Not complementary? You look very nice, and your daughter looks like an excellent young rider. Excellent leg and back (isn't using her hands, but I'd expect that to be just as good as the seat).
If she wants the Andalusian and likes the breed that much, why are you trying to talk her out of it? Because she could get something cheaper? Maybe that's not the most important thing to her! Maybe she likes Andalusians!
The Paint is clearly a very nice horse, but limited for dressage - front end conformation is horizontal, rear end conformation is hocks-out-behind and stifle behind where it should be, not built for carrying, horse has a major downhill conformation - not because of form of her topline(which is not strong), but because of an even more important issue - proportions and balance. The front and back halves of her look like they belong to two different horses, and the hind legs are longer than the front legs. Horse might be WILLING to do dressage work but it might not be real fair to ask that horse to do anything more than go around like a hunter in dressage tack in small local classes.
You may have decided 'that lady is never going to do any more than first level', she may see it differently. Or she may feel, and rightly so, that even at first level, she wants a horse that's more balanced. First level is nothing really to sneeze at - it has leg yields, serpentines at canter, 10 m circles at canter, transitions - an unbalanced horse is handicapped even at first level. Plus the first level classes often are VERY big, even at small shows, and the horse that's more balanced is going to do better.
Struggling with an unsuitable horse and trying to push it to do something that's physically causing it to fight its own body every step of the way, against the poor animal's (legitimate) resistance - it ain't fun - ask me how I found that one out.
There are a lot of 'junk' Andalusians around, but of the good ones, they are more than anything, 'balance horses' - they have an awful lot of natural balance, and that is a huge pleasure to ride on. Generally, the back half looks like the front half, and the front legs and the hind legs are the same length.
Of course, she may want an Andalusian for all the worst reasons in the world - 1.) she thinks if she gets one, she won't have to work at dressage and will just magically shoot to Grand Prix*, or 2.) thinks 'they're pretty'. But fact is, there's not really anything anyone can do about it unless they're paying her bills.
* There are 'horse junkies' - they keep getting horse after horse, all of them unsuitable for what they want to do, thinking if they get 'the right horse', it will do the work, without them figuring out how to sit in the dressage saddle or how to apply the aids and get a result. They buy horses instead of lessons, and they are always blaming the horse. If you start to rail against someone turning into a 'horse junkie', you're beating your head against a brick wall - these people never, ever, ever change. All you can do is concentrate on your own riding.
Edited by welsummerchicks - 11/9/10 at 7:08am
She has been very adamant that she just does dressage for fun and doesn't really care if she progresses. It took a concerted effort of several of us almost literally pushing her into the ring to get her to do Training Level Test 4. She's not the Type A personality that I am. My issue with dressage was that I wasn't slowing down and I wanted to get ahead too fast. If she does get beyond First Level with an Andalusian she hasn't even bought yet, it'll be at least 4 years before that happens.
