Hey y’all! So many knowledgeable folks here and yall teach me a lot. Last year, got interesting feedback on my boy but he was growing and undermuscled. He’s developed and come into his own a lot, so would love folks who know about conformation and proportion to tell me what you see. Thanks so much 🫶
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He’s clearly well-cared for! I think his hind end build is problematic for hard use (little angulation) and may dispose him to arthritis younger rather than older, but that can be managed depending on how he is used. His attitude and aptitude will guide you too.
What are your plans for him?
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Thanks for the insight! He’s a playtime pony 
We do nothing seriously. I ride 3x a wk – lots of trails, gymnastics and poles and some jumping in the ring, and hunter paces spring and fall. I’ve hit shows just for his exposure. I hope to be at this with him for 20 years plus 
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That sounds like an ideal life plan for you both! All the fun - maybe competitive pleasure trail rides? They have obstacles but nothing crazy unless you REALLY want to pursue it.
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That’s about my biggest nit pick, too: he’s a bit straight behind. If he’s staying barefoot I’d keep an eye out to not let those heels get underrun behind. I feel like so many issues in the hind end start with underrun heels and janky internal angles behind.
Have fun together!
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Thanks! Ok that’s a great thing to discuss with my farrier – yeah he’s barefoot.
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He’s cute!!
3 things that are the biggest to evaluate, which tell you how functionally uphill a horse is, how light his front end is and how much lift and push his hind end can provide:
1 - pillar of support. Draw a vertical line through the “crease” of the forearm. It should come out well in front of the withers, and bisect the back 1/4 of the hoof. His is in front of the withers, could be more, it’s not terrible. It’s coming out behind his feet here, but I think the angle of the photo - looks to be a bit behind his midsection - and maybe his toe is on a bit of a lump, makes it look less ideal than it is. This is why really good conformation pics are needed, but they’re also not that easy to get lol So, neither are bad
2 - neck emergence out of the shoulder. The bottom needs to come out above the point of the shoulder (his does) but not TOO high (his isn’t). This gives depth where most of the muscling is, without making it bottom-heavy. He does have a typical TB wither dip, but if you smoothed out his taller wither (which will likely get a bit taller still as he matures) you can see it’s actually a nice smooth line going into his back
3 - LS gap. Lumbosacral gap, where the lumbar spine pointing backwards and the thoracic spine pointing forwards meet. There has to be a gap there. That needs to be above the point of the hips, and his looks pretty much there. This dictates how supple his hips are, how well he can get under himself, how much power he can generate
So for his Big Three, he’s pretty good. He’s not quite as high with his pillar of support, but I’d like to see a better picture to say for sure. It’s not bad at all.
After that you get into things like cannon bone length - short is good, he’s great. Hock angulation is fine. He’s a little straighter than ideal, but still with obvious angulation. I worry less about a bit of straightness when what’s above it is great, and he’s got a good engine. His hip is deep, and will likely get a bit deper in the next few years. A 4yo TB isn’t done growing in multiple ways.
Neck length is great.
Overall he should be pretty athletic.
But yes, the feet need attention, from what I can see, especially the hinds, but potentially also the LF, and maybe the RF. Underrun needs will “kill” a horse faster than a lot of things
If you want a better hoof critique, here’s what we need
Good Hoof Photos - How to take Good Hoof Photos
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Wow thanks so much! And an encouraging report Advice on feet? I’ll put him in shoes if that’ll help his longterm health and soundness. He’s barefoot to support just that, not to save $$$
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Shoes don’t automatically help this, but SOMEtimes they can speed things up. More info is needed. Maybe this horse tends towards underrun heels and just has to be trimmed a bit more often - how often is he trimmed now?
Usually, this is a trim issue, especially in hind feet. But not always. My old TB, the real JB, had no trouble with heels. My current TB does tend to crush her hind heels, oddly enough, and I’m constantly also taking down vertical toe height. Her son is the same way. I don’t get it, neither have long pasterns or stand camped under on a regular basis, so…
I have another horse who has long, sloped pasterns in front, which strongly predispose his front heels to crushing and toes getting long, so his “fix” is trims every 2-3 weeks, max 4. But your guy doesn’t have long or sloped pasterns anywhere
So we’d really need a good ground level lateral view, standing on a hard flat surface, to see what’s what. A good solar view helps too (see link)
What I’m getting at is, if the trim is the problem here, shoes won’t help He IS standing a bit forward with his hinds here - is this a regular thing?
If there are some hind end issues, even small, maybe sore SI for example, that cause him to stand just a bit camped under, that could cause heels to crush a bit, and trimming can’t help that, it can only manage things with very frequent trimming
But if trimming is causing the underrun heels, that can make the hind end a bit sore, so they stand a bit camped under, which just causes more heel issues, more soreness, etc.
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