Weren’t we talking about prospects?

Where does time go - I know it was a long time ago, but I think I left off the discussion on prospects talking about the conformation of the horse we would like to have, and some of the things we really don’t care for toomuch. The last thing I talked about was the head and shoulders, but I’m still not done with the front of the horse.

For one thing, we don’t want to see a lot of room between the horses from legs nor do we want to see them looking like they came out of the same hole. And, we don’t want the heavy bulging forearms that are so popular on halter horses -we want an athletic forearm.

Although, I have heard about open knees, I have never had that cause a problem on any of the horses I have had. Off-set knees are something to stay away from because they will more than likely cause you trouble. An off-set knee is where the cannon bone does not come straight down from the knee and is off-set on the inside or the outside. This puts a lot of stress on the joints during training, performance and any performance maneuver done at speed. As long the cannon bone comes straight out of the horse’s knee, I have never had much knee trouble. Even horses that toe in or toe out haven’t caused me really much grief. I wouldn’t encourage anybody to buy a horse with crooked legs but if the whole structure of the legs follows the same line, I might take the chance if I really like the horse. Not for a whole lot of money though!

The lines and the angles of the front pasterns is something we do want to pay attention to. We used to want a horse with a lot slope and longer pasterns but that is not the case anymore. A reined cow horse has a lot of stress on tendons and ligaments during conditioning, gallops and cow work and the horses that have long sloping pasterns are more susceptible to suspensory injury during high stress activities. Also horses with longer sloping pasterns have more difficulties crossing over in the spins because their foot is too far out in front of them. Because of this we look for pasterns that are slightly shorter, without too much slope. If I had to choose, I would rather have pasterns that were short and steep, rather than long and sloping.

Now that we are down the horse this far, let’s look its feet. I am a believer in no foot, no horse. Horses whose heels are under slung instead of growing straight down can cause a lot of problems for the owner. As the foot grows the toe tends to get longer and the heel gets more under slung. This takes the foot longer to break over, therefore putting more strain on tendons and ligaments. That particular horse is more prone to tendon problems and joint disease. And the foot should be wide, especially through the heels, which is getting harder to find these days. We see more narrow heeled horses today then we use to see.

Now let’s talk about behind the saddle on the top line. Most of the power for stopping or starting in a high performance horse should come from the loin. A horse that is short on top where the saddle goes and really strong in the loin is a horse that I am really going to like. I like a long sloping hip with a low tail set, and the tail should sit tight instead of standing out.  As for the tail itself, although, I never turned a good one away that didn’t have one, we all like to see the long, full pretty tail!

As far as the gaskin on the hind legs go, it doesn’t matter make or break a horse but it’s important. I would never take a horse with good gaskin but a weaker loin over a horse with a weaker gaskin and a strong loin. Another words loins are more important then gaskins. I have seen horses without a lot of gaskin muscles that were really top performers.

Working our way down the horse, we know come to the hocks. This is an area that is under a lot of stress in any high performance horse so what we would want to see when we look at a prospect, first of all is low hocks. A hock is a fulcrum between the gaskin and the cannon bone so the lower the hock is set the greater the leverage it has and therefore, less stress within the joints. A high percentage of your Furturity champions have low hocks. The hocks should also be fairly straight and the bones should be good size. The hock should not appear frail or wobbly. Sickle hocked horses can have their hind legs up under them a little more but the stress and the torque on the joints is greater because of the greater angle. Straight hocks are stronger and more durable and if you combine that with a short cannon bone, you’ll have a much better chance of keeping your horse sound. A horse that squeaks or has wobbly hocks can also splay, or spread too much when he slides and that leaves too much from the joints all the way up to the hips.

The underline of the horse, the belly, should be a lot longer than the top line. The horse should have a nice full rib cage for air capacity - in a working horse it is very important. Also, it is very important for mares that are later going to carry foals. It’s very important that this horse has plenty of room for the heart and lungs to work.

So know let’s talk about over all appearance. We have looked at all of the nuts and bolts but where does pretty rank on our list of positives and negatives. A horse with a big pretty head and a kind eye is right up there. Usually, the horse’s eye is an indication of its character. Some horses just have that star quality, a “look at me” way about them that is so important in the show pen. A horse that strikes you in this way will probably get the same reaction from horse show judges.

Now that we have gone through the parts separately, we look at the horse’s silhouette in front of us. Is the total package symmetrical? Is it balanced? Is it slightly uphill in appearance? Not every horse that has this athletic confirmation is a good horse. But most of the good horses do have this confirmation. I’ll choose a horse with a natural slightly uphill build because it makes getting the horse in the correct posture to perform in high performance so much easier. Buying a horse that is built to do the job can you happy in the show pen. Hopefully, it will keep you from having a big pile of vet bills.