Broodmare?

I wanted to get opinions on my broodmares confo. I figured it would be better to get outside opinions since im very biased to her. (i know they arent the best pics but they are all i have right now) she has thrown 2 beautiful fillies with beautiful confo, who were both out of a mediocre stud (it was all we could afford at the time). she is in foal right now a 3rd time to a really nice stud. the breeding fee was $7,500 and she had to be approved to breed to him. she has a track record of 1:54:3 on a 1/2 mile track (i know this doesnt mean much to many of you here, but thats very fast for being on a 1/2 mile track. they average around 2min to 1:57:00. the track record where i am is 1:52:00 and its a half mile track) she was bred and foaled in New Zealand, and came to the US a little later in life. Shes big and strong, and fast. Her career was ended when she tore an XYZ ligiment. so when looking at the pics dont count the left front ankle because its all calcification due to the old injury, thats why its so large.





here is one with her and her first filly. i didnt know if a hind shot would help any....




here is a pic of her first filly too. i know its not the best confo shot again, but i just wanted to throw it in there so you could see what she was reproducing. this is La'Don Belle, she was a yearling in this pic.



and this is her second filly, Dynamo Jin as a yearling. (again not the best confo shot)

Are you breeding her for race horse foals? What breed of horse is she? I am asking because I have a retired racing Thoroughbred mare coming here at the end of the month who used to run four furlongs (1/2 mile) and one of her winning times was 48.50 seconds-- so well under a minute. here is a photo of her at age 13 in pasture/broodmare condition while nursing her second foal--


Compared to the above, your mare's conformation does not scream "sprinter" to me, if that is what you are breeding for-- her hip is horizontally short from point of hip to buttock, her stifle also lacks size and muscling, and her muscling is light in the quarters , forearms, and gaskins for a sprinter, who needs explosive power for fast starts and sprinting short distances. She is built more like a "stayer" (longer distances) to me. Did you perhaps mean she ran on a 1/2 mile track, but ran longer distances around it? or is she another breed besides TB or QH?

I d not dislike your mare's conformation, but if sprint racing is her intended purpose, compared to the TBs and QHs running that distance, she is not built for top performances there--- however if she is of another breed, all of this might not be applicable

I'd think it's a standardbred. Personally I think she's very cute mare. I'm not positive breeding her to the "cheap" stud was such a good idea, but you should be very excited about the next foal from good sir, don't you?

this mare is definitely a standardbred, those race times are typical for standardbreds. i am no good at confo but she is cute and she sounds pretty speedy. 54 is very nice on a half mile.

Well if she's a Standardbred that totally explains the difference in conformation from what I am familiar with, since trotting or pacing at speed I imagine requires different "stuff"' than galloping.

I'm glad I qualified my previous post with the disclaimer that I was looking at her conformation as compared to the TB or running QH sprinters, and that it would not necessarily apply if she was not one of those.....

i dont know much about the breed but her head and neck seem to be small and out of contrast to the rest of her body and this seems to be passing on to her foals, but i am unexperienced so just brush this off if im totally wrong

really ya think? it may be just the pics. because she definately is a big headed horse. lol

Isn't that head and neck appearance pretty standard for SB horses? I know nothing about how they should ideally be conformed so I will offer no critique. I just wanted to say that she is gorgeous and I adore that first pic. I love her dapples contrasted by the green grass.

yeah its pretty standard, though she is a little on the big headed side, but that comes from being new zealand bred. they breed big heavy STBs there, here they tend to be a little sleaker.

and thanks. thats pretty minimal dappling for her actually. she dapples out a lot better towards the summer. that pic was take in the spring.

oh and as far as how fast and long she raced, she raced on a 1/2 mile sized track, but the distance is one mile. there are 8 furlongs in a mile. so say she were to go just 4 furlongs, she would have done it probably in about 58-59 seconds (because she was a leaver and front runner, but ill explain that later). though when STBs race their mile, their faster quater is usually their last, and the most important. unless you have a horse that is a leaver, which means they leave the gate faster to get a better position to race. also she is a pacer. TBs have a faster gait than STBs when it comes to racing. galloping is faster than pacing, and pacing is faster than trotting. also galloping takes more muscle from the rear, hence why the TBs have such large stifles and hind quarters overall. when pacers pace fast, they use their whole body and rock side to side. so the muscle use is more evened out. our trotters have larger chests and stifles than the pacers.
-just clearing things up there -

as far as for what we breed for, its not sprinting. its more distance. basically they have to be able to maintain speed, but then the last quarter of the mile, they really need to have a "kick". or the first quater they have to have a kick to get in position, which is what this mare had. she could leave the gate like a scaulded rat. no one could outleave her, and when she got to the front she would swell with pride and no one was going to beat her. her problem was she was a little wacky and wanted to race and leave so bad that she would get frusterated and try to run THROUGH the starting gate, under it, over it, etc. and sometimes make breaks because she couldnt go when she wanted. so she had to be specially timed to the gate so that she wasnt sitting behind it long.

I don't know a lot about pacers, but...

If her first foal was in the UK and for sale, I'd be there in a blink.
I dunno she's just one of them horses I instantly fall in love with xD