WELCOME TO HORSE JUDGING BASICS!

This website is a resource for Dickinson County 4H Horse Project members interested in competing in horse judging competitions, or just increasing their skills in evaluating horse conformation and performance.

Let's start with the basics. Here is an image that represents the most commonly referred to points of a horse's anatomy.


1. Poll; 2. Crest of the neck; 3. forehead; 4. Nostril; 5. Muzzle; 6. Point of shoulder; 7. Breast; 8. Chest; 9. Forearm; 10. Knee; 11. Coronet; 12. Hoof; 13. Pastern; 14. Fetlock; 15. Cannon; 16. Fetlock; 17. Rear Cannon; 18. Underline; 19. Hock; 20. Gaskin; 21. Stifle; 22. Flank; 23. Point of Hip; 24. Loin; 25. Back; 26. Withers; 27. Throatlatch; 28. Neck; 29. Shoulder; 30. Barrel; 31. Heartgirth; 32. Elbow; 33. Hindquarters

The key to a sound and athletic horse is the straightness and structure of its legs. Here are some representations of leg structure, both correct and incorrect.


A. Correct - you can draw a straight line from the top of the leg to the ground, and it passes through the center of the knees and fetlocks. You can see that this horse will track in a straight manner, and that the weight of its body is evenly distributed on the bones of its leg.
B. Incorrect, toes out - You can see that this horse is "splayfooted," with the rotation beginning at the knee. Because of the angle of this horse's leg bones, as it walks or trots its legs will swing back inward toward one another, and weight is poorly distributed on the legs, making the horse more prone to lameness.
C. Incorrect, toes in - In contrast to the last image, this sketch shows a horse that is "pigeon toed," which not only causes weakness in bearing weight, but also will cause the horse to "wing out," or swing outward away from the body.
D. Incorrect, base wide - In this sketch you can see that the horse stands with its legs further apart at the hoof than the elbow. While this isn't ideal, it is a relatively minor incorrectness compared to a horse that toes in or out.
E. Incorrect,base narrow - This representation is of a horse that "stands close," without equal distance between the legs from the elbow to the hoof.
F. Incorrect, bowlegged - This horse's legs actually bow out at the knee, an extremely severe incorrectness as the already fragile knee cannot hold up well to this kind of pressure.

"THE THREE" Areas of Evaluation in Horse Conformation


Balance, Muscle, and Quality

1. Balance Balance is the hardest part of judging halter horses to describe, but it is also the most important, and over time identifying a balanced horse from an unbalanced horse will be second nature. Balance is the overall structural symmetry of a horse, its shoulder angle, and its topline levelness.