Hey, I had to reply to this post
Good on you for taking the time to share your little guy. I have a few tips and 'what not' to say, people may agree or disagree, but I am saying what works for me.
He is a nice colour to start off with.
Assuming you want to show him, I would firstly tend to his mane. While long, big beautiful manes look good on some horses, its better to thin and shorten others, especially smaller minis like yours. By having his mane that long, his neck looks a lot more undeveloped than it actually is. I would make his bridlepath a bit longer. I would cut his mane so that you can see his shoulders, as his shoulders aren't too bad and you want to show off your horse's good points! His neck will develop with age, as do all stallions basically!
His head is slightly longer (but when his neck develops more with age, it will look less longer). In the ring, I would have his forelock down the center of his face rather than pulled to the side. It looks a lot more attractive on longer faced/straight faced horses and almost gives an illusion of more convex profile.
His topline is fairly straight. Coming of age will certainly improve it, but I suggest hand walking him up hills. This will strengthen up his back muscles. Also, trotting poles are a treat for this. But be careful not to over do this as it might do more harm then good
He has a bit of a grass belly. I assume hes on a good worming programme? If you limit his grass intake, his belly should go slightly. Gentle exercise should tone him up more - hand walking is always the best I find (10-20mins, atleast 4 days per week). Limited lunging on large circles can also work well. I have a large round pen that I like to free lunge my horses in as much as possible.
He is slightly light in the hind, but the larger belly does throw him off proportion a bit more than need be. Hill work will improve his bum
- but of course, theres only so much you can do with his age.
To me, he is obviously a slower maturer. A lot of miniature horses seem to mature super quick. He obviously needs more time. Just think, a normal big horse can take 5ish years to look like a nice horse!
If he was my horse. I would be finding the perfect diet on him and concentrate on feeding and building him up. I would give him gentle exercising. He needs to develop a jump technique, so I would do a few jumping exercises - crossbars and trotting poles - Concentrating on technique, not height obviously!
Even though he is two, I would still feed him horse feed for yearlings. Im not sure what you can get over where you live, but here I am thinking of one horse feed called Dunstan Yearling Prep......be sure to also feed him a lot roughage..not so much grass though!
LASTLY - When you stand him up for show. Try not stretch his neck up, because of his low neck set, he will show the muscles under his neck which will give the judge the impression that he has a ewe neck - a fault thats really not desirable, especially in the mini!
I hope I've helped you and if you have any more questions, do ask!!
belly since he's been on grass with our other young stallions, and unfortunately he's to lazy to play with them as mush as I would like him to do. But what do you guys think about him ? He's 2 years old and 29".
