Hello HrseLady! I would be happy to give you a critique on your little guy. Remember these are my opinions, and I do think you are very brave to put your colt up for public critique, but I also want to commend you for asking for outside opinions.
What are you hoping to do with him? I would like to suggest he'd make a great gelding/pet, as he is not conformationally put together very well. Not every horse has to be a halter/breeding horse though!
First of all, he is not balanced very well. Overall type and balance can go a long way to minimize conformational faults, but he unfortunately is not balanced well and is not typey at all. Balance refers to the overall appearance of the horse; his head is very large compared to the rest of him, his neck is too short, and his hip is too weak. Generally balance will refer to the overall ratio of the size of: head, neck, shoulder, barrel, hip, leg length. If they all are balanced with each other, the horse will appear to be "put together well." And then, if you just look at each part, THEN you will find faults. A horse can be "draft type" and be thick but balanced, and it can be "thoroughbred type" and all the parts will be long and lean but balanced.
If you start to pick apart the individual pieces, you may find the head to be very large and plain. As a weanling and yearling, minis usually have the prettiest heads they will ever have in their lifetimes (refined and dishy looking). As they mature, the head will broaden and some evidence of tooth bumps may appear. Adult heads may stay "pretty" but they will be mature. Your colt doesn't have an offensive head, but it is plain.
His neck isn't set as low as I've seen, but it is very very short. As a stallion, a neck will only get thicker with age as hormones set in. The throatlatch looks clean but the neck is too short to pull off any sense of "slender."
His shoulder appears to be sloped back decent. I can't tell much about his front legs, except he may be a little over at the knee. I think maybe he isn't; maybe his front legs are just so short that the joints are large in comparison and give that illusion.
His topline is okay, he is a tad long in the back. His worst fault is his weak hip. Many minis lack a strong hip, but his hip is decidedly far too weak. If you look at the last picture, his legs look far back and his butt doesn't stick out over them like they should (I don't know if that makes sense to you but I'm trying to give you a visual). When a horse stands square, you should be able to drop a vertical line from the end of his rump down through his back legs. His hip is too weak, there is nothing there. His back legs are possibly sickle hocked but again I think it's an illusion from his weak hip. Weak hips are almost always paired with a low, sloping tailset which your guy also has. The tail should ROUND gently from the top of the hip. Some breeders prefer perfectly flat, but a gentle curve is actually more of the breed standard.
I can't tell much about leg angles from the front or side, no pictures for that were supplied.
It is difficult to judge some of the finer points of conformation with pictures alone, and if there are pictures it helps to have good ones of the horse standing perfectly square.
I hope these observations make sense to you and help you see the conformation of your colt. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to PM me.
By the way, besides having a bit of a yearling pot belly, he looks pretty healthy for being "pasture condition" so you must take good care of him!
Andrea
edited to add: To geld or not geld? Generally, the goal to keeping a stallion is to breed it. Stallions are MUCH happier as geldings and generally so are the people who love on them!
If you are breeding a stallion, he should be a perfect example of the breed. A stallion you and everyone else looks at and says "WOW!" A stallion everyone else is jealous that you own. A stallion that can walk into the show ring and place well consistently (doesnt have to win, but needs to consistently get different judges' opinions that yes, this is a worthy stallion). You can put his picture next to a picture of another stallion or two that YOU are jealous of, and still think "Yep, my stallion IS a great guy and can hold his own!"
If you have a colt that is just so-so compared to all the other stallions out there then, yeah, you should probably geld him. Stallions SHOULD be the top 10% of ALL male horses out there. They should be an investment of your time and money. Not just a "well it's a boy and he's cute and sweet and colorful"... but a horse that looks good and moves great and has a great pedigree and great temperament and has absolutely everything a horse should have, all in one animal.
