# critique my girls



## dinglehead (Nov 16, 2007)

this one is Dandy a 4 yr old quarter horse/appy 










and this is Maggie a 18-24 yr old TWH/QH   










if you need better pictures let me know I just want to know what you think of Maggie's condition and Dandy's conformation

BTW here's a picture of Maggie about 2 months ago


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## .Delete. (Jan 7, 2008)

The first horse is hard to critique, almost impossible because of the angle and how its moving. Get standing photos :wink: But looks over at the knees, short neck, neck doesn't tie intot he shoulder very well, looks like has a goose rump, posty legged and looks downhill. But all that i see could just be that photo. So really, i couldn't know any of this for certain unless i had better pictures. But love the roan-like coloring.


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## .Delete. (Jan 7, 2008)

The last horse looks like she is gaining weight, looks liek the poor girl's joints are hurting. Neck sagging, so are her eyes. Typical, certainly no riding. But looks like she is doing better.


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## Harlee rides horses (Jan 13, 2008)

They both seem to have incredibly flat backs. I don't like the first horse's chest and how it ties into her neck. The second horse seems cow-hocked and splay footed and is most definitely under weight.


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## dinglehead (Nov 16, 2007)

Maggie is a rescue horse and we're still working on her weight. I'll try to get some better pictures tomorrow I didn't have anyone to hold them and it was around feeding time so they were not standing still Maggie does have some joint problems. but even if she's never really ridable I still love that old sweetheart  I got both horses for free never look a gift horse in the mouth LOL


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## mlkarel2010 (Jan 27, 2008)

Do you keep them in the pasture with their halters on? That's a really bad idea.... especially with rope halters because they won't break if a horse gets it stuck and they can hang themselves.....


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## .Delete. (Jan 7, 2008)

mlkarel2010 said:


> Do you keep them in the pasture with their halters on? That's a really bad idea.... especially with rope halters because they won't break if a horse gets it stuck and they can hang themselves.....


I cannot even being to explain how much i disagree with that. :twisted: 

I keep halters on my horses at all times. Its a safety percausion. Rope halters yes, i advise not to keep on but regular halters, if they are fitted correctly need to be on. I have had my fair share of horses get lose without halters and im telling you it will never happen again. They will always have halters incase something happens. You never know what could come up.

Just had to say that :wink:


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## kitten_Val (Apr 25, 2007)

The discussion is going off topic, but...  I wouldn't agree. I don't keep halters on my horses. Never did except for the 1st month (they came wild and need some time to get used to people). As long as they accepted me I took halters off. It takes me 30 secs to put halter on, and if they get loose they can run away with halter as far as they can do without the halter. And with their habit of putting nose everywhere the halter can get caught and even break-away one can still can bring some damage. As for rope halters it's plain dangerous to leave them on in field. 

dinglehead, I think your 1st horse is very nice looking baby. 2nd one is definitely underweight, but as you said she's rescue and on old side, so it may take you a while to bring up the weight on her. But she's very cute too.


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## .Delete. (Jan 7, 2008)

Even if your horse /accepts/ you. You never know what could happen :wink:


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## kitten_Val (Apr 25, 2007)

It's matter of taste. I think keeping halter is unnatural unless there are some issues (like horse is hard to catch), but I'm completely fine with other people keeping it on their horses (although rope halter is still not appropriate for the turn out no matter what). 

My neighbor' new TB managed to open the gate and got loose together with pony. Having halters on them didn't help much to catch them. Lol! The mailman and the other neighbor ended up chasing them into the riding ring, and I'm very sorry I missed such a performance! I'm sure it was exciting.


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## dinglehead (Nov 16, 2007)

I do keep the halter on because I've had problems with the horses not liking each other I keep them loose enough so if they lay into them it will slip off and I tested it to make sure it would work can't use a regular halter on maggie it was rubbing her cheeks raw


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## mlkarel2010 (Jan 27, 2008)

.Delete. said:


> mlkarel2010 said:
> 
> 
> > Do you keep them in the pasture with their halters on? That's a really bad idea.... especially with rope halters because they won't break if a horse gets it stuck and they can hang themselves.....
> ...


