Love your horse’s genuine smile!!! 
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Got it!
I always like to suggest 55 Corrective Exercises for Horses for good ideas to work on different things. you could play around with it and see what seems like a good fit for your guy. 
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So sorry!
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Look at his face! He looks genuinely happy to be with you. I love his ears!
Yeah. We’re more likely to incorrectly guess your sex than the horse’s here.
I’d suggest keeping those pics off reddit. 2 good-looking dudes is probably too much for them over there. 
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Aww thanks!
Haha idk what I was thinking really. I just have the app and saw they have a horse forum and thought “why not” 
Brutal
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Well this has made my day and I haven’t even had coffee yet
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That’s putting it gently. 
I learned the hard way that Reddit is not the forum for intelligent discourse. I was run off a thread there about a decade ago over osselets, but when I went and did some searching of those folks’ profiles found out that the ones with the loudest opinions weren’t even in their 20s and had no appreciable real life experience with race horses.
COTH is much better, the wealth of knowledge on this forum across all topics - from engineering to pounding fence posts in, from riding tempis to swapping out a rusted brakeline - and most folk here want to share their knowledge in a way that is altruistic.
Regarding your boy, though I don’t think your first photo is the best for conformation analysis, I agree with others that his back is not foundationally too long - and he is not over at the knee. In either event, you ride the horse, not the photograph. How the horse makes you feel when you first pull into the barn - that is what matters.
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Coming back to this to address these ridiculous points made by people who clearly don’t know how a horse should be put together
The back is the end of the withers to the beginning of the loin, and you need space between where the last rib joins the spine (NOT where it bows out) and the loin, to be the proper weight-bearing surface. There’s a great saddle space here, with room, but nothing like “long”
NO idea what they meay by “long topline”. You WANT a nice long smooth topline from poll to tail
Over at the knee? Do they even know what that means? A straight leg is by definition NOT over at the knee. A leg with larger knee bones is NOT over at the knee even as it makes the very front outline have a little bumpout. Besides, he knees are pretty flat, so…
Neck tied in low? Are they even looking at the right horse? If it’s above the point of the shoulder, it’s not low. If they’re looking at that little dip in front of the wither, well, they need to look at a LOT more TBs, and also learn that you don’t look there for “tied in low”
Ewe neck - lmao!! If it’s not tied in low, then by definition it can’t be ewe-necked. And most low tie-ins aren’t ewe-necked anyway, it’s just not a very common fault. MOST people see even the slightest bit of extra muscling on the bottom of the neck, or lack of muscling along the top, and declare “ewe neck” They probably googled it, and saw the (current) AI blurb about that which says “a horse’s neck conformation where the muscles on the bottom of the neck are more developed than the muscles on the top.” which just makes me 
There is SO MUCH bad information about conformation out there, very outdated, very wrong. It’s really had to find a good picture of a true ewe neck, and I can’t find the one I used to have Trust me, it is NOT about muscling, other than a ewe neck will never have proper muscling because it can’t, it’s not shaped right, and can’t be used right.
Weak pelvis - oh lord, they really need a good education on conformation
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Well, gosh y’all – got all the head pats I didn’t know I needed 🫶
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I saw a post on Reddit this AM with someone asking “Is my horse in pain?” and they posted pictures of the horse’s face. As in, trying to determine soundness issues by posting a picture of the horse’s face.
Naw.
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Eh I actually think there’s merit to that. If a horse chronically has a worried eye, pinched nostril, stiff ears, etc. I’d be wondering about general discomfort to active pain as well. Context matters a lot but if you had a previously soft eyed horse that suddenly seems ouchy and his expression is very concerned, it would add fuel to my worry.
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A horse easily indicates pain/discomfort/worry on his face, but most people don’t see it, or even know to look for it. There’s a difference between a very soft relaxed eye, nostril, and ear, compared to one of worry, or of pain, or of fear.
That doesn’t mean he’s lame or otherwise unsound, as colic, ulcers,etc causing pain, will cause nose/ears/eyes to change. But if those 3 are very relaxed at liberty, and are showing differences other than concentration while being worked then yes, you could assume he’s unsound, though ulcers, poor tack fit, bit interfering with teeth, etc might also be an issue
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Yep. If they’re just looking at muscling, then almost every OTTB recently off the track is going to have upside down muscling.
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Agree, if you know your horse
Well and notice their normal
Expressions, you can usually
“Read” the face/expression.
Hospice has a chart showing
Various facial expressions
That can be matched to the
Amount of pain that a patient is
Experiencing.
This really helps when the patient is non-verbal.
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two handsome dudes there.
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