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Watch this video, it points to some very important differences.
Pause the video at Conformation Shot #1....
Romi the first horse, is too stocky.
He has a beautiful big depth of chest cavity and huge chest muscles, but his leg aren't long enough in proportion for his body.
He has a lovely back, but his hind muscles are lacking on his hips.
It seems he is underdeveloped at the rear for his strong muscular front.
Therefore he is going to be short striding.
The angle of his shoulder is fine, but there should be more definition.
Play video...
You'll notice his hind legs never go anywhere near filling the spots his front legs leave. He leads with his front knees and not with his shoulder, because although he has a good shoulder and chest, his hind legs lack power and leverage.
Pause the video at Conformation Shot #1 again....
Deco has good conformation.
His head is shorter.
His neck has perfect proportion and the angle is great.
He has good shoulder muscle and his hip muscles are in proportion (not lacking).
The chest cavity is not as deep as Romi, but he has plenty of muscle evenly distributed.
Play video...
He has a beautifully smooth gait and when he canters into the jump, his legs stretch from the shoulder and his hind legs stretch to almost fill the spaces the front legs left behind. He is not perfect, but he is a good example.
He has a very good reach on jumping and his head does not have to jerk to maintain balance on landing. He is a well conformed, well balanced horse.
Pause the video at Conformation Shot #2
Hans is similar to the first horse Romi, only better around the rear hip area.
However, poor Hans is unbalanced. His head is a little too long. His chest cavity is very good and deep, but again his withers are too high, and this is the pivot point or centre of gravity for a horse. There's no way he is going to be able to maintain a fluid gate and will find it hard at a canter or gallop being unbalanced. He also has a weak back, it slopes down from his rump to his withers at a bad angle. although he is better in the hind quarters and hips than Romi, he is still not evenly distributed in muscle development.
This along with his head size and withers and back problem means he is going to have to throw his head to maintain balance when jumping.
Play video and pause at each still shot.
You'll notice he has a very short stride and throws his head on landing to maintain balance.
Still shot no. 1
This is Romi the first horse.
His knees are up to his cheeks and his hind legs are way behind him.
He is not jumping from the hind legs, he is springing off them and reaching with his front legs.
Still shot no. 2
This is Deco the second horse.
Look at the angle of the hind legs, he is using a lot of power from the hind legs, they are not dragging behind, they are almost underneath him. His front knees are not up near his cheeks, he is tucking his front legs under himself and stretching out nicely with his neck.
Still shot no. 3
This is unbalanced Hans
Look at the angle of the hind legs, he is using a lot of power from the hind legs, they are not dragging behind, they are almost underneath him. His front knees are not up near his cheeks, but he is not tucking his front legs under himself and he is stretching upwards with his head and neck. He seems to be using ALL his rear and none of his front. What you don't see are the next few frames where he lands all unbalanced and throws his head to maintain balance.
Deco is 8/10 for mine and stands the best chance of becoming a good racehorse, IF he has the speed.
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