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4yo QH filly

5K views 42 replies 10 participants last post by  smrobs 
#1 · (Edited)
This is Stylish Lights aka Heidi. My saddle did not fit her correctly so I couldn't ride her and that's why she isn't in good shape. Now I can and it's too cold and too much snow! Sorry about the crappy paddock. We got 18" of snow and it's just starting to melt and it's a wreck! Here is a link to her pedigree.
Stylish Lights Quarter Horse
 

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#2 · (Edited)
She looks very mellow. Her structure is not the greatest, but she should be ok for general riding, and if you love her that is the most important!

She has a rather course head with small eyes. Neck is a bit short but ties in ok at her chest, though a bit roughly at the withers. Her shoulder is fairly upright, and she appears to be slightly pigeon breasted. Her withers are well set. Her back is nice and short, but she has a minor roach forming. She is steep and short through the croup and appears slightly sickle hocked and also a bit post legged. I do like her bone and pasterns are a good length and angle.
 
#4 ·
This horse has some issues. Every once in awhile I see a horse like this... abd it may be due to over line breeding to the point of being almost inbred.

This horse has a true roach back. Her neck is also short and set low. These two things are what I have seen on over line bred (mostly) Quarterhorses. This neck set is an unsoundness IMO. I would love xrays of her bones. This does not mean she won't be useable.. but she is going to be a stiff horse and I suspect she may not have the nicest trot. Added to his is her head to neck attachment which is abrupt and hammer headed.

Her shoulder is super steep and her point of shoulder is low. Her humerus, which lies very flat, is over long. She will have very little reach with her front end. She is also pigeon breasted.

Her hind quarters are decent, but her hind leg is over straight. Her stifle could be placed further forward. Her bone is adequate.

I think this little horse will be a difficult saddle fit. I also think as she ages and finishes growing her roach back will become more pronounced.
 

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#5 ·
With all this being said, which I agree 100% especially with the neck being an unsoundness. I can't imagine the horse itself being too comfortable under saddle. I can imagine these faults in her build leads to some pain for her. Poor girl, this is one reason why breeding should be more controlled.
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the feed back. Her "roachback" was actually due to her being out of alignment and poor saddle fit. I only rode her maybe 5 times and she was agitated the last time so I stopped riding her and had a chiro come out. She advised me that the hump would possibly go away. The small dip before her withers is from her winter blanket. They have been wearing them almost non stop for over a week due to a lot of snow fall and really cold (-20's) temps. Here is another pic of her although it is farther away she has more muscling and is in better shape. She actually has a very smooth trot and her lope is very slow and collected. If I ever bred her, which is a very small possibility, I was looking at outcrossing to a TB. Get rid on that line breeding and give her some height, she is about 14.2, my hubby is 6'2". She needs a little longer back, most saddles are too long for her, and a longer neck.
 

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#9 ·
These might cause minor blemishes in a horse's confirmation but none of this would actually effect the way she is built. Her neck is set below her withers, thats not caused by a blanket, thats the way she is built. Also, the roach back is another confirmation fault. You can still see it in the photo provided. A poorly fitting saddle wouldn't cause something like that. Unfortunately there is nothing that can correct these faults. However, there are ways to make her more comfortable.
 
#8 ·
I can see saddle fit being an issue. She does look much better in the summer pics (big belly there! I think it's just the way she's built) but her conformation doesn't change. Can't really see in that pic but it does look like she has a slight roach there. Not a breeding prospect, imo.

If the dip is from the blanket get another blanket! Blankets can cause physical issues if not fitting right, as you are seeing.

I'm a little skeptical of that hump being purely from a back issue. Just the size and the way it looks. Do you have any other pics? I would be interested to see if she looks any different.
 
#12 ·
One thing I would love is to see this mare on cows. Just see. She certainly has the blood for it.. but will it show in the 'tude? She might cut in spite of her look.. as the motion of cutting probably would be OK for this horse. She has enough butt and enough hind leg and is close to the ground.

She might be the devil incarnate to a cow. And if she was all that, she also might be a money earner.
 
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#13 ·
If you ever saw John Henry.. who ran races until he was 10 and won around $10 million dollars for his owner.. you would say, "He couldn't run a straight line down the middle of a railroad track!"

Well he did.. and he did it over and over and over again. He was no beauty but he ran well and often and he was all attitude.

This little horse might be all that and more. Pretty isn't all there is to a horse.
 
#14 ·
I finally got to start riding her in late Oct off and on. She does fine under saddle now that I have one that fits her. Didn't get to ride much, it got cold pretty soon after and I ride her here and there when it's not snowing or freezing cold and she does great. She meets me at the gate whenever I come out with the halter and she is all business when you get on. I tried to find her videos on youtube. Had one of her doing reining work and one of her on an obstacle course but the prev owner took them off.
 
