Is he good enough for showing?

I'm thinking of showing my SB gelding Luca in-hand. I trained standing still with him and here's one of the pics. Can someone thoroughly describe his conformation and say whether he's good enough for the show ring or not? He seems to have a slight 'ewe neck' but I'm doing some exercises to fix that. So...is he good enough? I think he's a nice looking horsey but what about you guys? What do you think?

http://i1168.photobucket.com/albums/...ps76b3f761.jpg

http://i1168.photobucket.com/albums/...psc185851b.jpg

And here he is from behind (he's kinda standing on a weird angle though)
http://i1168.photobucket.com/albums/...psab5c3c1a.jpg

Oops that's 3 pics

It would depend on the competition but I would say if he is well broke then I would gear more towards riding classes than halter. Besides his neck he has quite a large head. I wasn't sure if SB was saddle bred or something else? But local fun shows would be fine for halter

SB for Standardbred....
So his head is too big, you say? :(
Oh well...
He is still a bit skinny and he needs a lot more muscle...
And no he's not well broke, I've just started him under the saddle.


Can I somehow improve his appearance?
He's only 6 by the way and he used to be a pacer

What kind of showing would you like to do? If you're wanting to do flat classes in a discipline, I can't imagine why he couldn't do a few classes once you've gotten him better broke and get some weight/muscle on him. He has the classic standardbred head but a fairly well built body with a nice shouder. Take your time with him and let him do lots of long and low work, hill work, etc before moving on to anything. I'll bet he will look great once he's conditioned and he has such a sweet face!

Don't worry about his appearance too much, many people arent a fan of standardbreds because of their 'clunky' look but he can still be a sucessful show horse!

By the way, the correct abbreviation for standardbreds is generally STB, so that everyone knows the breed that you are talking about :)

I have a Standy too (:
Born a pacer, but never raced.

He definitely had that STB build! He's a cutie, nice color!!

Since you just started him under saddle, I understand that lacking topline

If you want to show him in hand, go ahead. (though some judges also go on the horse's looks so our Standies don't get too much praise)

This is my mare, we just went to a few shows this summer.

Idk about your boy, but in hand would be difficult for us because of her enormous stride (makes me look like I'm leaping with her)

Oh I forgot to say at the show that I want to enter him in, there's special classes JUST for STB's! So yeah, he'll have a better chance

Well then by all means, enter him! If not for winning, for the experience. Showing can give young horses tons of stimuli to encounter and can be very rewarding experiences. Just don't take him before you know that his ground manners are impeccable, just to be on the safe side. Maybe even just take him to the show ground to watch for a day, to acclimate him to the sounds and stuff!

Oh and I've trained him to walk right next to me, with his head next to my shoulder and he has good ground manners