Thursday, April 25, 2013

critique this horse please

A friend of my mom's is offering me a horse.  She sent me some pictures, and I would like to see what you guys think of her.  I am not that good a judge of equine conformation.

She is an AQHA mare 1998 model.  Her registered name is Showtime No HBO. You can see her pedigree on allbreedpedigree.com  if you are curious. What I can tell you is that she has Impressive on both sides.  She is HYPP negative.

 The pros for her is that she is fairly well broke, she can side pass and back up nicely,(but does not neck rein) is calm on the trails, she loads easily, stands for farrier, utd on shots.    Her owner says that although she has never offered to buck or kick, she still would not consider her for a novice rider. (fair enough)

The cons is that she can be rude and bossy.  She says that when she lunges her she does a lot of ear pinning, and head shaking. But a when put in her place by a strong leader she settles right down. That is why she says she wouldn't put her with a novice.  This horse will take over in a heart beat if she thinks she can.

She said that she got her as a rescue who was terribly thin. She has had her since Jan and has been working on getting some weight back on her.  I have pictures of what she looks like now and what she looked like as a young horse. I guess she has a few halter points, not that it matters.

This is when she was younger, I'm not sure what age. 

This is what she looks like now.
It seems to me like her feet could use some work
but can't tell for sure and don't have any close ups.
Owner says she is sound though. 




She kind of looks like she has a grumpy face to me
But it could just be the pic itself. 




I assure you that I am not bringing this horse home to my house. But as it turns out my very good friend Jamie is moving to Oregon, which is where this mare is. For the first time in years she will be living in a place where she can have a horse again. She is not a novice rider, by any means so this girl might be a good fit for her.

Again, I am asking for honest opinions on what you guys see, or don't see.  I look at her and think that she isn't too bad.  Not drop dead gorgeous, but not bad.

10 comments:

  1. the pics aren't terrific, but nothing is jumping off the page screaming "oh hell no! " especially in that she is regaining weight after being thin,If she is sound and sane I would take a chance on her

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    1. That is kind of what I thought too. Not a "ooh pretty!" but also not a "No way!"

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  2. Hahaha, she sounds fun. Like, even though your friend is a good rider, make sure she knows how to be 100% boss. Because I know riders who are amazing, but don't have the brute confidence to take the upper hand.

    So, the thing that I noticed from her young pic to the older picture is her booty. She definitely needs some hill work to try and get that thing rounded back up. However, idk if that could be a sign of an underlying problem? Like weak stifles? I highly doubt it, but that's just one thing I thought of.

    I agree about her feet looking a little long, like platypus feet. But of course, that could just be the picture, and proper farrier work could help that (not saying that your moms friend doesn't have a proper farrier)

    Teehee, other than that, she looks like an honory little brat, which of course are my favorite ;)

    If your friend is the certain type of rider that likes that type of horse (just like Liam used to be) I would absolutely go for it!!!!

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    1. Jamie is...well Jamie, she has balls the size of Texas! If you click on her name in the post you will go to the story of the day when she decided to try to ride Trax bareback.

      I suspect that her weak butt might just be from lack of exercise and having been really thin a few months before this picture. On the other hand, with her breeding, anything is possible.

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  3. I'd go along with that opinion although, I always wonder why a horse who rides nice and is sound isn't marketable. Remember there just "ain't no such thing as a free horse". Personally, I would look real hard at her feet and I am not just saying that because I am foot obsessed (although I am:)) As you know only too well from your own experience with Sassy, these QH's are VERY prone to navicular problems and she does have the body type for it. I can't tell you from these pictures if she has problems with her feet or if they just need some good trimming (which they certainly do). There are several things about her feet that I do not like, but there is no way to say if it is a real problem without seeing her move. Any chance of some video?

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    1. I don't know that she isn't marketable, she was just offered to me first "as a favor" because "I'm doing such great things with my horses". I highly suspect that my mom has her hand in this somehow, even if not intentionally.

      Yes I am extremely leery of free horses...Sassy is my "freebie" HA!

      On the other hand this gal has been partners with my mom in their Labrador Kennel for 20 years, and I can't see her risking that relationship just to get rid of a horse. So I suspect that she is being honest when she says that she is sound. I do find myself questioning if she would truly know a horse that is exhibiting early signs of lameness or not.

      I will have to see if she can get me some video and I will also ask her about those feet. I sure wish I was closer to her so I could see her in person.

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  4. Thank you everyone for your input. It helps a lot, really!

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  5. I think she's put together nicely. It almost looks like she's standing a little downhill in those first two pictures, so I think that could be making her hind end look a little wonky. Her hooves do look a bit long, but it sounds like you can trust her current owner if she says she's sound. Her personality sounds pretty typical if you ask me... most horses will get away with whatever they can if allowed to, so as long as she's not dangerous or mean in any way, I'd take a chance on her. She looks sweet to me! :)

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  6. I'd want to have her tested for PSSM before I even considered taking her. My sister's horse is halter bred with Impressive and he has it. He's totally unusable and he's not very old at all. It runs pretty heavily in the halter QH lines. It causes pissy behavior, especially at the lope, because it hurts them to work. Sometimes they get to where they see you coming and know it's going to hurt, and they are pissy from the get-go. But after having Tonka and knowing my sister's horse, I'm pretty paranoid about PSSM. It does cause muscle wasting like you see in the pics. But then so does poor care.

    Her left front leg looks deformed in the last pic. Like maybe the knee has arthritis and it's bowed outward or bent funny. Maybe she's just standing funny I'd want a pic from straight ahead and I'd pay special attention to whether the other hoof is larger than that one. That's a good sign that she's consistently favoring the leg with the smaller hoof.

    As for behavior - she sounds like a horse I wouldn't like to have. But if your friend likes the sound of her and likes a challenge, maybe they'd be a good match. I know myself, and I might be tempted to think I could build a bond with the horse and instill some discipline and get rid of that bad behavior. But that's like getting married while thinking that you're going to change the guy.

    Without enlarging the pics, I think she looks like she has a cute face, and maybe a worried looking eye.

    I don't see anything that makes me go wow, but some of the best horses I've known have been older mares who wouldn't have won a beauty contest.

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    1. Thank you Andrea, I have never even heard of PSSM, so I will have to google it now and learn more.
      Interesting that you should say that about the front leg, as I wondered the same thing and almost asked her to send me a straight on pic. But then decided against it since I have no idea if my friend is interested in her or not. Jamie will be here today and we will discuss it then. If she is interested then I will get more pics and a video.
      Thank you

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