>>>> ah ha, a clue :) In the sorrel I see clearly the same big front end that takes up a largest third? maybe?
Come on now, Janice, don't confuse people! :) You had your very own horse (er...I mean Donny's) very own perfect Mr. Man marked up by Liz Graves last fall. Does the front end have much to do with the gaits? Not directly. For those of you who haven't been on the list for very long, a couple of people who have attended Liz Graves clinics have written up reports including summaries of her conformation analyses. She has marked up four of my horses, and by golly, she was right on the money every time. The first two she did, Falki and Trausti, she did before she ever saw them move with a rider. In fact, all she'd ever seen them do was walk into the arena. She nailed their gait preferences, right on the money. Basically, the gait disposition of the horse is determined by his/her back, hips/pelvis, and rear legs. Most of us will look at a horse and be distracted by his/her refinement (or lack of), the width of the chest, the width of the pelvis, and the straightness/crookedness of the legs, etc. While those are important factors in the long-term soundness and weight-carrying ability of the horse, they really aren't important in determining which gaits the horse will/will not do. The lengths of certain bones, and the resulting angles of certain joints mainly determine the gaits that the horse will find easy to do. These bones and joints are in the back and rear of the horse, not in the front. Sina is multi-gaited and she's a very stocky 13.0H Icelandic mare, with a refined head (in Icelandic terms anyway) but not much else about her can be called refined. She's a tank. At one time, after I'd started learning how to look at conformation in the bones and joints, a friend of mine (a trainer) had a rather refined, TB-looking, 15.1H Standardbred in from the track to be trained for saddle. It would be very difficult to find two horses that looked much different at first blush - Sina is short, stocky and palomino. Dually is lean, elegantly refined, 15.1H and dark bay. Yet their gaitedness was much the same. Sure enough, when I mentally started marking up their joint angles, they were much the same! Very few people would have noticed that, because of the obvious differences. When you go to a general-purpose Conformation or Judging clinic or class, they will usually go into the details that make for a sound conformation - ok, well, they will sometimes go into what makes for a pretty horse too. The traits that make for a sound horse are pretty universal. Generally, contrary to popular belief, it's quite possible to have a very nicely gaited horse that also meets the conformation principles for any sound horse, gaited or not. If you go to an all-breed conformation clinic, however, don't expect them to tell you what conformation makes for a well-gaited horse. That isn't always important to the people giving those clinics, since the majority of horses in the world today are three-gaited. Liz has DVDs for sale, explaining conformation as it relates to gait. You can find them on her website: www.lizgraves.com. There's also a section on conformation in Lee Ziegler's book, "Easy-Gaited Horses." These are two great resources. Karen Thomas, NC -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.441 / Virus Database: 268.17.36/681 - Release Date: 2/11/2007 6:50 PM
