Good Angles/Lengths of Conformation

http://medford.craigslist.org/grd/1066857406.html

Alright, look at the lower right hand corner pic of the Arabian (or Arab cross). See the angle of the shoulder?? Look at the hip and see that angle. On a horse, the angle of the shoulder should match the angle of the hip. They should be about the same length too. The angle of the front pasterns should be the same angle too although that is not in style right now (dumb move if you ask me...just begging for navicular...).

The head should naturally be at the same angle of the shoulder and hip. The head should be about the length of the underside of the neck, from throatlatch to where it ties in in the chest.

If you were to measure, the length from the back of the withers to the poll should be the same length as from back of the withers to the dock of the tail. If you drop a plumb line down the point of buttock, the line should run down the back of the hind leg. As an aside, too many horses nowadays are being bred that have the straight hind leg ('post legged' in horse lingo) and I'm against it also (is that a surprise??). A lot of race horses are bred this way as the breeder feels the horse can run faster. I don't know if this is true but from a performance POV, it's a dumb move.

The head should be about the same length as the forearm of the horse. On this horse, the forearm looks a little too short as the knees are a bit high. In a perfect world though, the head/forearm length should be the same.

When you get the bigger angles on a horse, you're going to have more floatiness, especially trotting. That's too much for me. I've heard where you want a 45 degree angle but I prefer about 50 degrees for my saddle horses. I don't really do halter other than to make sure my horses will hold up but I like a good looking equine.

As for the length of the back, there are two different schools on this. Some people will say a long-short-long, meaning a long shoulder, short back and long hip. Others (like me) will say a same-same-same meaning the same length of shoulder, back and hip. Like I said, I don't do halter but want equilibrium when looking at a horse plus performance. So I like the back to be the same length as the shoulder and hip as I feel I get a better ride. Also, I've never really had problems with the scoche longer back that 'everyone else' warns about. But that's just me.

Of course, this will come up time and time again as I go on looking at ads. What else is new?? :-)