What to look for when buying a new horse
Throughout October 2024 Horses Inside Out are running a series of 3 webinars (one each week) with Dr Sue Dyson called ‘Prevention is better than cure’
Last night was the first in the series, titled ‘Conformation Assessment: What Does Good Look Like?’ Aimed at horse owners wanting to be able to assess their own horse in more detail but also at anyone looking to purchase a new horse, things to be aware of, what to look for in terms of conformation and potential longevity as a working horse and long term soundness.
Sue gave us a flavour of this talk at the Horses Inside Out Conference in February this year with her lecture ‘Can Performance & Longevity be Predited by Assessment of Conformation?’ You can read more about the conference in my previous blog.
In this webinar Sue began by discussing how we can assess a horse’s static conformation and the importance of having the horse standing square for this. And then began to show us ways of assessing the horse. I thought she shared some very interesting points. One of which related not just to the horse itself, but that when we are looking to buy a horse, whether for ourselves, or perhaps for a client, it is important that the conformation of the horse is suitable for the conformation of the rider. The horse must have an adequate length of back for example to support the height and size of the rider.
Onto the horse itself, some key points to look out for – length of neck should be equal to length of back. Sue says that long backed horses are typically more difficult to ride and train.
However short backed horses have their own challenges, as a shorter thoracolumbar spine affects the amount of mobility in the back and therefore also muscle development. Short backed horses are much more likely to have kissing spine, however the presence of kissing spine does not directly relate to back pain or poor performance, but it may mean that the back has less mobility.
Interestingly when asked by one of the webinar participants in the Q&A section of the webinar what X-rays, if any, Sue would recommend at the pre purchase exam, she recommended avoiding back x-rays, as most horses will have some kind of abnormality or variation in the spine, but this does not mean it has clinical significance.
She says that clinical findings and performance record are more important in helping you make a decision on a horse’s likeliness to have future soundness.
She did say if you really want to have x-rays, go for the front feet and the hocks. But Sue shared that she has never x-rayed a horse that she has purchased for herself. I thought that was a really interesting insight.
I actually asked a question myself in the Q&A. I was interested to know how Sue determined if when assessing a horse it was easy to tell what was a conformational trait and what was postural? Sue’s response to this was that if posture is not normal, it is most likely due to the horse having an underlying problem. An interesting perspective.
Talking more about the topline of the horse, one of the points Sue took time to put across was that she strongly advises against buying a horse where the Tuber sacrale (top point of the pelvis) is higher than the withers. These horses are predisposed to Proximal Suspensory Desmitis, Sacroiliac pain and other lameness issues.
Also be aware of adipose (fat) tissue when assessing the musculature of the horse as obesity can conceal abnormalities in muscle development. And obesity is also linked to other issues such as sub clinical lameness, limb overload, overworking of the heart, lungs and other organs and also changes in enzyme activity, predisposing them to musculoskeletal injury.
Another interesting point to consider when looking at the musculature of the back is that horses with limb pain will reduce their back range of movement and so will often have lost muscle mass in the back.
But also riding horses with their nose behind the vertical will reduce back range of movement, affecting the top line muscles but particularly the lumbar region of the back.
Poor back muscle development can also be secondary to long term poor saddle fit, and actually, if this has been ongoing for an extended period of time, these back muscles may never fully recover.
So there is a lot to consider just when assessing the topline of the horse you are a looking at, not just conformation but condition, management and training as well.
Sue then went on to talk about how the neck of the horse is set and also how to assess the musculature of the neck. For example, a low set neck can lead to relative overloading of the forelimbs and potential future lameness. And if the musculature of the side if the neck shows some concavity, instead of being flat or convex, this could be an indicator of caudal neck pain.
She next went on to discuss the legs and feet. There are so many possible deviations in these areas both in the front and hind limbs and feet. Sue shares lots of images with annotations to make these really clear.
An important point she makes though is that conformation assessed in a static standing horse does not necessarily accurately predict how the limb will be loaded (dynamic conformation) in other words, you can’t predict the way the horse will move just by the way it appears when standing.
She demonstrates this with images and videos of the same horses.
Limb, pasterns & foot deviations all affect long term soundness.
Sue says horses are not born with asymmetrical front feet, but many develop them due to grazing posture, work load, long term lameness. And stresses the importance of having a good farrier on your team, but advises against purchasing a horse with asymmetrical front feet.
Sue also made a point about the size of the feet which I had not really considered before, which was that small feet mean there is more force through the foot per surface area, which is not a good thing.
And although it is not conformation related, taking a look at the horn quality of the hoof is important. Poor horn quality is relative to more foot related issues.
This is just a small snap shot of what was shared in this incredible webinar. Sue covered so much in 2 hours that I couldn’t make notes fast enough, thank goodness as with all Horses Inside Out hosted webinars we will be receiving access to a recording of the webinar to watch at our own pace.
I am really looking forward to part 2 of this webinar series which will take place next Wednesday. This webinar is titled ‘Promoting Longevity: Maintaining Soundness and Optimising Performance’
You can purchase your ticket here.
Thank you for visiting my blog, I hope you found this post useful.
Jess