I was mostly worried about the fact they are rope halters..... Other than that i'm not all-out against it


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## im4dressage (Mar 11, 2008)

I love the face and color of dandy (if she was built uphill, I would come and steal her from you as my dressage horse even though the judges don't really like the colored breed)(even so, if your colored horse moves much better then the $25,000 dollar horse, the judge can't ignore.) I also love taking an older unreg. mix-breed broodmare with out much training that is hairy and you can tell her age into the ring and beating the 6yr.old warmblood gelding :lol: 
(they don't like it when I do the local shows) 
as far as Maggie goes, keep up the good work. I just got a really skinny TB mare (but no where near as skinny as Maggie) that has started to gain weight. Have you tried giving her beet pulp? also, if in a stall, keep lots of hay in front of her


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## im4dressage (Mar 11, 2008)

dinglehead said:


> Maggie is a rescue horse and we're still working on her weight. I'll try to get some better pictures tomorrow I didn't have anyone to hold them and it was around feeding time so they were not standing still Maggie does have some joint problems. but even if she's never really ridable I still love that old sweetheart  I got both horses for free never look a gift horse in the mouth LOL


I really don't care what anyone thinks of my older retired/rescue horse's conformation...as long as they can get around in the pasture soundly, that's fine with me :!:


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## love-a-hero (Apr 3, 2008)

I really like the first ones colouring! 

Congrats for rescueing them  



> dinglehead wrote:
> Maggie is a rescue horse and we're still working on her weight. I'll try to get some better pictures tomorrow I didn't have anyone to hold them and it was around feeding time so they were not standing still Maggie does have some joint problems. but even if she's never really ridable I still love that old sweetheart I got both horses for free never look a gift horse in the mouth LOL
> 
> I really don't care what anyone thinks of my older retired/rescue horse's conformation...as long as they can get around in the pasture soundly, that's fine with me


Thats correct, although she asked for a critique.


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## Equina (Jul 28, 2007)

love-a-hero said:


> Thats correct, although she asked for a critique.


She asked for a critique on Maggie's condition, not conformation.


dinglehead, GREAT job getting & keeping weight on Maggie in only 2 months! And Dandy is very cute & pretty with a nice, alert look. It's hard to see her confo well because of her motion and camera angle.

I would seriously consider not keeping those rope halters on for turnout. Even if you can slip them off by hand, they might not slip off if twisted and knotted around a post/branch/hoof/whatever. Is it possible to turnout Maggie without a halter and get a leather one for Dandy?


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## kitten_Val (Apr 25, 2007)

dinglehead said:


> it would work can't use a regular halter on maggie it was rubbing her cheeks raw


My horse got bold spots on cheeks after month of nylon halter too so I know what you are talking about.  Can you try may be the padded one or something? It's not the best for warmer weather, but at least a try... Something like that
http://www.chicksaddlery.com/page/CDS/PROD/2000/AK4400

P.S. I didn't try to pick on you in any way with the rope halters, but my barn owner used to keep rope halters on her mustangs and ended up with the bad accident with one of them.  Horses can ALWAYS find something to hurt themself.


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## dinglehead (Nov 16, 2007)

tell me about it Leroy got a rake handle stuck up his butt when I left it out once it was horrible took months to heal but he was alright the vet did say if it was half and inch to the left it would have punctured a major artery and he would have bled to death so I got lucky here's some more pictures of Dandy I absoutly love Dandy's color it suits her










got a picture of Dandy's butt :lol: 










this is the kind of day I hate Dandy she did this right when I was going to ride her


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## .Delete. (Jan 7, 2008)

Very downhill, sickle hocked, cow hocked. Neck doesn't tie in correctly to the shoulder or the head. Over at the knees. Apple butt. Elbow doesn't line up with the withers correctly. Hamms are nice, pasturns look good. Nice head.


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## kitten_Val (Apr 25, 2007)

The 3rd pic (in water) is absolutely lovely! :lol:


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## dinglehead (Nov 16, 2007)

okay Dandy had problems when she was a baby when she was born her knees buckled back and she had to have shots to loosen the muscles so they could straighten them out poor baby the picture in the water is cute exept for when I'm trying to catch them so I can ride :roll: even if there is a lot of conformation defects she's still my baby Iwouldn't trade her for anything


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## .Delete. (Jan 7, 2008)

Ofcourse


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## dinglehead (Nov 16, 2007)

btw for those of you that posted about the halter I switched Dandy to a regular halter and took Maggie's off I'm going to get something for maggie that I can just slip on fast if I need to unbelievable what I don't notice (not that I know much about conformation  ) I guess Dandy wouldn't win any prizes for her perfect conformation


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