Conformation and Performance

Conformation and performance are intrinsically linked - and it is vital to understand  this

Conformation characteristics affect a horse’s range of movement, and its ability to perform in the desired discipline. 

Certain body dimensions are desirable and advantageous for sport performance, and whether the horse will be able to endure years of training and competing. A well conformed horse is one that is adapted to suit the job it was bred for -  it is not necessarily about beauty
 

Judy Wardrope’s ebooks and articles on functional conformation at www.jwequine.com provide the most practical and interesting information on conformation that is available

Judy looks at the worlds top horses in all disciplines including dressage, jumping, eventing,  racing and western disciplines. She has photos and diagrams on the ideal conformation areas which affect elite performance, and the limits of what are and what are not acceptable. This is not about breeding for  beauty – it is about functional conformation for sport horses. 

Judy says even if a horse has less than ideal conformation, if he is built to compensate with this then his performance may not be affected. She says horses with the correct skeletal structure can perform their jobs with far less training times.

 For instance, Donnerhall reportedly reached GP level after two years of training.

Maxima Bella was competing at Grand Prix level at 7, and competing at the Olympics at 8  years of age so she  obviously had the correct conformation to move easily up the levels.
 

William Back in his book Equine Locomotion, said that when a horse in training is showing resistance to moving up the levels, it could be pain or lack of ability to carry weight on the hind legs due to inappropriate conformation, and not from temperament issues as is commonly thought.
“Potential world class GP horses are difficult to find because many promising young horses with excellent gaits fail to learn to piaffe passage and other collected movements (due to conformation issues) resulting in years of wasted training”
 

It is commonly known that most horses can make it up to medium level dressage – and jump 90cm. However, once the more advanced work comes in there is a fall out, and there is even more of a fall out between PSG and GP, in the ability of horses to make these transitions into more and more collected work. There is a fall out in horses that jump 1.40 but cannot progress to 1.60.
 

It is also impossible to tell if a foal has the potential to go GP. The amount of times I have heard this over the years as a breeder - people wanting to buy a foal that will go GP simply based on the movements it is displaying as a baby and its flash pedigree. It is not possible to answer this question for foals. And this remains true across time despite the advertising claims and statements of breeders.
 

It can be very deceptive evaluating foals, which can be stunning and appear like an elegant and light ballerina’s in the first few months -  but then look completely different at 6 months old and again at 2 years old - with limb angles and hind end constructions that are undesirable for sport. These  can be almost impossible to detect in young foals.

It also requires a good knowledge of the relationship between conformation and performance, which is only gained by years of looking at horses at different stages of growth, and studying horses competing up the levels and  at the top of the sport. 

  It requires studying the biomechanics of the horse within the limits of its conformation , noticing the different angles of bones and joints and how they impact the movement - it also requires true animal sense.
 

On acceptable limits, William Back, like Judy Wardrope, says that “deviations from straight limbs have traditionally been considered weaknesses but not all should be judged as abnormal.”
 

He observed that about 80% of all warmblood riding horses had outwardly rotated hind legs – so high that it must be considered to be  within normal acceptable limits.
 

Harry Boldt said these outwardly rotated hind limbs – which means toeing out behind – can in fact “facilitate exercises such as half pass and shoulder in”.
 

William Back said that bench knees with toe in, and paddling in the front legs is a common deviation in warmblood riding horses – which does not have negative effects on long term performance - but they do have a higher incidence of splints.

“The frequency of toe in and bench knee conformation was just as present in elite competition horses as it was in a group of riding school horses - indicating that mild to moderate deviations from the straight limb conformation do not impair either soundness or performance in riding horses.”
 

Severe deviations are of course a weakness. Toeing out in the front legs is considered far worse (than toeing in) for long term performance, and can result in swelling of the metacarpal growth plate and increasing the incidence of limbs striking each other.
 

Both William Back and Judy Wardrope have observed that being over at the knee in the front legs does not seem to impair long term soundness in dressage, and there are in fact GP horses that are over at the knee. Being behind at the knee is far more likely to predispose a horse to lameness.
 

Judy Wardrope has excellent articles on her website including “Built to do the Job” , and looks at  the horse's skeletal structure. Judy says the way the skeleton is constructed indicates the appropriate discipline for each horse -  and how it impacts a horse's ability to perform and endure intense training over many years. A horse that has been bred for jumping may be a better suited as a dressage horse depending on the angles , height, length and placement of vital structures.
 

“Functional conformation, or form to function, gives breeders another tool for selecting pairings of stallions and mares to produce foals that have the functional conformation to perform well in, and withstand the rigors of training in specific disciplines”

Judy notes that pedigree is not an absolute – the horse still has to have the conformation to perform. This is 100% true, a flash pedigree cannot compensate for a bad sacroiliac / loin connection or a bad shoulder angle

She says that in thoroughbreds even the very best proven stallions only produce about 12% of winners, which means a failure rate of over 85%. So even if a cross looks great on paper, what are the odds of a foal competing at a level that even approaches the stallions own success -  unless it also has the appropriate conformation. 