#17 ·
She is in ALOT better shape in that pic. When we get some nicer weather I plan to put her back into a fitting program to get her looking more like that again. I originally bought her for mounted shooting. She has so much try and heart to her. I never thought about cutting, don't really know much about it but it looks like a lot of fun so I might try that with her too.
 
#19 ·
The horse in the second photo look like a different horse. Gone is the roach and so forth.. which has me wondering from the over all stance and look of the horse in the first vs second photo if the horse in photo 1 is not in some sort pain (colic? ulcers??) or if the horse just needs more water or something (often horses drink insufficient water in winter but they do eat hay).

The second photo is a horse with NO roach back, is not tucked in all over, has a steepish shoulder and adequate length of neck and a happy, open expression. The horse in the first photo looks.. miserable.................... :(
 
#28 ·
I agree completely. In the first photo she is defiantly not in great shape, she needs some good feed, and she certainly does look to be in pain. Have you checked for ulcers? How is her appetite? If she were mine I'd put her on a good diet, start her back at work slowly and check for ulcers and do a blood panel test. I can't even believe the difference in the two pictures, the first one she sure does look a lot like Smart Little Lena.

I love her pedigree, and I'd love to see her on a cow as well. Bet she'd be a little cutting machine.
 
#20 ·
I mentioned the chiro said she thought the hump would go away. I need her to come out again and do another adjustment, its been a couple months. I have noticed that when it's really cold outside she is pretty grumpy. Usually she is happy go lucky kinda horse but when it's cold she can be a *****. Don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. She has hit a growth spurt recently and she looked kinda awkward for a couple weeks. Really butt high. She has leveled out again. Could someone show or explain to me what you are talking about with her neck? I looked at the pic a lot and I'm trying to figure out what you guys are talking about on it that is an unsoundness issue. Are you taking about the dip before her withers?
 
#21 ·
A dip before the withers generally signals front feet issues. If something is off it shows in the muscle of the neck there, some horses will always have it if they have huge withers, but with her seeing the before picture I'm inclined to think she's got feet issues or something on the front end going on.
 
#22 ·
Thanks for pointing that out for me. My farrier did mention he wanted to put rocker shoe's (I think that's what he called them?) on her when he comes back out in March. Said she is very slightly club footed on her right front and he isn't liking how far her pasterns are dropping when she walks. Might be the issue.? I took the shoes off her in Nov because of the amount of snow we had.
 
#23 ·
Look at these two photos next to each other. In the one photo the horse has her neck drawn up. She looks like she is in pain. Her neck has a dip in front of the withers.. and she looks like a horse that is deformed she is so drawn up and into herself. Her eye is dull and she looks a bit thin and tense and preoccupied..

In the other photo the same horse looks NORMAL. Neck is normal.. tho perhaps placed a little low. She is a little down hill and looks a little like the stallion Smart Little Lena.
 

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#24 ·
Look at these two photos next to each other. In the one photo the horse has her neck drawn up. She looks like she is in pain. Her neck has a dip in front of the withers.. and she looks like a horse that is deformed she is so drawn up and into herself. Her eye is dull and she looks a bit thin and tense and preoccupied..

In the other photo the same horse looks NORMAL. Neck is normal.. tho perhaps placed a little low. She is a little down hill and looks a little like the stallion Smart Little Lena.
This! I was thinking to myself that she looks much thinner now than she was before. You can slightly make out ribs through her winter coat IMO. I completely agree she looks like she's in alot of pain.
 
#31 ·
I plan to have the vet out to check her teeth and I'll have him check for ulcers too. I have her on 4lbs of ADM Senior, for horses 4 and over, she gets about 1lb of alfalfa pellets, 1oz of wheat germ oil and hay 3x's a day. I just upped her feed amount about 5 weeks ago. I thought she was wormy so I gave her Quest Plus and I figured she would have picked up weight by now. She was getting 1/2lb 2x's a day of ADM Prime Glo at the beginning of winter and she started to drop weight around the beginning of Jan and that is when I changed her to the higher fat of the senior. Before that she was an easy keeper.
 
#32 ·
Up till now she looked like the first pic and all of a sudden she started to drop weight. Ulcers do make sense and I didn't think about them till someone suggested that might be what is wrong. She eats great, good appetite and eats her hay well too. I just thought she might be wormy, I do keep mine on a good deworming schedule but she never rebounded after I dewormed her.
 
#33 ·
It just might be ulcers then. I'm glad the vet is coming out soon to check her out. Even if the vet says no ulcers (he can't actually tell for sure unless he scopes her but often they can say yes based on symptoms) you might try treating her for them anyways and seeing if they help. Until then, upping her alfalfa pellets may help buffer her tummy and make her feel a bit better, and you could even add some probiotics into her feed to see if it helps her gut health.
 
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