Pretty girl 
Neck appears short because she has a long back.
Body s/b measured in thirds & her midsection is long compared to fore & hind ends.
Update #2
Ok so it’s only been a couple of days but there is much to share. First, the positive: she was so brave today!! We walked 2/3 of the way to the arena without stopping, then had a few stops but ultimately got into the arena, turned around, went on a little exploration around the back of the indoor to show her the outdoor (she was very intrigued and went willingly with much sniffing along the way - not dragging her into a new situation she couldn’t handle or anything like that). We also went to the end of the driveway at her behest and then I let her hand graze her way back. We have been hand grazing every day and I think that’s making a difference. This was her best day yet since the pausing began!
Also, very proud of her for how she reacted (or didn’t react) to a tarp over a parked camper billowing in the wind a few feet away from her - she glanced at it for half a second and then was completely unconcerned, didn’t even do a micro-spook. It’s a good example of what I mean about her being brave with things that spook a lot of other horses but prone to generalized nervousness.
The bad news is that she’s apparently also stopping in her tracks and refusing to leave the barn for the barnhands, and usually the slippery one who changed her feed without telling me and believes in bullying horses into submission lets the horses out in the morning. I heard this from one of the barnhands I get on really well with - the ‘granddad’ of one of the boarded horses here - who is gentle with her and coaxes her out with carrots. I’m visiting her everyday (as I do anyway) and working on this and I’m just hoping I can fix it ASAP so she doesn’t have a bad experience with the other, feed-changing barnhand. I do not like this woman and I do not trust her around my horse.
My instructor visited yesterday and picked up on some soreness around L3/L4 and she’s very stiff on one side/moderately stiff on the other for carrot stretches. She also was very sore toward the top of the gluteus superficialis. I’m wondering if the back pain is making her anticipate re: saddle being put on her and that’s adding to anxiety in the crossties. The saddle fitter is hopefully coming out next week to re-evaluate her saddle (I worked with this same fitter in choosing the saddle) and potentially adjust it to rule that out. Also wondering if general stress may be contributing to the tension.
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Oh, I know! She definitely has a long back and it can make her legs look short too, but her neck is actually proportionally a little long, believe it or not. It’s hard to take a pic of her where she doesn’t look like a giraffe, and she puts it to good use, too - I recently (as in yesterday) had to convince her to not go for some delectable “tree stars” from one of the trees out front while I was grooming her, lol, because God knows she could reach them!!
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You don’t want to hear this opinion and are free to ignore it.
Another barn may be a better fit for you and another instructor may not agree that this horse is suitable for you. A horse with a known history. Not a maybe this and may that and maybe a convoluted tale of a 4H kid in the 10-12 years, it should have been going under saddle. Sale barn probably knows as little about the horses history as OP does. Not too sure what instructor thinks make this a suitable first owned horse.
Also JMHO but not seeing glaringly obvious TB in photo. Seeing lighter boned QH, Appendix or breeding stock APHA. Without papers, tattoo or chip, who knows. Age too, who knows? Lets not forget our experienced owner poster who rescued Bo, represented as 9-10 ish, now believed to be 20ish. Stretches the suitability issue pretty thin.
OP has no idea what this mare has been doing in the 10+ years she should have been in work. For an Adult, that raises many questions in trying to set goals and follow a plan. Including if mare will stay sound in regular work. Its risky buying one like this. It is a concern there may be back problems showing up now that OP is riding her more. Might answer how mare got where she was when OP was convinced to buy her.
Think I bought 2 very similar to this one. Both turned out bad mistakes.Trusted the wrong people.
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The other barns that are within driving distance of me are a worse fit. On the whole I love it here and it has the best amenities in the area for the horse, and the human-centric stuff isn’t bad either. The owner and BM are also kind and very very knowledgeable and go out of their way to help, which definitely was not the case at the other two places that had openings. Even if it weren’t the greatest place ever, it’s literally not an option in my situation to change barns because nothing’s available.
See the listed reasons upthread as to why I’m keeping her. Instructor has agreed that this isn’t a great situation and that we need to put work into her, and she’d rather I be having a different experience too, but she’s agreed that this is not an unsalvageable situation or a particularly dangerous first horse (INB4 ‘herdbound can be dangerous’, ‘any unpredictable/unknown horse is dangerous’, etc: there’s always a level of danger in this sport and she ultimately spooks and acts out much much less than the horses I’m used to riding, doesn’t take off, isn’t explosive, isn’t aggressive, etc.)
TBQH I anticipated at least one person saying that when I posted the pic - it’s not really a great representation of her, conformation evaluation speaking. That’s as close as she comes to looking quarter horsey.
I specifically asked two separate vets in different states with no connection to each other to look at her teeth and give their opinion on her age; both said mid to early teens.
RE: suitability, needing to sell her, etc: You have the right to your opinion but ultimately given that she’s continuing to make forward progress - and the reasons I’ve detailed as to why the soul-searching ‘do I sell her’ question was ultimately answered with ‘no’ upthread - I’m not selling her, and I started this thread asking for advice on working with her, not people’s calls on whether or not to do that. Maybe you’re right and the people who have said this situation can’t be fixed are right and you’ll get vindication on update #55 or something with me selling her because I have no other option, but we’re far from there yet and are actively heading in the opposite direction.
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Update 3
Starting off with some great news! Ginger will now leave the barn with me! She doesn’t walk astride me on the way out yet, so what I do is step back so I’m standing about 6ft away (outside of the barn) and she’ll drop her head and follow along to come join me. We are walking from the barn to the arena without any stops now, which is a huge relief. Haven’t ridden her yet because of the back pain/rebuilding tolerance to being in the arena, saddler coming tomorrow to adjust her saddle. The arena does however seem to be the furthest limit of her ‘away from the barn’ threshold, so we’ve been repeating this (or going into the arena, doing a lap, and then going ‘home’) for the past few days as opposed to advancing. Going to the outdoor arena is definitely too much for her right now.
