High Withers - Dutch Warmblood at 4

[theautumnleaves]

Hi there. Thank you in advance for your input! This is a horse I am interested in as she happens to be quite close to me. Her sire was GP, for a long time. Same wither.

Mare is unstarted. She has lovely movement, and is well sprung in her barrel, and really knows how to get under herself. I’m concerned about her high wither though. Being that this mare is already 4, I’m more concerned that if she were only 3. Normally I would pass, but I have seen some horses with insane looking withers go to GP so I admit, I’m a little lost on this piece of the conformation puzzle, if it isn’t a low-set/ewe neck.

Thoughts? I placed 4 photos in photobucket.
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[ladyj79]

In my experience it is pretty normal for a get undeveloped horse to appear to have a prominent wither.

That said, what concerns you about a high wither, which I have never heard of described as a conformation flaw or fault?

[RedmondDressage]

The withers have absolutely no bearing or influence on whether or not a horse can do FEI work. It’s not even something I would factor in when looking at a horse. In addition, the little dip in front will likely all but go away with topline development.

[Hobbs]

From what I can see in the pictures, which isn’t much - it’s not the withers that would concern me, it’s the straight shoulder angle. That will indeed be an impediment to upper level work.

[Wmbld]

That is not a very high wither. I would call it a medium wither surrounded by an unfit, under-muscled, body. Withers have no effect on whether a horse can go into the top levels or not. However, I have heard a few top top trainers say higher withers actually help the horse stretch…which would make sense. But overall, it has no real play in their future.

[Color_of_Light]

3rd and 4th photos, withers look huge and very wide, camel humpish. Could just be the poor quality video photos. Makes me wonder if she had a withers injury. If her withers actually look like the last two photos, I’d want to palpate and put downwards pressure on them.

I also noticed the straight shoulder first, then saw the concerning withers in last two photos. Is she a large, gangly horse growing through a growth spurt? Do you have conformation shots?

[Scribbler]

They don’t look particularily high to me. I would want to see a proper setup conformation photo. All kinds of things can happen during movement depending on how a horse is carrying its head.