Conformation

I found this great article on Equine Ink. I love learning about conformation, one of the reasons why I was on the 4-H Hippology Team last year (hippology: the study of horses). There were links to articles by Judy Wardrope which I think are fantastic. She doesn't just say "This is good and this is bad" but instead "This is good for this discipline because..." Love it. Here's all of her articles that I read:

http://jwequine.com/pdf/Conformation-Eventer.pdf

http://jwequine.com/pdf/hunter_or_jumper.pdf

http://jwequine.com/pdf/conformation101-jumper.pdf
http://jwequine.com/pdf/conformation101-dressage.pdf

So let's compare Jetta's conformation. This picture isn't the best because she's standing under herself in the back for some reason (that's not how she normally stands) but it's the best I have.



Based on Judy Wardrope's articles, I think Jetta looks as if her conformation is leaning more towards jumping than dressage, or maybe both for eventing? Her LS looks as if it's directly above the point of her hip (I think), her hind leg stands inside of an imaginary line dropped straight down from her point of buttock (a jumper trait). It seems like she has a pretty symmetrical (equilateral) triangle from point-of-hip to point-of-buttock to stifle, though I can't be sure if her femur is slightly longer than her ilium or not (a dressage trait). She has a pretty cat-like walk which makes me think that she does have a longer femur which means a longer stride, though she'll have more difficulty in the piaffe, passage and pirouette. Her stifle is nice and low. She has a pretty high point of shoulder with a long sloping shoulder and an upright humerus which is relatively long meaning she has a long stride. Her pillar of support comes out in front of her withers meaning she's not super heavy on the forehand. Her neck does look like it ties in a little lower than would be ideal, but she has a clean throatlatch and in this picture looks as if she has more muscle on the underside of her neck, so we're working on that right now. I just wish her head was a little smaller and daintier :)

Wait, I found another picture! This is Jetta when I first bought her.

So yeah, she does have slight sickle hocks, but overall I think she has pretty good conformation, not anywhere near perfect, but not too shabby.