Looks Can Be Deceiving.

The poor little man is so skinny I don't know if he's actually a little man or if he's a big man in disguise. I really think he's pushing 15.1hh but he's so skinny that when you stand back he looks yearling-like and short... He's got no muscle tone anywhere, either. It's pitiful. I fed grain around 7:30am, took his blanket off and brushed the crap out of him today, and I clipped his socks/stockings/blaze. I hate white hair and he has tons of it, so to make things easier on me and to do something with him that involves no effort on his part, I clipped everything white. I got some good pictures of his pigeon toes and now just need to e-mail my farrier to see if he can do anything about it. It seems worse in his left fore (white sock) than his right fore. I'm not very hoof-smart though so I couldn't say either way with much conviction. His current farrier seems to have forgotten to trim his hinds at their last visit (last Tuesday, March 22nd).

I look at him in person and I don't mind his conformation too much, his topline is very poor - everything is very poor - but other than the pigeon toes, weak loin and lack of conditioning, nothing jumps out. Well his plain head does too, but that's OK because it makes him cute. When I get around to getting good conformation pictures of him I will be throwing him to the wild savages at the Free Speech Horse Forum. I'm not knowledgeable in the slightest so anything conformation/hoof-wise that comes from my fingertips/mouth should be taken with a grain of salt. I think he's cute, and he's fluffy, and he's a gelding, so it's all 'kay!

Our session for today besides lengthy grooming and clipping (which he was fantastic for, I might add) was showmanship. We worked on stepping out together, stopping, trotting off, backing up, and turning into and away from me at the walk. Into me is a bit hard as the shank pressure made him nervous. I was relaxed and tapped his haunches with the end of the lead every so often and praised him heavily when he was successful. Backing up was hell. We must have had to do it 25+ times. I'd move into him and he'd stand like a log, and when I'd hit the end of the chain, he'd just flap his loose lips around like a fish. After some patience, smacks, and cookies/overboard praise, he gets it. I move into him with purpose and he moves away. Bravo! We lunged lightly just at the walk and trot also and he now understands that woah means stop. I was ecstatic with him and all he absorbed today so I threw him back on the wash pad, gave him a good scrub with a curry (much to his hairy delight) and reblanketed him (he's double blanketed with a hood.) He now is happily munching hay, waiting for his night-time grain (to come in about an hour!) Very pleased with him today.

Once he has some fat on him I'll have to build him up slowly, as there is literally no muscle. The pics that you have seen/will see show what looks like a tall yearling / scrawny two year old, not an almost-four-year-old... I hope to see that improving soon! For the record - he's drinking and eating well and he made a huge mess of his stall with poop, is it a gelding thing? He also got dirt and hay in his water bucket so here's pics of his stall all super clean... For the time being.