Evaluating Horse Conformation Pt 4

Since the horse uses its head for balance, it is critical that the weight of the head be in proportion to the body. When a horse has too large and heavy a head, it tends to be unable to move weight off of its front end and therefore lacks in athletic ability.

Although the "ideal" head will vary somewhat among breeds, a few basic principles pertaining to the size and shape of the head are fairly universal. The distance from the poll to the midpoint between the eyes should be half the distance from the midpoint of the eyes to the midpoint of the nostrils. In other words, the eye will be positioned at about one-third of the distance from the poll to the nostrils. Also, the width of the horse's head from the outside of one eye to the outside of the other should be approximately the same length as the distance from the poll to a horizontal line drawn between the eyes. This width is important to provide room for the brain and also for sinuses, tear ducts and breathing canals located beneath the skull, as well as being aesthetically appealing.

photo of horse with a nicely
shaped, refined head. photo of horse with a slight Roman nose. Figure 10: The horse on the top has a nicely shaped, refined head. The horse on the bottom has a slight Roman nose.
Common structural characteristics of the head that are generally faulted are the Roman nose and the platter jaw. A Roman nose describes a condition in which the front of the horse's face is rounded outwards as opposed to being flat (Figure 10). This usually does not affect the use of the horse other than it is not as attractive and often adds weight to the horse's head. A platter jaw is condition that describes excessively large jaws on the horse. It also detracts from a refined look and is undesirable because it adds weight and interferes with the horse's ability to flex at the poll.

Other important considerations when examining the head are nostril size and eye size and shape. Nostrils should be large and round to allow maximum intake of air when the horse is working hard and breathing heavily. It is also desirable for the horse to have large, dark eyes set far apart and to the outside of the head to allow for good vision. It is important to understand the horse's field of vision in order to understand why eye placement and size is important. Horses have more developed monocular vision than binocular vision. The horse sees a different picture out of each eye (monocular vision) very well but has more limited binocular vision (seeing the same picture in both eyes of what is directly in front of it). Because of these factors, horses with small eyes or eyes that are too close together are faulted because their field of vision may be more limited.

While it is important to be able to evaluate the horse's head, both for proportionality as well as refinement, it is equally important to recognize that the head is not as critical as other previously discussed proportions when determining balance. Refinement and attractiveness of the head should never take precedence over other measures of balance or structural correctness.

When analyzing the conformation of the horse's legs, it is important to examine the horse from a side view, a front view and a hind view. When observing the front legs from a front view (facing the horse), one should be able to draw a straight line from the point of the shoulder to the ground that bisects the leg exactly in half (Figure 12). The hoof and knee should point forward and be bisected in half by the line. The width of the hooves at the sole should be roughly the same as the width of the legs as they originate from the chest. Deviations from this cause extra strain to be placed on different regions of the legs.

It is important to understand that all of these conformational defects can lead to lameness and blemishes because they cause excessive pressure to be centered on a certain area of the legs.