# Conformation Critique.. Should I keep her?



## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

You need to post appropriate photos for confo critique. See 1st 'sticky' post in this section for what's needed.

All I can say from those is, it appears, if it's not just picture angle, she has a huge head for the size of her body, and if it's not just the way she's standing & pic angle, she looks a bit base narrow in front & forward at the knee/not wanting to weight that foot on the right.

Why are you struggling to keep her & what is causing her to be a 'brat'? What are you doing when she's a 'brat'? What does she do, aside from having thrown you off? How have you checked for 'pain issues'?


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## SaraSmiles89 (Jan 29, 2019)

loosie said:


> You need to post appropriate photos for confo critique. See 1st 'sticky' post in this section for what's needed.
> 
> All I can say from those is, it appears, if it's not just picture angle, she has a huge head for the size of her body, and if it's not just the way she's standing & pic angle, she looks a bit base narrow in front & forward at the knee/not wanting to weight that foot on the right.
> 
> Why are you struggling to keep her & what is causing her to be a 'brat'? What are you doing when she's a 'brat'? What does she do, aside from having thrown you off? How have you checked for 'pain issues'?




I apologize for the pictures, these are all I have on my computer at the moment. She has always had a huge head for her body. 
I can't decide if I want to keep her as a jumping horse or let her move onto a new home as a trail/pleasure horse. When she is a brat is random. We can be trotting, or she may of just gotten cinched up, or she saw someone giving another horse treats and she thinks she needs them.... it's so random. She's a very irritable horse. I have had her teeth checked by an equine dentist and also had a farrier check her feet. And have had a massage therapist check to make sure she's not out of whack.


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Horses who have ulcers, uncomfortable saddle or rough hands doing the tacking up for eg. commonly get 'irritable' when the girth is done up. Horses(or kids or dogs) who witness someone close by getting given a treat often want to attempt to get one themselves. I wouldn't call those things 'random' at all. Sounds like you've checked out a couple of things, but I wouldn't rule out pain from just those things. Of course, it may not be the cause of her 'brattiness' & it's all about how she's been trained.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

Agree with @loosie. You've addressed a couple of potential pain sources, but there could be many others.

In particular, I notice she has a tucked up looking abdomen, which often can mean an acidic hind gut or ulcers. If she seems irritable I'd look at her diet and make sure she has roughage (hay, grazing and non-grain feed) available almost all of the time, and that she is not being fed grain products. In the pictures I don't see food available. Also she should have feed in her stomach before getting exercised. 

You'd like to know if her body type is appropriate for jumping, but that is a small part of the equation unless you're planning on high level competition. What makes you think she will be a good jumper? Does she demonstrate athleticism when playing in the field? She's very young to begin jumping, except for casual and informal work. I wouldn't start until she was fit enough to carry herself in a balanced and round canter, and knew the basics of shortening and lengthening, and her leads. 

I'd evaluate her temperament to see if it seemed like she enjoyed cantering over small obstacles in an arena or field, and felt like she had the beginnings of balance. Some horses won't develop any real balance until older. Also with a horse this young I'd keep your formal sessions short and positive. 

The word "brat" is very vague and doesn't clarify much. Do you mean she is biting, rushing off, making faces, bucking, etc. etc? Some of those things can be tack related, or the horse is misunderstanding cues that are not being applied consistently, feelings related to other horses in the area, or other factors. 

Lumping everything into one problem relating to "attitude" will not help you understand the horse's motivations. A horse can have one reason for pinning ears at feeding time, another for stalling out when under saddle, another for not standing still for mounting, etc.

To me it sounds like you're trying to make a big decision about a horse's long term goals when you have a young horse that is not yet well grounded in the basics of solid work. After a year of regular riding when the horse has settled well into the routines of riding and training, that's when I'd begin to think about what the horse has aptitude for.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

The photos are appearing sideways on my screen so I'm going to try to re-post one of them the right way up here EDIT - failed!
It still isn't a great shot for a critique though
If she's a true pony breed then she's probably as tall as she's going to get, if she's got some TB in her, or another taller breed, then she could grow a few more inches in height. 
That means that if you're going to compete her in open classes (as opposed to classes for ponies) she's going to need to be a lot more athletic and scopey than a horse that's 15.2 plus.
There are exceptions and some super ponies do hold their own against the bigger horses but they are still exceptions.
I know she will alter in her conformation as she matures and muscles up with work but I'm still not seeing a horse that screams that its going to have the build to do all three disciplines.


Not sure why she's being cranky but in mares it can indicate ovarian cysts.


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## SaraSmiles89 (Jan 29, 2019)

loosie said:


> Horses who have ulcers, uncomfortable saddle or rough hands doing the tacking up for eg. commonly get 'irritable' when the girth is done up. Horses(or kids or dogs) who witness someone close by getting given a treat often want to attempt to get one themselves. I wouldn't call those things 'random' at all. Sounds like you've checked out a couple of things, but I wouldn't rule out pain from just those things. Of course, it may not be the cause of her 'brattiness' & it's all about how she's been trained.



I am definitely going to get her checked for ulcers. She was started by the amish... not my choice. Thank you!


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## SaraSmiles89 (Jan 29, 2019)

gottatrot said:


> Agree with @loosie. You've addressed a couple of potential pain sources, but there could be many others.
> 
> In particular, I notice she has a tucked up looking abdomen, which often can mean an acidic hind gut or ulcers. If she seems irritable I'd look at her diet and make sure she has roughage (hay, grazing and non-grain feed) available almost all of the time, and that she is not being fed grain products. In the pictures I don't see food available. Also she should have feed in her stomach before getting exercised.
> 
> ...




They have access to 2 round bales at all times since this winter has been nothing but rain and our pasture is nothing but mud (Im DYING here!). She receives hay, alfalfa cubes, and beet pulp but also a little bit of oats mixed in with her pelleted grain. I always work with my horses after they have eaten. 

I guess my future plans for her was to jump her in lower level. We have played around with some cross rails but only on the lunge line. Most of it is ground poles to work her topline and get her to learn to get her hind legs under her. 

I realize I have some issues I need to work out with her. She's actually a great horse temperment wise other than her little blow ups. She doesn't nip at people but is very irritable and impatient. She paws when she eats and also when she's standing waiting to be tacked up. I will definitely look into completely changing her feeding routine. I guess I never realized how much of a problem stomach ulcers can cause.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

Since you're feeding her appropriately - assuming your round bales are being spoilt by wet weather and she is eating enough hay - I'm wondering if what you're calling 'irritable' is just her being impatient? 
I know that the whole pawing thing is annoying but its one of those habits that's best ignored as most of the ideas for stopping it don't work and only serve to stress the horse.


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## rambo99 (Nov 29, 2016)

Here i rotated the picture so it the correct way,well it didn't work shows it's been rotated but is sideways once posted weird.


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Weird that the pic won't rotate - I've sometimes done it & it doesn't work, but if I open it in my photo editor & manually rotate it works... but when I did it with this one, showed the right way round already. So here's my try - I cropped it as well...


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## rambo99 (Nov 29, 2016)

loosie said:


> Weird that the pic won't rotate - I've sometimes done it & it doesn't work, but if I open it in my photo editor & manually rotate it works... but when I did it with this one, showed the right way round already. So here's my try - I cropped it as well...


Well did same thing and didn't work go figure.


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