Another conformation thread!

[Jore]

Still waiting to hear back from the seller to see if the other mare is sold or not, but I've still been religiously browsing for horses. Today, I found one mare who is about five hours away... so maybe there's a teensy glimmer of hope that I could go see her.

She's a six year old unraced Thoroughbred mare and is a dressage/eventing/hunter/jumper prospect. She's UTD on shots, deworming, 2011 Coggins and farrier. She goes W/T/C, knows her seat aids and has been introduced to free jumping. She's also said to be "playful and curious" as well as "interactive and patient".

There's only one shot that is really somewhat critiquable, but there's two shots of her free jumping..









So critique away! :)

[Tryst]

Not a real critique, but she definitely has a cute face and a kind eye. This horse really appears to hang its knees when jumping rather than tuck them up.

[Elana]

She looks pretty good in the small photo.. and like she has a nice strong top line and nice low hocks and knees. Might be a git straight thru the hock but the angle can do that too.

Her shoulder lays back nicely, but her humerus is not steep enough and the angle from point of Shoulder to elbows lays a bit flat. This is why she hangs her knees a bit over the jumps. She is not tight at all with her front end and I wonder if she would be a careful jumper or not with training.

She has a wonderful "eye" and expression.

[jhoover]

She appears to have very short, upright pasterns in the conformation shot. It's hard to tell for sure, but it's something to keep an eye on when you go see her. I would look at the bone structure in her legs compared with the size of her body...it seems fine, but again it's hard to tell for sure without a closer shot.

She seems to hang her legs while jumping, instead of tucking them tightly to her chest. This would probably prevent her from doing upper level jumping, as it takes away from scope. My best friend's horse jumped in this way and they could not make it past Novice (in eventing). She eventually had to sell the horse and start over again, as she has aspirations to continue on the in the sport.

Sweet, gentle eye. Definitely take her for a ride, but try to get someone (a trainer, an upper-level rider) to go with you for a second opinion and to ride so you can see her move.

Good luck!

[Jore]

Thanks everyone for your time in critiquing her! I heard back from my dad today and he said it's still a bit far. I've only found one good potential mare in the last few months that he thought was close in enough in distance, so this search isn't going too well! I think I'll be moving to a more "horse friendly" province at one point.