The withers: should be well formed, not too prominent, but also not too flat. During their growing, horses will look like the wither is lower than the croup, but as they get bigger, it should become level. The horses that have a very flat muscular withers are not very good for riding, but for traveling in harness. This is because of the fact that they tend to have something like a "rolling action" , that can be difficult to fit a saddle to.
The chest: should be broad and deep, with enough room for a baseball cap to be fitted between the two forearms. If the chest is too wide, it will tend, the same as like in the withers case. to have a "rolling action", difficult to deal with it. The best case is to find a horse that has, as we can tell, a medium size.
The front legs should be straight and in pairs. They should have a long muscular forearm and short dense cannon bone.
The elbow should be clear or the ribs. A good method to test a good conformation for this part, is to be able to run a hand between the two elbows.
The knees should be a "pair", facing directly forward, broad and flat. The pasterns should slope on a similar angle to the shoulder. If the pasterns are too long, the horse may have a weakness. If they are too short, the horse is less able to cope with concussion.
The feet should be in pairs and well made with tough horn.
Additional: it is said that the horse should be "deep through the girth", which means that when viewed from the side, it appears like there is plenty room for the heart and lungs. A good method to test a good conformation is that the distance from the top of the withers to a point just behind and below the elbow should be the same as the one from the elbow to the ground. Taking this in consideration may appear that the horse would be short legged, but it is ok. In a ideal case, the first 8 "true" ribs, that attach to the vertebrae and the sternum, should be long and flattish. This will allow the leg of the rider to sit nicely behind the triceps muscle. The 10 "false" ribs, that attach to the vertebrae, and to cartilage attaching them to the sternum, should be rounded and well sprung. That will give the appearance of a nicely rounded barrel. Again, a good method to test a good conformation is to see that there is not more than a handspan between the last rib and the hip bone.
The length of the back should be proportionate to the overall size of the horse. Another good method to test a good conformation is that from nose to girth should be the same length as from girth to the point of buttock. The back should be strong and not too narrow or too broad.
Important:
- the horse's ears must be pricked and alert, and the eyes bright and healthy.
- looking at the horse as a whole, the head should be in proportion to the body.
- a horse that is used for racing, eventing or show jumping should be always in optimum condition.
- the horse's skeleton has around 250 bones, which varies from breed to breed.
Hope you find this helpful!
See also the first 2 parts:
No comments:
Post a Comment