Show Hunter: Build vs. Breeding Corner By Judy Wardrope
point of view
not excel as a jumper. Instead, he became a successful show hunter. Why? If we look at his structure, we can see where he varies from the grand prix jumper his lineage would lead us to believe he should have been and why he is a hunter instead. As with an equine partner for any athletic
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endeavor, we want the hunter’s lumbosacral gap or LS (the palpable depression just in front of the high point of croup) to provide strength. The ideal location is when a line drawn from the top of one hip to the top of the other hip bisects the
ur sample horse has what most would consider a stellar pedigree for jumping; yet, despite that pedigree, he did
LS gap. The further the gap is rearward of the line from hip to hip, the less athleticism and the more likely the horse is to compensate by ridging his back muscles or develop a hunter’s bump. Our sample horse’s LS appears to be just rearward of ideal, but within athletic limits. The successful show hunter’s hindquarters can be similar to either a jumper or a dressage horse. The dressage type will show a slightly shorter ilium (point of hip to point of buttock) than femur (point of buttock to stifle protrusion) and the jumper type will show an ilium and femur of similar length. The dressage type tends to score better on the flat, while the jumper type tends to score better over fences.
36 May/June 2011
Conformation
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