I’m not convinced that either one of them has a straight shoulder, if you look from the point of the shoulder to the base of the withers, there is a pretty clear diagonal line. Hazel’s does look the same.
In the picture of him standing almost square, his neck looks a little upside down -with the musculature being on the bottom rather than the top. I don’t think that this is uncommon in foals. I don’t think that it is drafty at all.
Maybe it ties in too high on his chest? It just looks…janky.
Especially compared to Roslyn’s beautiful smooth lines…
Nah. It’s just the photo. Leave him be.
hahahahaha. i keep picking him apart. I want him to be pretty, like Roslyn. And he’s not. He’s just all boney and stringy looking. My only hope is that he’s one of those ‘ugly ducklings’.
Give him time. Some of the most oddly put together foals turn out lovely.
Roslyn reminds me of one of those halter QHs. Too mature looking for her age.
oh… yes i totally agree. I fear that also. Pretty baby/ugh adult. I expect her to be coarse actually. her mother sure is…
i picked her mother up from BLM as a lovely 2yr old. then, she grew. and grew and grew.
breeding is NOT for me, and i learned from the experience of choosing young ones also. Though i have two that ended up being great successes… but in breeding especially the disappointment is very real.
To be fair, this was not a planned breeding and didn’t result from your negligence either (in fact didn’t you give at least one of the mares a shot to abort? I don’t remember which one), so while you are certainly entitled to disappointment and worry about how the foals will turn out, my opinion is it doesn’t need to feel quite the same as a planned, intentional breeding. For the record, I think they are both pretty cute for oops babies.
yeah, it’s a little late now to stress out about them! and -yes a nice bay mustang mare was given the shot. I probably should have given all the mares shots. But i only saw him breed the one, (Tovah) so…
I think they’ll both turn out to be nice using horses. They might not end up with your ideal conformation but I don’t see anything that screams disaster. Definitely not horses by committee. For oops babies they could have been much worse. I have a feeling they’ll trade who is in the awkward stage when just to make you worry. At least with two of them they have a play buddy.
what does this mean? is it like the front half and the back half look like two different horses? I’ve seen those…
In the rump-high types i always see it. (i’m not a QH person obviously)
…oh gawd! i hope these two grow out of butt-highness! right now they are, but i’m thinking at least the colt, Hazel, will outgrow it. Filly…wellllll…her dam is has a HUGE rump, so probably she will too.
What’s so funny is when they were newborns and i first laid eyes on them i thought them to be the most beautiful equines in the whole world. Now…i’m getting awfully critical. i need a brain cleanse!
Horses by committee are the ones that look like they are made up of parts from very different horses. Like a huge head on a refined neck, huge body on tiny legs, or front and back half looking like they belong to completely different horses.
They’re all cute when they are tiny and new.
Some of the old advise I heard for evaluating foals was look at them at 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, and 3 years to see what you have and ignore what they look like the rest of the time.
well see…that’s just the thing exactly. These two are just turned 3 mos. so…my stressing hit big time. I took about a hundred photos in three days… for posterity. And reviewing them i see a lot that i don’t see in being there…because interaction detracts attention.
Take a breath
The 3/3/3/3 is Saying, not written in stone.
As someone else said, for unplanned breeding, you got some cute bebes!
Enjoy them for what they are.
Or send them to me
KIDDING!!!
Unless I win a lottery & can hire (younger) staff to help me bring them up…
Another thing I remember thinking when you first posted about the foals was how much fun it had been to read about Quigley when you were first getting to know him. I remember you being very impressed with his curious, willing, brave mind. Maybe the babies will get (or already have, really) some of that?
Oh…well, they’re a trainer’s dream.
They love to train/interact. They have bounce…(they comeback if something is a bit ‘scary’). Most all that we do is at liberty. I show it to them and they push eachother away so they can shove their noses into the halter. They are not great on leading, but i’m not really working on that very much. They love praise, will work for praise alone. And will perform tricks for carrots. They are snugglers, Hazel likes to kiss …Lips on lips. They will both lift their feet and let me tap on the bottom of their hooves. They have a good foundation of trust and acceptance. And they keep their space…don’t shove into me, just into eachother hahahahahaha.
I play with them a couple times a day. And individually once a day. We keep it light and fun and short. I’m kinda in heaven with this experience…
Long video in slo-mo of the mares and the foals crossing the creek right after a big rain. I mentioned on another thread how the palomino mare, Brenna, had her lameness diagnosed at MIZZOU due to thin soles when she was 2 or 3. Since then she’s crossed these rocky creeks and her feet have really toughened-up. I’m assuming that Hazel and Roslyn will have nice sturdy hooves…partly because of the mustang in them and partly because of their environment.
Anyway…if you’re bored and have about 10 mins to kill here’s a vid lol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5CGPYI81Oo
Of the two, I prefer Hazel. I agree that, being an unplanned breeding, it could have been worse.
Just enjoy them while you have them!
several photos from this morning rainy day alfalfa feeding. Hazel’s fetlock is so much better i can hardly tell which one was swollen, but i’m going to keep them in one more day. Don’t look at the barn floor…i didn’t get in there to clean yesterday
because you can see from her dam what portends for her? because that’s my thing about her…
I just like the way he is put together more than the filly, from what I can see…
They change quite a bit as they grow and it’s hard to judge from the photos since they aren’t standing square.
You’ll just have to wait and see. Don’t freak out. Sometimes the neck fairy comes along at two or three years old.
In the photograph of Hazel above, the near hind fetlock still looks swollen to me.