Let's go shopping....

Well, not really but I like to window shop the horse sights and see what is out there occasionally. I had a new follower bestow me an award (I am getting around to responding, really!) and after checking out her blog discovered they are in the market for a young horse. I couldn't help but put my two cents in on my opinion of the pics she posted, it is just a habit I have. When I see horses I just mentally start evaluating them to my standards, see what parts I like and what bothers me. Not that I am any sort of expert on conformation or picking horses but it is fun and since I judge from time to time it is cool to see if my predictions were correct when I see the horses ridden.

So today I decided to do a post on comparing some horses around the same age and figuring out what I like about them and do not. I know this is from photos and that can be misleading but we will just go with it and I will be interested as always to hear your thoughts.

For our little test my parameters were as follows:
Must be registered Quarter Horses
Up to 1 year of age
Reining bred

so here are our selections:


We will call this Colt #1



























This colt is pictured at 10 Mos old. Lets start with what I like about him.
1) He has good wither on him which tells me he will hold a saddle well
2) He has a nice short back
3) Has pretty good scope to his neck, not as good of a tie in as I prefer but good.

Now for my dislikes:
1) He is long in the front pastern
2) He has a short gaskin muscle which tells me he probably will not stop long.
3) He his is rather course for my liking.



Colt #2































This colt is pictured at 3 mos and in tall grass so not as easy to critique.
Likes:
1) This colt appears to have good bone
2) Pretty headed
3) Nice slope to his haunch which tells me he will really get up under himself and
use his hind end

Dislikes:
1) He is short necked. Will not have the scope to make a smooth turn around
2) Long backed, although I have learned in reining this is not all bad as it does
help them in the stops.
3) He is short in the gaskin which tells me his stops will not be long.






Colt # 3 (actually a filly)





















This is probably the hardest picture to tell exactly what she looks like with her head angle and bottom toward the camera. But we will give it a shot.
Likes:

1) She appears to have a nice tie in at her neck
2) She has a nice long gaskin muscle
3) She has a nice slope to her hindquarter and a nice short back

Dislikes:

1) She appears to be mutton withered
2) She is very upright in the hind leg
3) Her head is a tad longer from eye to muzzle than I like.




Colt #4























This colt is 9 mos old. I appreciate the fact that the seller took the time to set up the colt and make a nice presentation.
Likes:
1) Beautiful the way his neck ties in! He will be very light on his front end
2) Good Gaskin muscle for powerful stopping
3) Straight legged with good bone
4) Pretty headed

Dislikes:
1) He is slight in the wither area, which could make fitting a saddle tough


Let's remember I was looking at them from a reining horse standpoint and I do not know any of these sellers I just picked them off Equine.com for this purpose.

Now I will tell you #4 was my pick, that being said I will also tell you that this colt is exceptionally well bred and the price reflects that. The other colts were in the $2000 - $3000 range and the 4th colt was priced at $15,0000.

I had fun with it, hope you did too. Any other window shopper/critics out there?


Happy trails........