What should I look for in horse conformation?

Gurl27: What do you personally look for in horse conformation + when buying a horse?
What do you personally look for in horse conformation + when buying a horse? Some advice tips, pictures and/or videos would be highly appreciated. When I ask conformation I’m asking for Quarter Horse conformation. What movement do you look for in lets say western pleasure and hunter under the saddle?

Is there any special techniques you use when testing out a horse or watching it move?

Answers and Views:

Answer by BLUE
Nice buttocks, nice chest, not a skinny neck, not a small face, no small eyes, little feet… long main, muscular body… nice rhythm.
I’d say I like nice beefy quarter horses that still have that elegance.

Answer by Kristina
quarter horses vary so much in conformation so it’s a really broad statement to say that you’re asking for QH conformation.

of course you want to look for over-all balance, like you would with any horse. if you want a cutting horse, you want one that’s relatively small and *slightly* downhill or level. for a reining horse, you want one that’s level or uphill. roping, you want a bigger, sturdy horse, level or uphill. barrel horse, you want medium sized, level or uphill, long legs. all of those horses should have a more natural, normal neck set, slightly arched.

with a western pleasure or HUS horse, you’re looking more at the appendix type QH as opposed to the foundation bulldog-type. you’ll want an awesome shoulder angle so that you get a nice long, sweeping stride. look for a lower neck set, but please don’t go for nose-dragging. other than that, it’s the same with pretty much every breed with the basics of good conformation.

Answer by PiggyDog

Ok meet clover and lady! lol

These are the big things I look for when buying a horse…

I want a horse to porprotion out into thirds well… (marked in red) As you can see, my both my black and paint mare has a bit of a longer mid section then what I would like to see… The black has a bit more hip then shoulder but the paint balances well overall.

I like to see short cannon bones (pink arrow)

I also look for a similar angle on the hip and shoulder (yellow) I also do not want a horse that stands allot higher at the hip or at the shoulder. Look at it as creating a trapizoid…You want your angles to be pretty close and the line that connects the top be as close to flat as possible.

I like a small pretty head and a kind large eye… I perfer a horse that has a bit of a bug eye. I work cattle and a horse with larger more buggy eyes can see better then a horse with a small inset eye.

I want the horse to tie in well and have good muscle definition.

Straight legs and I personally perfer a more ‘bulldog’ type build… As you can see both of these mares are pretty hefty.

I always like to stand behind the horse and watch it move away from me at a walk and trot… I like to do this because if they angles on their feet are bad, they’ll lap…(throw the foot out excessively) This just means more money for me later on down the road to get it right.
I like to see a level head set naturally… Watch the horse on the lounge line and just out in the feild…if it has its head up while traveling, then you are going to inhibit its movement by asking it to lower its head. A horse with a naturally low head set is what you want to look for.
Watch it stride out…If the horse is heavy on its front or hind end, I’d move on… You want the horse to stay light and not rely to much on any one part of its body at one time
Overall though, ever a horse that is text book perferct I’ll pass up if they have a poor attitude…

Answer by ShesADreamer
I personally lease out the horse for around 3 months before deciding on the purchase. When testing out do lots of transitions, working trot, flying lead changes, etc.