Conformation Opinions

[beowulf]

agree with JBRP… nothing to worry about WRT pedigree… you have to remember a lot of these catastrophic injuries are not because of structural issues, but because of the high impact of high-speed pursuits on juvenile/immature bones/structures.

i like what i see in this mare: is there a video?

i wouldn’t expect a gorgeous mover (i still really like the chestnut mare you linked) but i would expect a good canter and jump… all the right names in that pedigree…

btw, stopping very early is not always a red flag: plenty of trainers are able to recognize when a horse is too big or just not going to be competitive and they cut their losses.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

Because some of us do this often. I rarely PPE horses like this. I bring them home and turn out. Then have my own sport vet look them over. And often do base X-rays before I start retraining. It works for me but I own my farm.

[beowulf]

^ i do what BFNE does. i also keep my horses at the family farm. so it’s a risk i can afford to take. if i had to board, it wouldn’t work out.

i usually pick up a project in the fall, it’s usually a better time price-wise, lots of really nice quality horses go for fire-sale prices… i’ll give them the winter off from physical work, but will get their teeth done, chiro, and basic vet work (my vet goes over them for a ‘soundness eval’) as a baseline for going forward. i’ll spend the winter just working on their ground manners if they need it, otherwise they’re pretty much untouched until spring. gives them time to settle down from track life, gives them time to recover from any residual soreness or track tightness, and gives me time to correct their hoof angles and chiro.

by spring i always have a completely different horse. mine live out 24/7.

[csaper58]

I do think a lot of these horses with Native Dancer all over the pedigree lack durability.

I agree an experienced horse person with a trained eye and a pasture to let this mare mature in would be a great home for her.

The OP is a novice/first time(?) horse owner, and it sounds like he/she is going to board this horse, and wants something to begin riding straight away.

The OP doesn’t want to do a PPE, wants to take the owner’s and track vet(?) at their word on this horse’s soundness. If that decision is being made to save money…I’ll hold my tongue, sigh.

I am strongly urging that the OP get more info about this mare before making an important decision based mostly on emotion.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

I did not get the impression that the OP is a novice…they said they just wanted some educated opinions on conformation for their NEWEST project.

I got the feeling they just wanted educated opinions…not that they themselves didn’t know what they were looking at. And when looking at 2-3 year olds…it is good to poll people who see a lot of them because I will tell you…they WILL look different at 6-7 years old.

[csaper58]

I do get the impression the OP is very much a novice. At horses, and at life.

How does the OP know if anyone here knows what they are talking about? When opinions differ Op believes the opinion that most pleases them?

Why is ‘the trainer’ not included in decisions? Would you make a huge commitment based on internet advice of strangers if you had a trusted trainer?

And ‘We clicked, so I’m buying her’ with no PPE’? OP doesn’t even discuss the way the horse jogged, or post pics of her leg/feet? Because I’m betting all OP did was pet this horse, hand graze it, and look into it’s big brown eyes.

Too many more beginner mistakes to list.

Hope it all works out for the best.

[csaper58]

[QUOTE=RacetoEvent;8965273]
I’m not positive if this would belong in this section of the forum - if not, then mods - feel free to move me.

Anyways - I am currently hunting for my newest horse. I will be looking to do mid-upper level eventing with the horse (I myself haven’t yet begun eventing, but I do intend to work with a trainer to get both the horse and myself as far as possible). I am looking primarily at OTTBs, which always have and always will have a special place in my heart. I’ve got three tonight that I’ve got my eyes on - all of which are from CanterUSA.org. My eye is not currently very trained to spot conformation flaws aside from stifle placement, pastern length/angle, and the humerus length. So I do beg for tips to train my eye and opinions on the following horses’ conformation. How would they fare as eventers? Are there any conformation flaws with any of them, and would it possibly affect their futures?

My favorite - Comisario - a 2011 16.1HH gelding
https://canterusa.org/horses/12912/comisario/

Next favorite - First Choice - a 2008 16.1HH gelding
https://canterusa.org/horses/15071/first-choice/

Final favorite - Forester’s Hope - 2009 16.1HH mare
https://canterusa.org/horses/11230/foresters-hope/

I will update on whatever horse I spot next. Good day/night/whatever to everyone![/QUOTE]

Saving for reference.

[RacetoEvent]

Thank you again, everyone, for all of the input.

For the record, I am not a first-time horse owner. I’ve had two OTTB geldings before that I loved dearly (one of which I got directly off the track), but we definitely didn’t ‘click’ - we got along, but that was it. I will be boarding her, but it will be at a barn with a phenomenal atmosphere and 10 acres of pasture which she will be out on for the next 4-6 months. I will bring her in and work on groundwork, but no riding until she gets the chance to just be a horse and allow her mind to calm down from the track buzz.
One reason I am taking the owner and track vet’s word is because they are reputable (one of my friends who takes horses off the track and retrains them religiously swears by them and their horses) and my friend (the same one mentioned previously) was there with me. We did flex her legs, walk/trot her on both grass and pavement and she had no issues whatsoever.
Another reason I’m trusting their word is because they have about three other horses that started once-twice and they retired because they were too slow and just really didn’t want to race (but still sound).
If you are wondering why I posted my options for horses on here, it is simply because I want more than just one opinion on the conformation of each of them.

Alright, rant over. My apologies.

I do not mind her height, I myself am 5’9-ish and prefer horses over 16.2HH.

Tried to cover all of the recent posts, apologies if I missed one or two.

[csaper58]

[QUOTE=RacetoEvent;8970639]
I’m an idiot. Sorry.

http://imgur.com/ucpKagK
http://imgur.com/6Ef4rZZ
http://imgur.com/uqLV1DC
http://imgur.com/oPdYDO8[/QUOTE]

Is this horse set up the way an experienced person would stand it for a conformation eval?

