# 6 year old Fjord/QH gelding



## hemms (Apr 18, 2012)

Meet Maximus, my sweetheart recreational lummox. We trail ride and compete at the smallest of the backyard local shows. We have some basic backyard dressage lessons under our belt but hack out in comfy barrel gear. 

Not sure I got him squared up all that well on my own... I detest when people submit pasture photos and want to know what others think... I hope these are decent enough.

Anyway, have at 'im. Love him to pieces, regardless of his taboo existance and imperfections. Just as long as he lasts me a long, long time! 












































p.s. I didn't realise my halter was fitted so poorly! Such a pet peeve of mine, too!


----------



## gablehaus (Feb 24, 2012)

He is very pretty the major thing that i notice is that he is slightly sickle hocked


----------



## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

he has a rather long back, but has great bone and has the look of a horse that has the confo to last many years. I can see why you would be uber fond of him. I find I cannot help smiling when I look at him. He jess has that effect, don't he?


----------



## AnnaHalford (Mar 26, 2012)

I'm trying to improve my eye on confo so this is what I see (but don't take it as anything more than an amateur opinion...)

I don't see a particularly long back
His rear pasterns look a bit on the upright side, but maybe this is just the photo?
Hocks are set a little high, but good bone all round
I have the idea that his toes in the front could do with bringing back a bit, but again it's difficult to tell with the sand in the arena
Is he a tad back at the knee? 

But nothing that would make me kick him out of the barn - in fact, I'd probably invite him in. He looks like a nice, sturdy little horse.


----------



## PurpleMonkeyWrench (Jun 12, 2012)

First thing I noticed is that his pasterns are upright and he looks a tad calf kneed as well. Long back, sickle hocked and possible ever so slightly camped out. I love this boy I want him!


----------



## hemms (Apr 18, 2012)

Awww thanks guys!! He's the kind of horse little girls day dream about... you know the image of reading a good book, laying on your horse's back while he grazes loose in some meadow? That's totally him. You can lay on him and snuggle loose in the pasture during meal time, herd all around you and he'll take care of you (course, it does help that I have The Voice of Reason among all the other horses, lol!). He's just awesome.

Calf-kneed! Yes... I knew this. Never saw the sickled hocks. Feet are due for a trim and she does not tuck the toe in on the fronts as aggressively as I'd like. 

Chuckled about the long back comments. I spent a good while searching high and low for a short enough pad to go under my shorty 24" saddle. Found a 28" pad that does not interfere with his hip, finally! I'm even resisting a coloured show pad to lay over my working pad cause I hate how huge they all are! 34" is ridiculous. I do see some horses with these things looking like quarter sheets when they enter the ring. I refuse to do it in my little backyard shows! 










You have to wear monster spurs when you ride Maximus or he makes you work WAY harder than himself. Have a spur and you barely have to touch him. Don't and you flap like a chicken up top.

Interestingly, I did have one of my better wrecks on this horse. He spun out of the ditch in a startle and inertia dropped me onto the frozen gravel road, breaking a rib. Very telling to me though that I had not a SECOND of hesitation climbing back on him, in English gear, no less just as soon as I could. It was a freak accident that any horse would have reacted much more violently to and any rider would have had a hard time sitting. In fact, if I hadn't tried so hard to hang on and turn it into a "training moment", I may have just landed in said soft ditch! 

Did I mention that we're both ridiculously stubborn? You have to be to 'win' anything with this boy. It's just his way. And I know the hubby is happy to have me working out so much of _that _side of my personality out on someone other than him!


----------



## lilruffian (Jun 28, 2010)

The only thing i see that's wrong is that he is just a tad sicklehocked as the others have said and somewhat cowhocked in the hind right foot.
You can definitely see the Fjord in there, which would account for the slightly longish back. It's not terribly long, though, so no worries


----------



## nikelodeon79 (Mar 3, 2008)

I would really, REALLY like to steal him. He's fantastic!


----------



## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

I still don't see a long back on this one, he has always struck me as being compact in the back.

My take, good honest head, thick through the jowl, short heavy neck, shoulder not to bad, distinct lack of withers. Calf kneed, a little sickle hocked.

To me a great type of horse, you can see the solid bone, you can't see the big heart and sensible head:wink: Not built for speed, but will go all day at a steady sort of pace.

All around a nice guy:wink:


----------



## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

maybe it's just his legs seemed short , and his neck , too,compared to the back that gave the impression of a long back. I see now that he isn't really long backed. He is pretty rectangular in overal shape, rather than square.


----------



## hemms (Apr 18, 2012)

Lol GH! Very objective, for a once-mom of our boy, here!

GH sold him to me two years ago. I had no idea then just how much I was going to like him, but my gut told me he was a good 'un. We may butt heads like siblings more often than not, but I've never felt unsafe near the boy.


----------



## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

Here we go conformation people, can you see the finished horse in the day old colt?










The funny thing with Maximus there, he turned out to be exactly what I had wanted, but in the 4 years he took to get there, I had already moved on and wanted something different. 

