# Conformation On my OTTB



## LoveofOTTB (Dec 7, 2014)

Hello,

I am not very good at judging confirmation, but I was wondering what everyone thought of my OTTB Manhattan, his JC name is Balkan Fire. I am just so happy to have him in my life, but I am always curious to his conformation!

Thank you.



This is before I got him, sent over from his old owners when they first got him:


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## Westhoff Gal (Dec 4, 2014)

Hey! Another ND user! Cool! See how he kind of has 'U' shape close to his withers on his neck? Do some exercises that work that top line, and you should see that start disappearing =)


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## LoveofOTTB (Dec 7, 2014)

We have been working on it! haha it is getting better than it was, with is being so cold lately I have not been riding every day or riding for very long, with this heat wave we are having riding is becoming an every day thing haha!


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

he sure has a high wither. His hocks appear to be puffy, like they have spavins? or some past injury . steep shoulder , maybe slightly tied in at the knee.
He is cute, and from the prev pic he will have a lovely color come summer, I am a sucker for the red horses.


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## Raven13 (Apr 12, 2013)

He's a good looking man. I love his intelligent, bright eye, nice long neck. Good shoulder, fairly short strong back. He is a bit long in his front canons but not awful. I like the muscling he pt on his hind end with you. 

Now this is meant to be constructive so I hope you don't take too much offense to it, the one thing that's bothering me about him is the muscling change on his neck and along his top line. He looks inverted in the after picture(the first one). Does he run around with his head in the air when you ride him?


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## CandyCanes (Jul 1, 2013)

Hi LoveofOTTB, that is a very nice horse you have there. He is well built, and has a nice balance overall... 

However, I am afraid I think the over all look of him is better in the second photo, even if he is a little light. His neck and top line are in a much more rounded shape, and he has better neck muscling. In the first photo, although he is more muscled on the neck, it is all on the underside, where you don't want it. You want all the muscling along the crest. I think that he is not working in the correct outline, and may be very inverted and hollow when you ride him. Is that correct?


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## Viranh (Apr 7, 2013)

I see a steep shoulder but otherwise lovely horse. I agree that the neck muscling looks better in the before photo. It can be a lot of work to get these guys going in a correct frame, particularly if they have other issues, but you might benefit from having a dressage instructor watch you ride and/or ride him and give you some pointers about how to help him out. Sometimes we don't notice these things without a second set of eyes.


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## LoveofOTTB (Dec 7, 2014)

Yes he does hold his head up very high! I just got him in September from a horse seller, who got him from a riding program. So I plan on working on everything! thank you guys so much for all of this! He does have some past injuries, he has a nice long scar on his let buttock, kinda going up into the tail area, and another on his left hind cannon bone. I have NO clue what happened since he came to me with that, but when I was looking up his tattoo the jockey club has both of those on file for his description (thats how I knew they had the right one lol) But My trainer and I are working on getting his top line better, and getting his head lower as well. I know it will take a while and a lot of work but I am up for the challenge! He is such a sweet boy, and tries so hard for me, even though I have only had him for a few months!


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## hyperkalemic4 (Dec 8, 2014)

If it was the OTT you are asking about, It would have been great to see a great profile of him and also close ups of the legs.


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## LoveofOTTB (Dec 7, 2014)

I think I do have some of his legs, that I took by myself, they aren't the best since I didn't have anyone else to hold him for me, but they got the job done. haha Let me see if I can find them.


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## LoveofOTTB (Dec 7, 2014)

Here are some shots of his legs, again they aren't the best, but the best I could do! haha In the front picture you can see the scar on his back canon bone, No clue where it come from and his legs never seem to bother him at all when I ride. Plus you can also see the scar on his left buttock I am talking about, just two interesting things my boy came with that has me wondering what happened. I have tried to search for his old trainer and his owner when he used to race, no luck!

Front:








Backs:


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## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

He is bench knee'd. The cannons are offset under the knee to the outside. He has some rotation in front.. but it starts up high so should not be an issue.


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