Ok, I finally got some good pics of my 5 year old filly Hurrikhana. Her "around the barn name" is Ana. She is the result of three generations of breeding, beginning with her grandsire, Hurrikhan, who was our original Trekehner stallion, I have pics of him and Ana's mother, Capikhan, who died when she was born. My stepmom/trainer is putting some finishing dressage and jumping work on her before she is transferred over to me legally, probably next summer. I am hoping for an event horse! She was originally offered to me as a 3 year old, but I didn't feel confident enough to start her since she can be a bit of a brat. Luckily she is growing out of it! She was put under saddle by a cowboy instead, and he did a great job. Feel free to critique her conformation and my roaching job on her mane, lol, it looks best after a couple weeks, but I had my fiancee, Chris (in the first two pics) with me so we took advantage and got some shots. My nutty German Shepherd is in some of them too.

Dont worry Solo, I wasn't riding helmetless, just posing, I hopped right off after this

shot!

In this picture Chris is really starting to get bored of horseholding duty..

Ana's mom and granddaddy.

 I think she is a lovely prospect!  She has a very nice shoulder, a pretty head and neck, and a nice set of pasterns for spring and shock. 

The only things I would change if I could make her perfect is put a little more angle in her hind legs, add more cannon bone, she's a little light below the knee and tied in at the knee, and shorten her back a touch.

But overall, she's fairly nicely put together.  I would just make sure she does not carry any more weight than she has to since her legs are fine boned, to reduce overall wear and tear.

lol, are you sayin I need to lose weight?! j/k, I noticed that about her legs. I'm hoping she will fill out a bit, her mom was a late bloomer, but by the time she was an 8 year old she had gotten a lot chunkier. I didn't notice the long back until you said something, but upon looking at the photos again, you're right, I have some excercizes I can do to keep her back from dropping.  Ana looks a lot more thoroughbreddy than either of her parents. Her mom was a TB/Trek and her sire is a TB/Holsteiner. But the TB on her dam's side was really a chunky tb. We're not sure why she turned out so fine boned! I'm going to research different kinds of boots for when we jump. I have noticed when watching a lot of upper level jumpers that they do have a lot of finer boned, athletic looking horses. I just hope she can stay sound! Oh, and Chris doesn't ride her, he was just holding her, although I'm sure she'd be good for him. btw, we totally stole you're horsey hairdo!

 ROFL, no I meant weight as in don't let HER get overweight!

As for boots, they don't really do anything to support the leg, just protect from knocks (which don't get me wrong, is always a good thing, especially with younguns who can't get their feet out of their own way!).  The best thing you can do for her is condition her well.  I recommend the book "All Horse Systems Go" -- it's by some vet lady who did some insane amount of research and it is phenomenal.  It talks about ALL aspects of conditioning, INCLUDING how to strengthen bone (which takes multiple years).  The stronger and fitter she is, the sounder she will stay.

Also, the key to horses whose job is jumping is that they don't get jumped that much.  Most of those upper level horses (the ones that stay sound) are VERY carefully managed so they are only taking jumps when they need it.  And you will see a rider pull a horse off course in competition even if they only have a few jumps left because they are diligent about saving those jumping efforts for a better day.  I think this is a VERY smart management strategy -- I'm in the camp that a horse only has so many jumps in him, so use them wisely.

 And mohawks rule!