A sketch of an Equine fills the screen, displaying labeled body parts, accompanied by a small image of an Equine in the right corner.
It’s important to know the words used by equine handlers. When you know and use the right words, other people who own equines will be able to understand you. So, when selecting equine, you should know the proper terms used in the industry.
Under the heading "Horse Selection," there appears an image of a horse along with subheadings: “Balance, Structural Correctness, Way of Going, Muscling, Breed Characteristics, Sex Characteristics.”
Important items to consider when selecting a horse include balance, structural correctness, “way of going”, muscling, and breed and sex characteristics.
A woman stands beside a horse, showcasing its bone structure, neck, back, shoulder, topline, and underline. Subsequently, the hip and wither height are highlighted, followed by the horse's head details, emphasizing the distance between its eyes and the head's length.
Balance refers to evenness of muscling and weight from the front of the horse to the back of the horse, from its top to its bottom and from side to side. A horse can be light-bodied or heavy-bodied and still be balanced if the bone structure allows for equal distribution of that weight.
To be balanced, the neck, shoulder, back and hip should be approximately equal lengths and the horse’s topline should be shorter than its underline. The topline is measured from the withers to the point of coupling. The underline is measured from a point under the belly between the horse’s front legs to a point roughly even with the stifle.
Another important indicator of balance is hip and wither height. A horse that is higher at the withers than the hip (“uphill”) or lower at the withers than the hip (“downhill”) is not considered balanced.
A horse’s head serves as a pendulum to balance a horse as it moves, so it is critical that it be appropriately sized to the rest of the body. This includes the distance between the eyes, and the position of the eyes relative to the head.
The woman and the horse face the camera, followed by a sequence of images displaying the horse's legs from various angles: front, side, and back.
Structural correctness in a horse is mainly determined by the structure and position of the bones in the legs. To analyze this, it is important to see the leg from the front, side and back of the horse. When observing the horse from the front, you should be able to draw a straight line from the point of the shoulder to the ground that bisects the leg exactly in half. When observing the leg from the side, a straight line should be able to be drawn from the center of the scapula through the front edge of the knee to bisect the hoof. When observing the leg from the back, a straight line should be able to be drawn from the horse’s buttock through both its hock and fetlock.
A close-up focuses on the horse's leg pair. The woman handles the horse's legs, transitioning to her walking the horse inside the stable.
A horse with correct legs has maximum range of motion and moves cleanly, without interference. Its “way of going” is smooth.
A close-up of the horse's neck muscles appears.
The degree of muscling in a horse varies by breed. But overall, horses should have a deep pectoral “V” in the chest and generally have well defined muscles that are not “bunchy.”
Twelve different breeds of horses are shown, exhibiting different colors and sizes.
Breed character refers to how well a horse represents the ideal standard for its breed. Images of ideal breed animals can typically be found on breed organization websites. Breed character in horses has to do with color and size, primarily.