halter line. He looks uncomfortable and almost lame just trotting and loping around the pasture. I would hate to have to ride him for fear he would cripple himself.


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## Kentucky (Aug 2, 2008)

I have to agree with all three of you.


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## Jessabel (Mar 19, 2009)

sunny06 said:


> ^^ *cough* *gag*
> 
> Hate the last look! Looks so unatural or something..
> 
> That's got to be one heavy porker. And he's tanking all over the place on his forehand.. *gag*


Precisely.


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## Eastowest (Mar 26, 2009)

I agree on the "don't judge the HYPP status by the build" idea. I have seen some lean perfromance type horses that were N/H for HYPP, and some very muscular broad horses that were N/N for HYPP. All that is necessary for HYPP is a line to Impressive-- 

This mare goes 4x to Impressive and this photo is of her in pasture-puff shape with no feeding beyond pasture, good hay 1x a day and a small scoop of average feed (yes she is also a little bit fat, but still obviously musclular under the fat.) She was tested N/N for HYPP-- as were both her sire and dam (Sire was a Superior Halter earner, dam produced Superior Halter earners, icluding this mare's 1/2 brother who is also a big muscular horse and also N/N.)


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## reining girl (Jan 30, 2009)

pretty girl Eastowest. Thats a halter bred horse i would take lol.


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## Eastowest (Mar 26, 2009)

Thanks Reining Girl-- she's a new addition here, and the first truly "halter bred" horse I have owned. I will be breeding her to our Appaloosa stallion hoping for a halter youngster that will go on to ride-- Under her muscles, I like her basic structure and "angles". I predict my stallion will add a bit of bone and some size (the mare is only 15.1) and "stretch"-- and of course color. That could make, to me, a pretty hot prospect.


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