CONFORMATION

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CONFORMATION

• The overall appearance of body shape
• The relationship between form function

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Why is it important

• How the horse will travel
• Withstand stress on the joints
• Overall health
• Soundness
• Longevity

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Balance

• The rule of thirds

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Conformation traitsmost breed registries will
agree on

• Neck
• Shoulder
• Top line
• Underline
• Hind quarters

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Conformation traits cont

• Elbow to fetlock
• Elbow to stifle
• Girth to wither
• Wither to loin
• Straightness of legs

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Conformation Heredity

• Conformation highly heritable
• Passed from both sire and dam
• If sound conformation is not given careful
  consideration when selecting breeding stock,
  problems are seen in future generations.

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Heritable Conformational Defects

• Parrot mouth/monkey mouth
• Base narrow/base wide
• Knock knees/bowed knees
• Bench knee
• Camped out/camped under

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Heritable Conformational Defects cont

• Cow hocks/bowed legged
• Toed-in/toed-out
• Pigeon toed/splay footed
• Calf knees/buck knees
• Post legged/sickle hocked

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Head

• Focal point first impression
• Defines the breed
• Proportional to the body?
• Profile
• Eyes
• Ears
• Jaw
• Muzzle

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Neck

• An attractive and graceful neck always improves
  the appearance and movement of the horse.
• Neck attachment
• Throatlatch
• Length of neck
• Type of neck
• Swan
• Ewe
• stargazer

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Withers

• Should be semi prominent
• Mutton
• High
• Level with croup

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Types of withers
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Back Conformation

• Wither to loins supports the horses weight
• Short, wide and straight backs are the strongest
• Best length of back produces balance in the
  individual horse

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Loin Conformation

• Muscular portion of the back extending from last
  rib to point of croup
• Loin coupling supports lumbar vertebrae and
  transfers power from hind legs forward

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Types of Backs
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Good Back vs. Bad
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Chest

• Should be well defined
• Fairly wide
• Not excessive
• Medium width
• Narrow
• Overly wide

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Types of chests
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Forelegs

• Proper sloping shoulder to hoof maximizes
  absorption of concussion
• Give and take motion at the joints
• Elbow to fetlock joint perpendicular to ground

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Shoulder

• Ideal conformation
• Length and slope determines range of motion
• Shoulder angle 50 degrees
• Slope determined by scapular spine
• Conformational faults of shoulder

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Shoulder sets
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Upper arm

• Influences motion
• Lever action of humerus
• Angle between shoulder spine and humerus 105
  120 degrees
• Conformational faults of upper arm

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Elbow

• Balances the horse
• Point of elbow should be in front of wither peak
• Slightly turned outward
• Conformational faults

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Forearm

• Good indicator of muscling
• Length determines stride
• Muscle attachment for strength propulsion

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Knee

• Well shaped
• Flat appearance
• Deep, thick wide
• Conformational faults

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Knee faults
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Hind Leg Conformation

• Not too straight
• Not too angled
• Point of buttock to point of hock straight down
  the cannon
• Fetlock down to ground right behind the heel

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Hind Leg View From the Side
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Thigh

• Area between hip and stifle
• Thigh should be long and deep
• Well developed and wide

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Gaskin

• Area between stifle and hock
• Provide driving force of hind legs
• Well muscled inside and out
• Varies from breed to breed
• Indication of fitness

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Gaskin examples
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Stifle

• Corresponds with elbow
• Widest area when viewing hindquarters from the
  rear
• Indication of fitness

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Stifle
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Stifles and Gaskins
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Hock

• Good sized and proportional to support weight
• Should be clean cut
• Placement essential for power and shock
  absorption
• Neither too straight or angled
• Angle affects power and length of stride

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Good Hock
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Bad Hock
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Cannon

• Short and straight
• Narrow from the front
• Wide from the side
• good bone 7 in. of bone per 1000lbs?

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Cannon conformation
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Fetlock Pastern

• Fetlock flat and wide
• 140 145 degree angle
• Pastern axis slope of pastern same as hoof wall
  slope
• Pastern slope _at_47 54 degrees
• Pastern slope shoulder slope
• Conformational faults

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Fetlock pastern faults