Critique~ 7yr old APHA halter gelding -PIC HEAVY

I am proud of him CLaPorte432. He's practically my son. :) I just adore him and he is so smart! Its funny because halter people say he won't win at halter because I ride him and non-halter people say I can't ride him because I show in halter. I guess I've just got to work extra hard to prove them all wrong, huh? ;)

I like your girl! He color is great and I really like her shoulder and hip. She's a bit chubby in the barrel but so am I! LOL
I agree with you about the other pic. Now that to me is not enough bone. Cisco, IMO has good leg bones. Maybe its not being portrayed in the pictures but I'm around him every day and he has decent bones. They're are not as thick as my appy's (of course) but they aren't sticks either. But, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? ;)

Considering that Cis used to look like this...


I don't mind him having a little junk in his trunk.

This is my, soon to be 8yr old, QH Appendix who I posted a pic of a few months back and no one said anything about his legs, which to me, are a little stick like themselves.

Here's my appy which has thick legs, as most appys do.

I don't see a single problem with his bones at all. Actually I find him quite substantial for a pretty "halter" horse, he should do great in WP and whatever. I personally like to see more of a halter bred horse with substance in the WP ring instead of the peanut rolling, Appendix, long necks out there. I don't think he'll ever be a grand prix/show jumper but I'm pretty sure that's not why you got him! ;) Actually if he was any thicker in the leg he would look heavy, if he's an easy keeper you'll have to watch it, like any horse. My mare needs to seriously drop a few pounds before we work her more. She's recovering from a leg injury and she's packing it on. Halter/Appendix bred fatty, her legs are a tad thinner than his and she's almost 15, super sound, and a super trail horse! I also don't think he's downhill much if at all, just a nice round QHish butt.

I don't know about WP. We'd lap our competition a few times in the ring LOL he's so quick!
And no, no jumping for us. He'd jump and I'd hit the dirt haha an english saddle would do me no good "Where's the horn on this thing!?" I can see it now! ;)
Cisco is an easy keeper so I have to watch him. I haven't been able to start him on his workout schedule yet because of all the rain we've had but hopefully I can soon and burn off some of the "fluff" and have more muscle than fat on him. Muscle pulls those hilly trails better than fat does.

LMAO. Well, I'm a bit chubby in the barrel too. She's a very easy keeper. We don't feed hay/grain in the summer because we rotate pasture. She usually drops down a little in the winter and might need to gain a little bit come spring. But once the grass pops up, she packs on the pounds. Same with my Spanish Mustang/Curly cross. He is so fat, we had to get a grazing muzzle for him. And then he stands with his butt facing you and pouting whenever he has it on. He's such a child sometimes. LoL

OP's horse is nowhere near as bad as that REALLY poor one posted, BUT that's still not enough bone to support the horse's considerable muscle mass. Consider my horse - anglo arab, so bred from two "lighter" breeds, but he's 15.1 and I would BET his bone measures far more substantial than OP's horse. I've been told it's "adequate" for his height and weight - not "plenty", but "adequate".

Yes, IMO the grey appendix is also light on bone. I wouldn't say worse, because he's not as thick through the body OR as heavily muscled as the paint, but he is definitely light on bone.

IMO the appy is "adequate" rather than thick. I hate seeing chunky built horses with fine legs, it's not a conformation that lends itself to long-term soundness.

You want to see thick bone, look at the English (Gypsy, mostly, and some others) cobs. THEY are thick. More bone than strictly necessary for their weight. Why? Because they're expected to be the family horse, strong enough to carry grown men but small enough that children can saddle and mount.

Bear in mind a halter horse fitted for halter well enough to succeed at the upper levels won't be flexible in its muscles simply due to sheer muscle mass - so, you want him to do well at halter, AND performance, maybe performance halter would be a better path to go down.

For the record I'm not anti-halter at all, I just don't like what the AQHA (and to an extent, the equivalent in Australia) has done to the breed. We OWN a QH, he has significant soundness problems, and guess what? Tiny feet, less bone than my Anglo, and at least two inches taller - and significantly wider. We don't have the problem here to the same extent as can be found in the US but it IS still a problem.

And I think OP's horse is better than some Australian QH stallions, but that's still not enough bone.

You certainly would have from some of us. Adequate bone and hooves in relation to weight is a very important conformation consideration. Whether a horse is halter bred or not is not relevant to the equation other than many halter horses suffer from insufficient bone and hooves for their weight.

Bone thickness is not, however, a full measure of the adequacy of bone strength. Arabs in particular, have very dense bone and do not require the same thickness, and their dense bone and hard hooves are one reason that, in general of course, they can carry more weight as a percentage of their bodyweight than most full sized horses...

Well, I'm very careful not to get him too large because I personally hate the look of "typical" halter horses. I want to be able to show him in a halter class and then saddle up and ride in a cake walk and most halter horses can't do that. The cinch would pinch too much fat! Lol but Cis is a very strong guy and very sturdy on those "tooth picks" and I think that is the only thing that he gained from being thrown out into a pasture when he was a yearling and never touched again for 5 years. He could grow and develope naturally vs. being stalled 24/7 and fed until he looked like a swollen fish.

He maybe has some halter bloodlines but not what I would consider as the more notable ones.I wouldn't be classifying him as a Halter horse. Conformationally at halter while he may do ok at a local level showing,I couldn't see him doing much at breed level.I would classify him more as an general all round horse Has the conformation & pedigree that suggest he could do a variety of disciplines but nothing points to something he should really excelling at.Best to just try him out in things you would like to do see where his strong points lie & follow up on that.. Incidently has he been tested for hypp? The sires side of pedigree carries HYPP.