Oh, good stuff for me to think about! I’ve been reading Deb Bennetts conformation books and trying to get a handle on
what I can and can’t assume from a visual inspection, which is what has
got me thinking about this. I know
that all of my horses except one (so far, she’s had lots of other things
to deal with) generally use their hind quarters well – we have lots of
hills to work which has definitely helped their hind end development and we
work on watching them both up and down hill. Also, they all (except the one) overstep well.
I think I have more of a front end disparity between the
horses, rather than the hind end.So
I have 2 that take a long stride with the front, come up well from behind and I
think of them as really moving out.They look under control down hills, but for some reason it has not been
comfortable to ride, so I think that we should focus more on their engagement
than we have. The 4 that are short strided in front still engage well from behind, but their
overall stride length is less and they walk slower. They have just been handling the hills
exceptionally competently, which I have definitely felt riding them.
