When you purchase a new horse, you want to be sure that the horse has the conformation that is appropriate for its breed. Each breed has special conformation characteritics that they are know for and should conform to. A horse that has good conformation prevents you from having to deal with lamenesses and other structural problems that are caused by the horse simply having bad body structure. Lamenesses and unsoundness issues tend to come more from how the horse is built rather than how the horse is used.
Conformation technically refers to the correctness of a horse’s bone structure, musculature and body proportions and how they relate to each other. There are very few horses who have perfect conformation, but the severity of their conformation faults will ultimately determine how they will effect the horse’s performance. For example, a horse that does not do well over jumps may move perfectly fine on the flat. Draft horses are known for their short and upright pasterns, which would be a fault in many horses, but helps a draft horse to be able to gain the leverage it needs for pulling heavy loads. When looking at buying a horse, it is wise to do some research on the breed and its conformation. You can then determine which conformation faults the horse has and which ones will work for and against you. Not all faults are bad, it just depends on how the horse will be used and how those faults will affect the horse’s performance, especially in the future.
An excellent example of what would have been considered a conformation fault, that worked for a horse throughout his career was Secretariat and his long cannon bones. One may have thought that the long cannons would breakdown, but Secretariat did not.
1 Comment
April 1, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Have you ever heard of ‘over flexed fetlocks?”