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How tall is he at the withers? Might be a touch downhill, long as he doesn’t travel dumped on his nose, that should not hurt him much. HUS and WP are very much first impressions, he’s a little plain but some thoughtful tack and clothing selection will help that out. So will smart managing of where you are in regards to the other horses and the judge so you get seen
But really need to see him move to see if he’s got that “it” factor to be successful in the rail classes or might be better in something like WR or Trail or Horsemanship/Showmanship or a Youth horse. How us he bred? What have his parents been successful in? That will tell you more then a conformation shot.
Overall he’s nice, turns out a touch, bit base narrow but everything matches and that usually does not effect overall movement if it’s not extreme or asymmetrical. I have found a nice throatlatch is a good predictor of an attractive, balanced mover. He has what appears to be a nice throatlatch with some refinement. Very nice.
BTW, nice, properly presented pictures…but how does he move? The best rail horses are born with the look and movement to be successful in those classes, hard to impossible to train it in if it’s not there.
Love to know how he’s bred. He reminds me of a few, who were good.
Knowing that he is 16.2 at the hip and seeing that he is downhill and still growing I was wondering if anyone could guess how tall he is currently at the wither.
Sire is Zippin In Good Faith and dam is My Bodys Treasured. Zippo Pine Bar on top and Zips Chocolate Chip on bottom.
How tall is the person holding the horse? I’d guess he’s about an inch lower at the withers then the hip.
Im not sure how tall the person is
Just a note, for most performance events, you want a little more narrow horse in front, more of a V, like he has, a bit turning out is not bad, if it is little, not close to interfering.
That is so they have more free shoulders and can get out of their own way with the front end when they need to, as a wider horse may have problems with, will impact their canter, giving them a more of a side by side motion than forward.
Not being a halter horse, conformation will not be to please a judge, but the kind that will help performance for the intended task.
I don’t know enough about western pleasure and those classes to say what would work best there, others have already given interesting information, thank you.
First off, props for the nice conformation shots!
Overall he’s a decent looking colt. I love his butt! With Zippo Pine Bar and Zips Chocolate Chip (son of ZPB) you definitely have a horse bred for western pleasure. Modern pleasure horses are taller and some of the greats (like A Certain Vino) are over 16 hands, but this guy might be a touch tall to sit back and lope with the dedicated western pleasure horses. Hunter Under Saddle is a trotting contest, so it really depends on how well he extends and floats at the trot. He’s got the leg length for it, but you can’t really tell if he’s got the float without a video. You can’t really tell how they move from pictures, to know if he really has the quality of natural flashy movement to make a really nice rail prospect. The great rail horses have a Wow factor that they are born with that draws your eye to them. His head is also really plain. So while he’s certainly not ugly, he doesn’t have that pretty head that really draws a judge’s eye to a horse on the rail. He would probably make a pretty decent all around (Horsemanship, showmanship, equitation) prospect. I don’t see any glaring conformation problems that would make him unsound or completely unsuitable. However, I would like to see his neck tie in just a touch lower to his chest to allow him to carry his neck out level. He’s still growing, so he might level out more, but I’d really like to see him more level across the top. His current downhill build might dump him on the forehand a little too much.
Of course, all of this is dependent on the level at which you want to be competitive. I don’t see a Congress/World Show quality rail prospect. But he might be a fantastic all around horse. Also, he may be pretty competitive in the rail classes at smaller local or open shows if he has a good disposition and is agreeable to doing his job.
Hard to tell with out seeing him move. It sounds like he’s bred to be an all arounder which usually means the horse is well rounded and can do all the events (pleasure, trail, horsemanship, eq, etc) but usually they aren’t stellar in the pleasure classes. The shoulder looks a little steep to have that big hus stride to compete with the big horses but for an all around horse he may be fine.
He’s cute!! I have nothing to add that hasn’t been said.
