Good Conformation Bad Conformation

The Head
The head should be well proportioned to the rest of the body and refined, with a broad forehead and eyes set wide apart. The eyes should be large, clear and prominent to give them a broad field of vision, and should have a kind look about them. Ears should be of medium size, pointed finely and carried pricked forward. The line of the face should be straight unless breed traits with a convex line (Roman nose) or dished (concave) lines are present, as in draft-horses and Arabians, respectively. The nostrils should be large for adequate air intake with exertion. The lips which are as sensitive as human fingers should be fine and meet evenly.

The Neck
The neck should join the head cleanly at the throatlatch, be muscular and fairly long, meeting at the shoulder neatly. There should be a slight concave curve to the crest, as opposed to the 'ewe-neck', which curves convexly, or a 'bull neck', which is short, thick and straight.

The Front End
The withers is the bony ridge where the shoulder blades meet and should be smooth and well-rounded. It is the highest point on the back line and that's where a horse's height is measured in 'hands' (1 hand = 4 inches). Having withers of a good height means a better saddle fit and a smoother ride. The shoulders should be deep and slope back at an oblique angle to allow greater movement. The chest, or the region between the forelegs and the barrel of the horse, must be deep to allow adequate room for vital organs. Front legs should drop at a straight line from the arm to the foot, with plenty of bone right beneath the knee. The forearm should be long and well-muscled and the knees wide, deep and flat. Cannon bones are best short, straight and have heavy bones. The fetlock is the equivalent of our knuckles, while the pastern is like the middle part of our fingers having two bones with a joint, and should be of medium length and slope (they act as shock absorbers). The hoof should be smooth, bell-shaped, large and tough on the outside. On the concave underside, the frog is a V-shaped tissue that acts as a cushion with every step. Remember, "No foot, no horse"; so problems with alignment can lead to unsoundness because of stress.

The Back
The back should have some length for swiftness and be gently concave. Too much curve and you have a swayback; a convex curve is a 'roach' back. The loins need to be deep, muscular, broad and firm to help with galloping and jumping

Conformation judging is a process of observation which can determine whether a horse will move well, carry weight and stay sound. It is not a system of fault picking, and breeders must avoid the over-analysis of minor flaws in conformation. ‘Paralysis by Analysis’ is a common problem in many of life’s pursuits, and is not unknown in the horse world.

The equine and human, both being mammals, have many skeletal similarities, and it may be useful if the human skeleton is visualized when considering the layout of the bones of the horse.

90% of conformation is the result of bone structure. The lay-out of the horse’s bones, their lengths and the angles which they create with each other, plus their muscular and ligament attachments, produce what we call ‘conformation’. They control how the horse stands and moves in all gaits, and also how he jumps.

To learn about the bones and their angles, we must be familiar with the ‘points of the horse’, and following are some desirable bone relationships and proportions

(A) the back (withers to peak of croup) (B) the body (point of shoulder to point of buttock) (C) the pelvis (point of hip to point of buttock) (D) the rib length (withers to last rib) (E) the shoulder (withers to point of shoulder) (F) the arm (point of shoulder to point of elbow) (G) the elbow to the stifle (H) the knee to the hock

In general it should be accepted that the horse will be more bio mechanically efficient the closer these relationships are to the ideal.

The pelvic length (pt. of hip to pt. of buttock) should be at least 1/3 the body length.