Age: 5 year old mare
Breed: Dutch Warmblood and Thoroughbred cross
Job: hunter/jumper prospect
From
Conformation Critique
From
Conformation Critique My first impression of this horse is that she is not in great condition - I’d like to see greater muscling along her top end and hindquarters - but her underlying skeletal structure is rather good and balanced. She will excel as a sport horse given the right conditioning (particularly jumping or eventing in my opinion).
The base of her neck is set above the point of her shoulder, giving her more independent movement. Her shoulder itself is long and sloping, giving her a long stride (green lines). She won’t be able to start and stop quickly with this shoulder, but the rest of her isn’t built for those kind of maneuvers anyway. Her humerus is medium-long and has a nice slope to it - common for warmblood breeds. She has typical TB forearm muscling (notice how it is long muscle, rather than bulging muscle). The forearm muscle is a good indicator of how well-muscled a horse is throughout their body because there is little to no fat deposited here. The fact that this mare does not have a clearly defined structure in the forearm confirms my earlier suspicions that she could use more muscling overall. The sloping humerus is advantageous because it makes the elbow freer, a useful trait for a jumper. As for the rest of her front-end, she has good medium-high sloping withers, which will keep the saddle in place but not interfere with it. As you can see, she is ever so slightly higher in the front end than the back end - another advantageous trait for a sport horse. Her neck is a little long, but not horribly so.
Her hind-end is well proportioned and substantial, considering her breeding. Though the picture does not set her up perfectly, she appears to have a good angle to her hocks. Her pelvis is very long and has a nice slope to it. With proper conditioning this mare should have a good engine in the bum, and her shorter back will make it easier for her to utilize that power.
This mare is light boned and her joints appear small. Luckily her better conformation will mean the stresses on her bones, tendons, ligaments and joints will be spread out evenly. Her feet match her light bone and are rather small - something that is more of a personal preference for me to nitpick. I would like to see better pictures of her knees before purchasing this horse to make sure she does not have any faults such as being tied in at the knee.
Overall this horse is built with long musculature that is reflected in her skeleton, which is also built with good slopes and long bones. This mare will excel at covering ground quickly and efficiently. Whether she would excel more at being a hunter, a jumper or eventer (or all three) may depend more on her temperament than conformation.
What would you use her for if she was yours?
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