I am SO with Marty! :aktion033: Your little girl is gorgeous and I get so tired of hearing something that sounds a lot like "Well, she's no prize winner but you can always do performance with her."
: Now I
know that's not how it's meant, but that's how it sounds to me a lot of the time despite that knowledge. Do I look at your dainty little halter horses and say "It's pretty, but good gosh what a useless little thing! You can't DO anything with it!" No. I tell you it's a beautiful horse and mean it.
Under the theory that halter horses should represent the ideal of the breed AND form to function, I would agree that a horse that can't hack it in halter is probably a sort of second class citizen. But we all know that style comes into it a lot these days and some things that should be paid attention to aren't. So great, the halter horses are gorgeous. My hypothetical performance horse has a huge heart and a lot of training and can do five different kind of trots. And he doesn't exactly have three ears or two tails or feet sticking out of his ribs. I'd call that "equal but different" and be happy with either. If you've got a horse that can do both, more power to you. You have my admiration- truly. I want one of them! LOL. But so far halter has lost out for me because I find a horse I fall in love with and then do what that horse is built for or best at. And that tends to be performance.
Sorry for that totally off-topic rant, for once I just had to let it out. No, I do not think anyone on this thread was trying to trash talk performance horses intentionally or subconsciously.
: I just needed to get it off my chest so thank you for listening.
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To be more on-topic, your girl is truly lovely. I'm never sure what to expect when I see threads like this and I said "Wow!" when I opened this one. I love her head and her markings and how neat her color is. She also looks very sweet and is clearly lovingly tended. Her coat and flesh are both in great shape. (Her feet could maybe use a little work though, just my opinion.)
My equine partner is an Arab that my trainer told me over and over would never be a Regional level horse or for that matter very good at western or hunter at all. This was not a negative lady, just a realist who was trying to gently tell me what she saw. I quietly ignored her and kept right on training and you know what? We eventually started winning everything in sight and kept right on winning until I retired him years later. Faith and love can do a lot; starting with an already nice horse like yours can take you even farther.
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If she likes jumping and leads well she'd be good at it. Performance includes jumping (hunter and jumper both), driving (all sorts of divisions there), obstacle (both driven and in-hand), and liberty. These days they are looking for a very particular outline in halter so what everyone is saying is that your mare is beautiful but not currently in style. So much the loss of the "stylists!" LOL
Leia