I have noticed that when she reaches the end of her 50ft trail ride ‘rope’ she tends to vocalize. On the whole she’s been more vocal lately.
I’m going to start working on building more respect for my personal space so that she doesn’t invade it when she’s inattentive because of anxiety, because she’s been pushy - not in a deliberate sense but in a ‘not minding where I am’ sense when she’s in her stall and hellbent on seeing where a noise came from.
She’s been on the non-racehorse feed for 1 week now. Got some Linda Tellington-Jones books and have been reading through some different ones on colt starting and groundwork as well as continuing with the WS.
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Linda Tellington-Jones has a lot of videos, too, if you’re having trouble understanding exactly what to do. A visit with a practitioner might help, giving you a “lesson” and diagnosing your mare.
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Update 4
Yesterday the saddler came out and she said the saddle fits great. No adjustments were truly needed but she did add a little more flocking to raise the tree off Ginger’s back a little more. She agreed that she definitely is in pain and doesn’t want to be saddled.
I got on her for the first time in 2wks or so while saddler was holding the lead rope and it was definitely not the best idea I’ve ever had. I didn’t bring her into the arena because of her separation anxiety (I wanted to do the fitting where she could see her buddy) but she did start to swing around and prance in place and was generally getting quite worked up so I quickly dismounted. Fortunately I never get on her without a helmet and body protector so if she’d thrown me it would have been mitigated, but it still rattled my confidence and felt like a big setback.
Saddler gave me a really kind pep talk and wished me luck. She said the next step is probably a chiro and assured me that usually they don’t require multiple ongoing sessions, which had been my impression leading me to believe I couldn’t afford chiropractic treatment. On monday I’m going to call the vet to have her out to evaluate the pain and possibly do a one time adjustment (she is also certified as a chiro).
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Sorry to hear about the setback.
I believe you said you didn’t do any radiographs in the PPE, but if I were you, I’d get X-rays of her back and neck, before shelling out for chiropractic work.
Have you had any successful rides on her since you moved her to your barn?
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Sooooooo…
You got on while horse was in the aisleway?
Helmet or not, this was a very bad idea.
Aside from you being dumped & injured, even on a packed dirt aisle, horse “prancing” could easily have led to horse falling in the aisle.
Shame on saddlefitter for agreeing to this dangerous action.
Please consider thinking through things you’re doing in handling this horse.
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As she said.
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I didn’t get on inside the barn and I would never do something so dangerous. She gets severe anxiety alone in the barn so we don’t go in there alone to begin with. I mounted on the grass in front of the barn, where she could still see her buddy for emotional support. Please don’t make uncharitable assumptions - nowhere in the post did I say anything about the barn or the aisle, just that I didn’t walk her all the way to the arena.
I assure you, I think through the things I do when I handle her. If I didn’t care about my safety I wouldn’t be wearing a kevlar vest to protect my ribs every time I get on her, and I’ve been around horses for multiple years and have never had an accident, though I’ve had close calls that would have been bad if I hadn’t been watching out.
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Yeah, that’s what I’m considering, especially because I shelled out early on for a pretty generous insurance policy. On Monday I’m going to call them after I talk to the vet and ask about the claims process for radiography.
I have! Quite a few, actually. She’s generally quite safe and ‘normal’ under saddle, just unbalanced - but in light of needing to take a big step back for groundwork and the new back pain concerns, I haven’t been in the saddle for about 2wks because I don’t want to exacerbate any of the issues she’s dealing with.
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I look forward to hearing what the vet says, and hope there’s a fix for her sore back.
OT, but what does your screen name mean?
I’ll bet she has a lizard named “Hemi”
It’s the scientific name for the African Fat Tailed Gecko!
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CLOSE! His name is actually Camille, lol! Otherwise you hit the nail on the head.
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Also, mini-update: today I walked her to the arena with only a couple little baby-pauses - ones where I probably could have coaxed her forward but chose to let her look at whatever it was for a few moments - and we did our first in-arena groundwork since the balking situation hit critical mass! It was just navigating through an L made out of poles, and we did it in the half of the arena closest to the door, which I kept open so she could see her paddock and the other horses. She was initially quite nervous but once she had a task and became aware that if she navigated it without touching the poles she could get a click and a treat she calmed down a little and started to focus more. She did it successfully quite a few times and tomorrow I may try to introduce backing in a straight line (she already backs up really well) so she doesn’t get bored. The L was definitely useful for getting her to slow down at the walk, which has been an ongoing issue - she speedwalks like you wouldn’t believe.
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If you are a science person, check out Equitation Science. Science based horse training.
But as an aside, I sometimes judge or give clinics to 4H…some of those horses are only half a$$ed broke, and are trained through exhaustion/sustained helplessness. Your horse might have horsey PTSD from that type of training. That said, I am glad you aren’t sending her to a colt starter…they often use sustained helplessness too (patience pole, tying them around…), and it might further damage her.
Have you had her teeth done?
Good luck! With patience I am sure you will be eventually looking back at this with a sense of accomplishment!
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I missed that she was sending mare to a colt starter, thought she loved current trainer and in the only barn that met her needs?
Colt starter cant fix bad back though…neither can chiro without additional diagnostics to identify cause of problems and avoid causing harm with adjustments that aggravate instead of ease. And Im a huge chiro fan once problem is correctly identified and its not used as a shot in the dark that could do more harm then good while throwing good money after bad.
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