The Conformation of the Dressage Horse by Conrad Schumacher and Dr. Hillary Clayton

One session at the 1999 National Symposium was devoted to the qualities Mr. Schumacher and Dr. Clayton look for in a horse that can go to the highest levels of dressage.

Withers not forward
According to Mr. Schumacher, first he looks for the "middle" of the horse to be at the point where the rear potion of the raised spines of the thoracic vertebrae (which form the withers) blend into the flat of the horse's back. This allows the rider to sit over the horse's center of gravity. When horses are constructed with the withers very forward, with a long back and a high croup, it is impossible to sit with enough of the horse "in front of the rider" and very hard to produce collection.

Rectangular horse
Mr. Schumacher also wants a horse that is "rectangular" in appearance. From his chest to his hindquarters, he should be longer than his height from the withers to the ground. His length should come, not from the back itself being long, but from a big shoulder and from big quarters. The legs should be relatively short with the joints near the ground. This gives the horse a better natural balance. "Long legged horses look very elegant," he observed, "but try to ride a six meter volte with them!"

90 degree angle neck
Ideally, the horse's neck should be set on at a ninety-degree angle to the slope of the shoulder so that the horse can carry himself "up" in front. Mr. Schumacher also looks at the connection between the neck and head. The neck must not be too thick, which would impede lateral flexion at the poll. The top of the first vertebra and the occipital bone must be flat, that is, nearly at the same height. If the first vertebra is higher, the horse will overflex too easily and come behind the bridle. If the first vertebra is too low compared to the occipital bone, it is too difficult to get the horse to be round enough in his frame.

Fit your fist
You should also be able to fit your fist in the space under and between the horse's jawbones, and there must be enough space in the throatlatch area that the horse's ability to flex is unobstructed. Check, too, Mr. Schumacher reminded, that there's enough room in the horse's mouth to accommodate a double bridle.

Not all of these features may be perfect in any given horse. If they are not, the horse must have enough natural activity in his hindquarters to help the rider to overcome these front-end conformation problems when training begins.

Flexibility
Another quality of great importance is the horse's flexibility. "We can't breed the gaits any bigger," Mr. Schumacher said. "So in the past ten years more and more emphasis has been placed on flexibility and temperament." With Sue Blinks's horse, Flim Flam, he demonstrated that if he pushed lightly on the horse's back, the barrel would lower. Pushing up on the horse's under-belly caused him to lift his back. The tail, he showed, should also be moveable, and the neck should be pliable and bendable from side to side.

Greater slope of the shoulder
Dr. Clayton said that to her, the sum total of conformation is how the horse moves. However, there are conformational aspects that she looks for which have a beneficial effect on soundness. One is the slope of the horse's shoulder. Horses that have the top of the scapula (shoulder blade) further back - resulting in more slope to the shoulder - are better able to absorb concussion during locomotion and stay more sound. This greater slope also puts the withers and, therefore, the saddle further back, reinforcing Mr. Schumacher's first point.

Long, upright "upper arm"
A second aspect is the length and slope of the humerus (the horse's "upper arm"). This bone extends from the point of the shoulder downward and to the rear, terminating at a point below the big bulge of the horse's triceps muscle and about halfway across the width of the leg. According to Dr. Clayton, for better orthopedic health, this bone should be long and the angle relatively upright. In motion the horse should have good freedom to be able to move both the bottom part of his shoulder and his elbow forward and up.

Long, forward sloping "thigh bone"
In the hindleg, the feature that Dr. Clayton most associates both with good movement and with soundness is the length and angle of the femur (the horse's "thigh bone"). The femur should be long and should slope forward from the hip joint to the stifle joint, allowing the leg to come well under the horse in motion.

Close in the hindlegs
"In the lower limbs," she noted, "we tend to get carried away always looking for perfection." Recent research indicates that slight deviations from the ideal vertical alignment of the joints have not proven to cause significant soundness problems. "In warmbloods about eighty percent of the horses are toed-out…. I don't get too excited about minor amounts of toe-ing in, toe-ing out or 'bench knees,' where the cannon bone is offset to the outside of the radius," Dr. Clayton said.
"In dressage horses," she added, "being a little close in the hindlegs is often a good thing. When the horse is moving, the hock naturally turns inward and the stifle naturally turns outward. This allows the hindleg to clear the horse's barrel. If the hocks are a little more in, this gives the horse more clearance between his stifles and his barrel in the lateral movements."

A will to work
Looking at Flim Flam, Dr. Clayton smilingly observed that he wouldn't win a conformation competition. "He's quite narrow through the chest and he toes out a little, BUT he's one of the best horses in the world. Remember to look at the way a horse moves, not just how he stands."
On the subject of temperament, Mr. Schumacher said that a good dressage horse must be able to move well, but that in the upper levels, up to two-thirds of a horse's success springs from "a will to work, his natural sensitivity, and his inner tranquility."
"Normally those with a lot of inner tranquility are lazy, and those with a lot of sensitivity are crazy and hard to work with." Finding just the right combination is very difficult. Mr. Schumacher cited Ideaal (ridden internationally by Jo Hinnemann, Sven Rothenberger, and Gonnelien Rothenberger): "Ideaal was a horse with pretty bad conformation but a heart - unbelievable - he won his last international medal at the age of twenty. He really had these three qualities."

Horse that wants to contact you
With a young horse, Mr. Schumacher says, "Look at their eye." Pointing to Flim Flam, he said, "If I had seen him as a young horse, the first thing I'd notice is his natural charm and his big eyes. This is the feel that there is character there.… Watching a three year old loose in the arena, what I want to see is a horse that wants to contact me, not just one running around, crazy, with a stiff neck…. Almost like a human being, they must look at you; they must talk to you. In the long run this is what makes a better horse."

Large horse = large feet
Mr. Schumacher commented that for International horses, it is important to choose one that's big enough - one that makes a good visual impression to the judges even from eighty meters away when he's at the far end of the arena. Dr. Clayton warned, though, that horses that are very big are more difficult to keep sound. With very tall horses, the mass of the horse increases more than does the strength of the supporting tissues. Look for good-sized feet, she counseled, and ones which exactly match each other. If one front foot is considerably smaller or narrower than the other, it may signify a pre-existing problem.
For "normal" riders, Mr. Schumacher recommended that they find a horse that's the right size and proportion for their bodies. Ones that fill out your legs but are not so big that the rider's weight goes unnoticed are ideal. The actual size isn't the most important thing. Often a smaller horse with a nice neck who "carries himself big," will make a better impression and still be easier to ride.

In conclusion, both Dr. Clayton and Mr. Schumacher agreed that it is easy to pick apart any horse's conformation. But the overall picture derived from structure, flexibility, and temperament, together with his balance and how fluidly he moves, all play important roles in determining whether the horse you're looking at can do the job you want him to.

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