Judy says that dressage horses at GP level , showjumpers and top racehorses  share many of the same conformation similarities in certain important structural areas. All horses at the top level of sport have an ideal sacro- iliac placement – where the lumbo sacral joint is positioned directly above the point of hip.
 

If you draw a line from point of hip to point of hip over the back of the horse -  the lumbo- sacral joint should be on that line or a couple of fingers behind it. Horses that have a large bump behind the hip bones  (hunters bump) will not have the necessary ability to compete at top levels.
 

Judy quotes Dr Hilary Clayton who says the hind limb rotates around the hip at walk and trot, and around the lumbo- sacral joint in canter, which is the only part of the hind vertebral column that has a significant amount of flexion for rounding. This joint is responsible for transferring all the power of the hind end forward – so its placement is vital.

Judy also says dressage horses can be straighter in the hind leg than show jumpers and have a much higher stifle placement – at sheath level or just below. The hind end construction acts like a scissor lift – it allows the dressage horse to close the angles in the hind end more easily to get the hind legs under the horse.

 Looking at the rear triangle drawn on the hind end – point of hip to point of buttock to stifle, the dressage horse has a slightly shorter ilium and a longer femur - in the shape of a number 7.  The ilium is the bone that goes from point of hip to point of buttock and the femur goes from point of buttock to stifle joint -   Judy says the shorter ilium makes it easier for horses to perform piaffe, passage and pirouette.

She observed that top dressage horses have a high point of shoulder with the underside of the neck beginning well above the point of shoulder – not where you can see the bottom of the neck coming straight out of the chest.  It should start well above the point of shoulder to give maximum freedom to the front of the horse

The humerus is the bone that goes from the elbow to the point of shoulder. Judy says the high point of shoulder, and the length and angle of the humerus, makes a big difference in the front end movement. A steeper angled humerus means a higher point of shoulder and more lightness in front, whereas a longer humerus means a longer stride.  Judy says even having a point of shoulder 1cm lower can make a horse much heavier on the forehand.
 

Dressage horses can have a shorter neck and a higher set neck, unlike showjumpers who need a longer neck for balance over jumps.
 

Freedom in the elbow where it meets the belly is important, so it is not too close as to impede free movement.
 

The take home message for dressage horses is – look for the lumbo sacral joint in the right place, a shorter ilium than femur in the hind triangle, stifle at sheath level, high point of shoulder, humerus of good angle and length, a shorter high set neck.
 

These angles can be almost impossible to determine in foals as the bones have not reached their final length, and how they will appear in the grown horse. This is part of the risk of buying horses before their mature age.

With show jumpers on the other hand, Judy says that the conformation angles have certain differences. The rear triangle angles should be equal in length with the ilium and the femur – so that the hindquarters can function like a spring to coil before take-off, and then spring to take off.  

The lumbo sacral joint must still be in the correct position – as in any discipline.
 

But the stifles are much lower than in dressage horses, well below sheath level, so the horse can reach up and stretch across a wide fence such as an oxer.

Judy says she can tell exactly how high a horse will jump just from noticing the height of the stifle placement

 Jumpers have a more steeply angled humerus from elbow to point of shoulder -  so they can snap their knees up.
They also need a higher point of shoulder to be able to clear fences with their front legs
 

And show jumpers can have a long neck to help balance over fences where it is  used as a counterbalance in take off and landing. 

 Judy says “the show jumper compresses and releases. The dressage horse compresses and sustains”
 

Judy Wardrope's website provides all this information and much more with detailed photos and measured angles. It is a must for breeders - and it totally changed the way I look at horses, so I have included the briefest of outlines here.

Genetics and Conformation

Genetics play an important role in the biomechanics of the horse, and conformation has a strong link with athletic and sport ability. There is also a strong link between genes, conformation and certain performance characteristics -  such as the capacity of the respiratory and circulation systems, the musculoskeletal system, and behavioural characteristics of the horse
 

Genetic characteristics include joint and bone angles, joint segment lengths, slope and strength of pamean he will pass this on. You can read further into the topic of breeding for type here. sterns and bones in the fore legs and hind legs, slope of shoulder, length of back, strength of croup, neck length and shape, clearance of throat latch area, stifle placement, point of shoulder and sacro-iliac position. All these traits are linked to conformation and basic gaits
 

In selecting for athleticism breeders have largely focused on conformation and quality of the gaits, and a lot of these traits show only moderate to low heritability factors. 

Just because a stallion has a climbing canter with a round front leg does not