There IS hope for and end to the teenaged uglies!!

[camohn]

So I had a weanling stud colt that looked just lovely. And then there were the ugly yearling AND two year old years. I know they are potentially awful looking at that stage.....but after looking at 2 years of butt high/ewe necked/weedy looking one does still start to wonder if that pretty baby is EVER coming back. So the little giraffe is running around outside (scaring me ripping around at full blast in tons of mud) but lo and behold.....with his tail up there is a big old floating trot. I have not seen that trot since he was a weanling. Yeah!! It IS still lurking in there!!! There IS hope at coming 3!

[eventer80]

Thanks for giving me hope!!!! :)

[dressagetraks]

I was going through old pictures recently and ran into pictures of my silver colt's first birthday. Moving and still shots. They were almost painful. I honestly debated deleting them. :yes: Do I really want that immortalized for posterity? Their only saving grace was his ears and expression, which have been there from day one.

He is now coming three and is a gorgeous, balanced, catlike, proud young man. Yes, there IS hope! :)

Taking it even a step further, I'm told that my first colt bred and sold, who has been a hardheaded young redhead, the one his owner admitted to me once she kept partly so she could laugh someday at everybody for doubting him, is FINALLY getting his act and his mind together, truly focusing on his work, and looking good. He is seven. :winkgrin: (And his full brother has been easy to break, easy to work with, and great from day one. That first one was just one of those "challenging" types.)

[pintopiaffe]

:D You're really not supposed to make a post like that without PICTURES. :D We understand that mostly-white-pintos favorite shade in January is beige... :yes:

Sometimes it takes a loooooong time.

The Silly Filly was looking really good last spring. To the point where unless I could see their heads, I could not tell if I was looking at her or her gramma out there (and I've known gramma for 22 years, so not like it was *easy* to confuse the two...) Then she grew AGAIN (rising 5) this summer... and... :dead:

Just the last month or so she's evened up, and is uphill again, for only the 2nd time since being a weanling, I think. I get pretty excited actually. ;) The ugly duckling may just be a swan afterall.i

[camohn]

:D You're really not supposed to make a post like that without PICTURES. :D We understand that mostly-white-pintos favorite shade in January is beige... :yes:

Sometimes it takes a loooooong time.

The Silly Filly was looking really good last spring. To the point where unless I could see their heads, I could not tell if I was looking at her or her gramma out there (and I've known gramma for 22 years, so not like it was *easy* to confuse the two...) Then she grew AGAIN (rising 5) this summer... and... :dead:

Just the last month or so she's evened up, and is uphill again, for only the 2nd time since being a weanling, I think. I get pretty excited actually. ;) The ugly duckling may just be a swan afterall.i
Well there are 2 all white (supposedly) ones. The filly is an all over beige. The colt is white with black stockings. Not brown mud...BLACK mud. He looks just like a photo negative!

[Dance_To_Oblivion]

I understand completely!! Last time my farrier was here he remarked that I could probably take Samson (my coming 3 year old) out in public now! As a weanling he was spectacular and every since then he has been rather gawky :) We are now rounding the bend back to spectacular!!

[Hampton Bay]

My gelding is finally looking grown-up and nice. He's almost 4, PB Arab.

He didn't go through too many horribly awkward stages, aside from the pencil neck, but he sure did move like a dump truck for a while.

My filly, on the other hand, is just beautiful. She's almost 2, and she's not had an ugly day her whole life. Sure her neck is that awkward 2-yo low-set pencil-neck, and she's usually butt-high, but she's still beautiful and her movement takes my breath away. She's half-Lusitano too. I got lucky :)

[Roxy SM]

Can anyone post before and after photos to give us all with young ones in the ugly duckling stage some hope? Like a photo of them in their awkward stage and then another of how beautiful they looked once they grew out of it? I have one that's 1.5 that is definitely in the ugly stage, and another that is 8 months that isn't yet but I'm sure will be soon!

[camohn]

Can anyone post before and after photos to give us all with young ones in the ugly duckling stage some hope? Like a photo of them in their awkward stage and then another of how beautiful they looked once they grew out of it? I have one that's 1.5 that is definitely in the ugly stage, and another that is 8 months that isn't yet but I'm sure will be soon!

I HAVE fugly pics at his butt high worst...but if I want to post em is a different story!!

[BeastieSlave]

This is so funny! Just today I was watching my almost 3 y.o. trot along the fenceline and I swear, I said out loud, "The neck fairy came!" :lol:
He's always been lovely to me, but compared to some of the youngsters whose pictures are posted here, he's always seemed, well, sort of immature...

