[WildLittleWren]

Would anyone mind critiquing my 14 year old APHA mare? I have mainly used her for trails and hacking around, however I have recently had the desire to pursue dressage again. It has been about 13 years since I competitively rode and showed dressage however I know it improves EVERY horse and rider and am interested in bringing her to whatever level she can physically handle. She has a lot of holes in her training and that is another reason I have taken her back to square one. She has been allowed all her life to just amble straight down the trail. As a result I have started from square one as she doesn't have any inkling what a circle is, bending, contact with the bit, using her hind rnd , and was pulling through the bit when asked to slow and whoa. I now am working from the ground up and she is learning and coming around nicely. At the point where I have progressed as far as we can together, I will be looking for a horse more bred, built, and suited for dressage (obviously way down the line).

Anyways, I have a decent idea of her more obvious conformational flaws but would really like everyone's opinions. For the dressage riders out there, what areas will I most likely see issues or have obstacles with as she starts her training? What are some exercises or tips to work with her on to help her along while keeping her conformation in mind?

Also as a side note, she is completely out of shape and aside from a nice once a week trail ride at the walk, up until last weekend I have honestly not been riding or conditioning her so we are just beginning training and conditioning together (she is under muscles and not in shape at all..but we are starting towards that). Thanks so much!

Also, I have no idea why the photos are upside down and sideways as they are showing right side up on my tablet ughhh! Anyone know how to fix this?!?

ETA: Photos fixed
-The Moderating Team

 

[Avna]

You can try resizing them with photo-editing software on your home computer. Usually the sideways thing is from the photo being too high resolution (72 ppi is good) and/or the measurements exceed the space.

Don't know about upside down though.

 

[Avna]

She appears to toe out front and rear, and from this angle her shoulder looks like it could use more slope. But the photos are not good for judging. You want your horse standing square with her head up, on a flat level surface. Make sure her legs are square under her so her angles can be seen accurately. All photos should be square to the horse and show the whole horse.

 

[Smilie]

Agree that the pictures need to be right side up, with the horse square in all of them, although the one side view is pretty good, (last pic) and also the one where she is standing square on her hind feet (4th pic)
She does toe out in front, but need better picture to see if the deviation is just at fetlock level, or starts at the knees.
Hind legs look okay to me, as all horses actually have the toes of the hind feet, toe slightly out, as this helps them clear their belly. Halter horses are trimmed so that the hind hooves point dead straight ahead.
The side view is somewhat far away, but she looks fairly well balanced, with a nice long under line and short back.
Neck ties in a bit low and head is somewhat un feminine, but over all, a fairly nicely put together horse

 

[Zexious]

It looks like you're uploading your photos directly from your computer; try instead uploading them to an image hosting site, then inserting the URL here <3 They should appear exactly they do on the hosting site if you do it that way.

 

[Yogiwick]

She looks great. Well cared for and CLEAN (I'm impressed!).

Decently put together over all but not perfect. Sounds like you're aware of a lot of her issues, none of which are horrible.

I will say dressage wise aside from specific issues her conformation is DEFINITELY stock horse, so something like being downhill/on the forehand while that may not be a bad thing for what she is bred for is the opposite of what a dressage horse is bred for. I think you will find her natural ability at that discipline will bottom out long before she has any issues due to poor conformation like toeing out.

So basically a nice horse overall but sort of the opposite from what you would want discipline wise. However, as you said dressage has many benefits (and you don't have to compete to do dressage) and I don't at all want to discourage you from trying it. Any decently built horse has an opportunity to compete at the lower levels and I doubt you are going to jump in far beyond that..at least for now . And FWIW there are plenty of horses built for dressage that don't do well at the upper levels, so wouldn't overthink it. Go and have fun.

 

[Smilie]

She might be a tad down hill, but while being downhill might be a fault of some stock horses, it is not a general fault, nor accepted good conformation
Many sprint horses are built downhill, including quite a few TBs
I think for lower level dressage, she should be fine, and the OP does plan on 'up grading', when the time comes