Cob Jockey

L. Williams suggested in my 'Nature vs Nurture' post that this blog should do a few conformation posts, and that sounded like a lot of fun to me!  Developing an eye for conformation makes our favorite activity, staring at horses, into a fun new game of 'I Spy' - who doesn't like that?

Conformation is important because:
1. It will decide whether or not your horse stays sound in the sport you have chosen for him.
2. It will dictate whether or not he can easily physically succeed at the sport you have chosen for him.

Every horse has conformation flaws, without exception.  Recognizing your horse's conformation flaws is important because you need to understand what's going to feel like simple addition and subtraction to your 'student', and what's going to feel like calculus - "I'm never going to get this!"

When you're horse shopping with a goal of buying a competitive athlete, or just idly playing Canter Cutie Bingo, I believe you should start with a "conformation hit list".  This list is going to look different for every sport- in cutting, being built downhill is advantageous, while in Dressage, it makes life very difficult.

Here are the three categories in my conformation hit list:

Jen's Conformation Hit List
Group 1: Wish List (The Green Category)
Remember when you daydreamed about the traits your ideal husband/wife/partner would have, knowing that maybe you wouldn't end up with someone who had all of those traits?  This is that list.  Dream big!  This list should contain conformation traits that would provide an advantage to a horse competing in your sport and anything you really want to see in your future equine partner - knowing your future horse won't have every single one.

This fellow has several green-list qualities of mine, including a nice open, sloping shoulder, hocks nicely balanced and angulated, short cannon bones, good pastern angles, and good angulation in his hind quarters.

Group 2: Things You Can Live With (The Yellow Category)
You might not define this group as explicitly as you do the other two.  This category is comprised of both traits that are neither advantageous nor disadvantageous, and also traits that maybe aren't ideal, but you feel that you can comfortably manage them.

Slightly over at the knee - it would never be on my green list, but if he was otherwise awesome I wouldn't cull for it (in a jumper), so it goes in my "yellow" category.  Behind at the knee, on the other hand, is on my red list for a jumper.

Group 3: Things You Would Cull For (The Red Category)
This should be an explicitly defined group.  What would make you pass over a horse?  What will set a horse up for failure in your chosen sport?  That's this list, and it will be different for everyone.  For example, a couple of things on my 'cull' list are things that increase concussion: small feet and upright pasterns.  Also on my list are things I just don't want to deal with, like poor quality feet.  But on someone else's list, poor quality feet might be in the "Yellow" list because they feel they can manage it, or the horse is otherwise worth it, and that's totally fine!

Small feet and upright pasterns - this is a cull for me as an eventer, but not in Western halter where concussion isn't a factor.

After I've culled for the 'Red List' traits I can't live with, I can then weigh non-conformation factors like brain, temperament, bravery, etc against the Green and Yellow categories.  It's really important to first cull 'red traits' before culling for brain traits.

Say you're choosing between one horse with 2 green traits and 5 yellow traits that is smart, patient, and brave, and a second horse that has 5 green traits and 2 yellow traits but he's crazy.  In this case, you might choose against the better conformed horse to pick the better brain, and since you've already culled everything in your 'Red' category, you know you'll be conformationally okay no matter what you decide.  This saves you a lot of heartache and possible injuries down the road.

I would really like to encourage open discussion on these conformation posts, so feel free to ask questions or call me out or engage in discussions.  I love chatting about conformation!