Laying the Groundwork

Because your role in your relationship with your horse is The Leader, her well-being is squarely your responsibility. The un-abused domestic horse will readily accept this arrangement, and will be utterly dependent on you to keep them healthy and happy. It's a big deal, this total responsibility for another life. You owe it to your horse to educate yourself about her species. 'Cause she ain't human. You need to understand and respect her as an emotional, mental, and physical creature that is not human. But I'm not about to go into horse psychology here. We'll stick to the physical in this blog.

A gigantic part of keeping a horse safe and sound is understanding their particular conformation. It is irresponsible at best, and fatal at worst to demand strenuous tasks of your horse while knowing nothing about their conformation.

The way a horse is put together will determine how they move, how well their body can hold up to physical strain, and consequently how sound they are likely to remain throughout their career as your mount. Conformation is a fundamental piece of horsemanship that too few people (and frighteningly few breeders) have a working knowledge of. To the detriment of horses everywhere.

On that note, if you're a horse person who can't say why a short loin is desirable, and would think I was crazy if I asked if your horse made a nice trapezoid, take a few hours to get yourself up to speed! I promise that it will be time well spent. I recommend The Horse Conformation Handbook by Heather Thomas, but even the internet will do if it must!