Common Leg Faults of Horses I: Conformation
Good conformation covers many of those attributes by which horsemen through experience have related to a trouble-free show, performance or breeding horse. It is essential however, that it be coupled with ability and spirit. Each of these ingredients is essential for the production of a quality horse.
Since ability and spirit are qualities that are more easily assessed by observation of the horse during performance and may vary according to the particular requirements of the owner or purchaser, it is conformation that becomes the most important consideration in the selection of a horse either for pleasure, work or breeding.
What is good conformation?
Essentially, conformation covers the head, body and limbs and their ability to offer good function whether it be for eating, breathing or performance. Frequently, the breed and use of the horse may dictate the head and body shape, and size; many of the principles of good conformation relate to all horses irrespective of breed types.
It is important to remember that ‘fads’ within breeds can, if carried to extremes, lead to interference with eating or performance. A good example of this is breeding for extremely fine (narrow) muzzles on horses, which leads to both eating problems, and airway interference leading to poor performance.
It's a matter of proportion
The horse must be viewed as a whole animal and an assessment made as to balance and proportion of its various parts. For example, a draught horse head on a Shetland pony would be obvious and rather ludicrous, but such horses do pop up, especially if they have a coat colour to maintain, that is to say the horses are bred for colour first and conformation second - a bad and stupid husbandry mistake to make if you are into breeding horses.
The limbs must be proportionate to the rest of the horse. Heavy bodied horses must have correspondingly heavier legs to support their weight. This is frequently overlooked in horses that have apparently normal legs but carry either excessive weight due to fatness, or are just generally more heavily muscled than normal for their leg size. In addition, co-ordination between front and hind legs is important because an overall well-balanced conformation is essential to avoid future lameness problems.
Genral approach to limb conformation
An over-view is always an important part of your assessment of the limbs of a horse. Does the horse stand fully supported by all his four legs? Are they placed vertically or are they angled forwards or backwards from the body? From the front view are they perpendicular or are they deviated from the shoulder, knee, or fetlock? On occasions the feet may also be abnormally deviated. Viewed from behind, the same deviations apply to the stifle, hock and fetlocks.
Conformation of the limbs frequently determines the shape of the feet, the wear of the foot, distribution of weight and the flight path of the feet. By far the greatest concern with conformation and its relationship to performance is the likelihood of its producing lameness, either transient or permanent.
The next step in the understanding of conformation and lameness is that faulty limb conformation is not an unsoundness in itself, rather it should be regarded as a weakness that can predispose the horse to lameness that it would not have had if born with a normal conformation. It must be remembered that there are very few horses which can be regarded as being completely free of all conformational faults and there are, in fact, a very large percentage of horses without this perfect conformation that perform their allotted work without undue trouble or lameness.
By Dr Reginald R. R. Pascoe AM - Last updated 16 November 2012