[classicsporthorses]

My younger stallion will be 8 this year but when he was a youngers OH MY GOSH he was SO ugly I seriously considered gelding him.

Patience prevailed. His older 1/2 brother Maverick was born gorgeous, never grew uneven, never had an ugly day. Miracle was 180 degrees the opposite AND he was so clumsy too.

On top of that Mir's jowls grew faster than the rest of his head so from age 3-4+ he looks like he always had the mumps or had something stored in his mouth-think Chipmunk. Thank God it all came together. He still has a massive jaw but the rest of his body (no more pin-head look), has caught up.

Now when my youngsters go through that stage and people remark I just say, "Oh, they are not 1/2 as bad as Mir was and look at him now".

[NoDQhere]

Ah yes, the phases the youngsters go through :lol:. Some of the stories I could tell. My favorite though is when a "friend" asked if we had any youngsters she could afford. We knew she would need a horse with a bomb proof disposition so offered a young gelding to her at a dirt cheap price. He was going through a ugly phase but was from a very proven family of really pretty horses. She laughed in my face and in fact was offended that we would try to sell her that plug.

Three years later the same "friend" came driving in while the same gelding was schooling over the jumps. Only now he was a gorgeous, tall, talented, safe for anyone to ride horse. She had the nerve to say, "now that is the kind of horse I want". (He had just been sold for quite a nice price).

I have to admit that I got a lot of pleasure out of telling her that was the same horse she had been offered and was so insulted. ;). I was tickled to see a small tear roll down her cheek, too :lol:.

[selah]

A little over two years ago, a dressage rider inquired about my (then) 2y.o. Bugatti Hilltop/Parabol colt. Before she decided whether to make the trip to see him in person, she wanted to see video or pics of him showing "sit"...which for her would prove he had the potential to do the p's (piaffe, passage, pirouette). He is extremely athletic, and I knew he was more than capable, but he is also intelligent, and pretty unflappable. She suggested shaking a plastic jug with gravel in it...HAH! We tried everything...we looked like a bunch of crazed hillbillies chasing after him shaking plastic jugs, waving pieces of bright, crinkly plastic, we even got one of those battery operated balls that shakes and bounces, and emits a maniacal cackle...and all we got was a lovely, laid-back huntery trot and canter. She did not make the trip to see him:no:
This past fall (of his 4y.o. year) I got these pics...do ya think he can SIT?!?
http://www.selahwaysporthorses.com/begat_pfaythe_sits.html

[Roxy SM]

Ah yes, the phases the youngsters go through :lol:. Some of the stories I could tell. My favorite though is when a "friend" asked if we had any youngsters she could afford. We knew she would need a horse with a bomb proof disposition so offered a young gelding to her at a dirt cheap price. He was going through a ugly phase but was from a very proven family of really pretty horses. She laughed in my face and in fact was offended that we would try to sell her that plug.

Three years later the same "friend" came driving in while the same gelding was schooling over the jumps. Only now he was a gorgeous, tall, talented, safe for anyone to ride horse. She had the nerve to say, "now that is the kind of horse I want". (He had just been sold for quite a nice price).

I have to admit that I got a lot of pleasure out of telling her that was the same horse she had been offered and was so insulted. ;). I was tickled to see a small tear roll down her cheek, too :lol:.

That's a great story!

[tisor]

mine has been weird and vaccilating between llama and grayhound most of his 20 months of life then suddenly, last october or so, he was the handsomest baby that EVER walked the face of the earth - I was sure of it. I even decided to show him in hand this spring.

In january his neck grew 3 inchese I think. Just his neck. Now the rest of him is lengthening - again. I expect the butt is next...


maybe we'll show this summer ;)

[BeastieSlave]

The farrier was out today and confirmed that my boy has grown and looks more mature. I haven't sticked him in a while (I think I'm hoping that if I don't measure him, he won't go over 17hh), but I have definitely noticed some withers to go with his 'new' neck :)
He'll be three in March. I think I'll take some pictures then ;)

[frisco1]

I went to see my now yearling the other day. I thought the guys were goofing around with me when they directed me to her stall, as there was a less than beautiful four legged creature. Wow! I now understand the comments of hiding them behind the barn! Her eyes were still beautiful so I knew it was her.

When anybody asks to see my baby, I show them my 2 year old who is a princess like her mom and grand mom, they never have a bad hair day:)
Not showing the cousin at the moment. Oh my did not want to have to wait till she is three.

I did delete the pictures I took!
Thanks for shaingvthe before and after stories.