LOL, there is a thread here about the reasons horses are sold, well this guy was a green as grass, only had a few rides on him, but I already knew, *shhh* that he was going to be to quiet and solid for me. There is also something here about Karma, this boy was special to me, and I was so tempted to keep him around, but Hemms came and saw him and just seemed to click, and understand him. 

I'm so glad to hear that they are both happy together, because I never had a minutes doubt that they were going to be a good match:wink:


----------



## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

Needs to lose weight. 

Seriously back at the knee. Long back. Sickle hocks. Shoulder is very upright. 

He is very drafty looking and very solid. Wish he were not back at the knee and had a shorter back.


----------



## thesilverspear (Aug 20, 2009)

Just curious and nosy, GH... ;-) Do you know how his dad came to be bred with his mum? I have friends who are into the Fjords, and I was told that the Fjord registry folks have views on outcrossing: a mare or stallion who is bred to a non-Fjord will be kicked out of the studbook. 

I think he's a nice horse anyway.


----------



## hemms (Apr 18, 2012)

It's actually his Fjord physic that makes him look fatter than he is - very blocky through the barrel. Other than his stubborn shoulder pockets, he's almost at risk of going the other way on the scale. We're working on building muscle in the right places, including his topline (spine just hints at being the highest point), but I'll be battling the bulges of winter again soon. 

This is how he can get without supervision, lol:










And the story of his existance, as my fuzzy brain processed/remembered it, was that his mom was a ferral Fjord who was mistakenly? running with a QH breeder's herd. I'm sure he tried to dump her at auction before he was found out. Why else would he auction a breedable Fjord? 

Whatever the story, I LOVE my taboo boy, despite (or maybe because) of the dirty looks we get from the purists.


----------



## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

Yes, I went to the local auction with all intentions of buying a saddle horse from the 'nice side' of the auction, I ended up bidding in the general side, and outbid the meat buyer on this beautiful pair.



















All the info we had was that they had been running with a black QH stud. I was just outbid on a gelding who was in the same pen, and DH was making desperate faces at the time:lol:

The other mare had a filly



















Here they all are at a year old


----------



## thesilverspear (Aug 20, 2009)

I think your guy is lovely; I was just curious, given the rather intransigent views of the Fjord registry people on cross-breeding. If he'd been a Shire-cross or something, where the breed association doesn't give a toss, I wouldn't have thought twice about it.


----------



## IslandWave (Nov 25, 2009)

I'm by no means a conformation pro, and you've gotten great feedback from our more experienced members, so I thought I'd just drop by and say that I am quite partial to your guy.  I recently bought a Fjord/Paint filly (Paint mare was accidentally bred) and she is awesome. She was unbroke and is now on her 10th or so ride. She's been so easy and fun to work with. When did Maximus stop growing? My girl is 3 and 14.1hh and I'm wondering if she has any chance of gaining an extra inch or two.


----------



## hemms (Apr 18, 2012)

I needed to do one saddle change up on Max, when he hit his 5th summer. From 5 to 6, he's fit the same dressage saddle. I mourned for a moment cause I just LOVED my original dressage beater, but once I tweaked the stirrup leathers on the new/used beater, it's worked out to be just as comfortable and of better quality. 

I'm going to haunt your album for pics of your new paint/Fjord. I've often searched the internet for a supportive network of FjordX owners, but the entire purist energy seems to snub any attempts. I've met some local Fjord breeders who weren't fanatical at all. It was such a relief to discover which personality traits of Max's were from his stockier lineage, without censorship or judgement. 

I actually do respect the attempts to honor all the hard work on maintaining a clean gene pool. Being a purist snob about my dog breed, I can only feel this way. I appreciate the value of health records and disease-tracking, if nothing else. Human nature is to be lazy/careless/greedy and these creatures do come to be and so far as I've met, they're amazing. Such people aren't going to cull them at birth and why would these great animals be worthy of less than any other horse? Just saying that there are those of us who didn't necessarily go looking for our 'abominations' but boy are we happy we found them!


----------



## IslandWave (Nov 25, 2009)

^ I don't have many photos of her yet since I've only owned her for about a month, but I will put her in my "barn" photo album thingy here very soon!


----------



## CLaPorte432 (Jan 3, 2012)

I really like him.

I am very fond of Fjords and Fjord Xs. Id love to own one (cross or not) one day. I dont know what id do with it since im a barrel racer but id love one nonetheless.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## hemms (Apr 18, 2012)

GH, I really like the build on the filly, too. Not as much of the Fjord influence as Max, but much stouter and more bone than a QH still. She looks like she's built to last, too. Dare I say it, even more so than Max - Gasp! No! 

I like me a sturdy hoss. Like a big man, it somehow makes me feel just a little lighter, just a little smaller. ****!!


----------



## Oldhorselady (Feb 7, 2012)

I think he is gorgeous. I am partial to the drafty types anyway. My spotted draft/paint cross three year old has been a dream to train on the ground and under saddle.


----------