The only eval one could make is it looks like a big sweet horse.

If these pics, and the pedigree, and the connections assurance that she past the vet, was all the info you had to go on could you commit to buying this horse?

[RizenPhoenix09]

I am with Beowulf here. The angle of the photo is not sufficient to give a fair evaluation of the horse’s conformation. Pleasant Colony (who is very hard to find these days - especially close in) and Mr. Prospector are my favorite bloodlines. I have always found incredible success with these sire lines. They are athletic, intelligent, good minded and devoted. The type that would run until it dropped for their person. I’ve owned (and trained) several PC’s and MP’s. Her dam side is nothing to sneeze at; solid horses there too. Very curious to see if she comes home with you. Please share any other photos.

[csaper58]

OP, I deleted my post because I was posting at the same time as you again.

My info was unnecessary as you have made a decision.

Congrats! Wishing you many happy hours in the saddle.

[RacetoEvent]

I do get the impression the OP is very much a novice. At horses, and at life.

How does the OP know if anyone here knows what they are talking about? When opinions differ Op believes the opinion that most pleases them?

Why is ‘the trainer’ not included in decisions? Would you make a huge commitment based on internet advice of strangers if you had a trusted trainer?

And ‘We clicked, so I’m buying her’ with no PPE’? OP doesn’t even discuss the way the horse jogged, or post pics of her leg/feet? Because I’m betting all OP did was pet this horse, hand graze it, and look into it’s big brown eyes.

Too many more beginner mistakes to list.

Hope it all works out for the best.

Pardon me - once again - as I rant.

I do get the impression the OP is very much a novice. At horses, and at life.

First - you are correct. I am young, but you are incorrect in the ‘horse-novice’ frame. I have had - like I said before - two OTTBs that I personally retrained. We did not mesh, though - there was just that brain block that didn’t allow us to reach what we should have been able to reach.

Why is ‘the trainer’ not included in decisions? Would you make a huge commitment based on internet advice of strangers if you had a trusted trainer?

I did say trainer. I used the wrong word. She does not train me, but instead gives her opinion on my riding, the horse in question, etc. She is experienced and she knows what she is doing, but I want more opinion than just hers on whatever horse I end up with.

And ‘We clicked, so I’m buying her’ with no PPE’? OP doesn’t even discuss the way the horse jogged, or post pics of her leg/feet? Because I’m betting all OP did was pet this horse, hand graze it, and look into it’s big brown eyes.

Third - That is not relatively what happened. I did not post pictures of feet or videos of jogging because I forgot to take them. Excuses, excuses, I know - but I was too busy with the horse itself to have been holding my phone the entire time I was with her.
She jogged well - not pretty - but there were no issues. She reached with each leg, no limp, no head bob. I had the owner jog her first, and then I did as well just to see how she was.
When we ‘clicked’, she headbutted me and just stood with her head on my chest. I couldn’t feel the ‘brain block’ that I was so used to with my geldings.

No offense to anybody if I somehow managed to.

[RacetoEvent]

Sorry - didn’t see your most recent post.

[csaper58]

Yup, timing and information gathering are often where the wheels come off.

Enjoy your big pretty girl, glad you found each other!

[RacetoEvent]

Thank you - once again, I am sorry for coming off as rude. I would delete the post, but it won’t let me.

[csaper58]

No worries.

As a new poster you should be aware there was an unsuccessful attempt to hack CoTH . The Mods and Tech are making some updates, and there is a thread on ways to work with the board till it’s fixed in the Help Forum.

Edited to Add

To Edit or Delete a post, place your cursor on Edit Post and right click once.

This opens a box, choose the ‘open link in new tab’ option. Open that tab and you can edit or delete. Close old tab.

This works for Reply With Quote also.

This works for my old Windows machine that does not have a mouse. Hope it helps you.

[beowulf]

i don’t think there is anything wrong with getting an outside opinion, ever. one of my favorite things about COTH is how accessible these opinions are, and fount of knowledge that many of these posters have… i mean, how incredibly lucky are we to have all of these horsemen, their experiences obtainable at a few stokes of a key?

good luck OP, and keep us updated. she looks lovely.

[SEPowell]

RacetoEvent, this looks like a really nice filly. I agree with others, and I’m sure you know this, she’ll probably benefit from growing time.

Until racing has a thorough understanding of the training practices that lead to unsoundness and the genetics that lead to unsoundness, it is pretty hard to pin unsoundness on specific breeding. So ignore the naysayers and enjoy this beautiful filly.

By the way, in my parallel universe I think Raise A Native and Native Dancer lend brilliance to a pedigree.

[judybigredpony]

I wish people would STOP looking so far back into these pedigrees…Because when you do you see the same sires over and over…What is So Much more important is the dam lines and what they produced going forward…No matter what Blue Larkspur did or didn t do or Jumping Jack Sprate…those genetics aren t going to be same unless they are a proven nick… Now Smart Strike is a nice horse 2nd sire and he has produced some very nice quality good minded sound Sports Horses…Gone West same…If you look most modern horses have Mr. P, Native Dancer, Storm Cat, UnBridled etc and Secretariat somewhere in their pedigree…a rare horse has No inbreeding and is a total out cross…Look at the horse in front of you before worrying about the pedigree unless you want something Very specific for a reason…Let the horse speak for itself not its ancestors…

[vineyridge]

I’ve been stung several times over OTTBs without a PPE, and I’ve certainly learned my lesson. I will never take on a horse again, even a free one, who doesn’t have their baseline soundness evaluation done before it gets on my trailer. I’d have to do it after the horse came home, so why not before? Same cost to me either way.