In the EQUUS February 2010 installment of her column “Conformation Insights” Deb Bennett, PhD, demonstrates how to overlook minor blemishes and focus on a horse’s structure and harmony of proportion. Here are nine horses she selected as examples of conformation excellence, along with tables showing their physical measurements and ratios. For the full story, go to the February 2010 issue of EQUUS (call 301-977-3900 to order back issues).

See the Nine “Perfect” Horses

(The article is in PDF format. If you have trouble viewing it, download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader program.)

Raw Measurements

Measured Angles

Ratio Calculations (rounded to nearest whole number)

Ratio with greatest range: Length of femur compared to length of gaskin = 45 Ratio with least range: Fore cannon bone length compared to body length = 2 Average range calculated over all ratios = 9.9 Average range calculated leaving out greatest and least ranges = 8.3