Conformation Clinic Part 4
One of my favorite horse pictures is of Secretariat coming down the home stretch of the Kentucky Derby. In the photo he is not stretched out in his stride, but gathered together as the hind legs are about to hit the ground and send him flying forward. As we discussed last month, the conformation of his shoulder and front quarters will help him to stretch out and cover as much ground as possible; but it is the hindquarters that will propel him forward. In the photo you see the hindquarters bulging out much wider than his sides and the muscles rippling. You can almost feel the power coming from them. Then I notice the how the hind legs extend well in front of the horse's girth and think of all that power being transferred through those slender legs. Incredible!
Quarter horses are known for their plump, pear shaped rumps, while thoroughbreds tend to have more prominent bone along the croup (from just above the hip to the dock of the tail). We discussed the proper length and slope of the croup in part 2 of our conformation clinic when we looked at the horse's entire top line.
Because of the massive muscle structure in the hindquarters, conditioning of the horse will have a major impact on its appearance. A horse that is properly conditioned will have a firm roundness to the hindquarters. One that is very poorly conditioned, severely underweight, very old, or suffering from a muscle degenerating disease such as Cushings will be flat, soft or even sunken in on either side of the croup. A horse that is grossly overweight will have a crease down the center of his croup where the fat accumulates on either side of the bone.
Looking for our imaginary lines once again to guide us, draw a line from the hip bone back to the furthest point on the horse's buttocks. Then drop another line straight down from that point to the ground. If the horse has correct conformation in the hind legs the line will fall on the back of the hock (the joint in the middle of the leg) and down the back of the cannon bone. As with the front legs, the hind legs may be, "Camped Under," (the leg is in front of this line) or, "Camped Out" (the line falls in the middle or in front of the leg).
There are four joints in the hindquarters. The hip joint is on the top, then the stifle joint where the leg meets the body, the hock joint, and the ankle or fetlock joint. The independent movement of each joint as well as their orchestrated movement in the stride is fascinating to study. It takes a well trained eye to be able to decipher the exact location of lameness in the hind legs.
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