Other Points to Note

The horse should be 'deep through the girth,' so that when viewed from the side, it appears that there is plenty of room for the heart and lungs.

As a guide, the distance from the top of the withers to a point just behind and below the elbow should be the same as that from the elbow to the ground, therefore making the horse appear to be short legged.

Ideally, the first eight 'true' ribs, which attach to the vertebrae and the sternum, should be long and flatfish, which allows the rider's leg to sit nicely behind the triceps muscle.

The ten 'false' ribs, which attach to the vertebrae, and to cartilage attaching them to the sternum, should be rounded and well sprung, giving the appearance of a nicely rounded barrel.

There should never be more than a handspan between the last rib' and the hip bone; more is a serious conformational defect termed 'being short of a rib.'

The length of the back should be proportionate to the overall size of the horse, from nose to girth should be the same length as from girth to point of buttock. The back should be strong and not too narrow or too broad.

The loins and hindquarters should be muscular; from behind, the horse should have well-rounded quarters, be level through the pelvis and have a well-set tail.

In the hind legs, the hocks should be 'well let down' (close to the ground), with long and muscular thighs. One should be able to draw a straight line from the point of buttock to the point of hock, to the back of the fetlock joint.

Both hock and fetlock joints should be clearly defined with no. swelling or lumps, and the hind pasterns and feet should slope at an angle of about fifty degrees.