Conformation and history of the thoroughbred horse
Thoroughbreds are very distinguishable breed for those who know the breed well. Although they lack the exquisit refinement of breeds such as the arabian and welsh pony they can easy be recognized by several well-defined characteristics. Overall, the horse should appear big and powerful when up close, but froma distance may look smaller than a quarter horse an entire hand shorter than him. Contrary to what many people think now, thoroughbreds and quarter horses are not the same thing, and in fact are quite different. Thoroughbreds do not allow the infusion of quarter horse, arabian, standardbred or any other breed's blood in the registration. There is, in fact, a half-thoroughbred registry, but none of the horses registered with this can ever be registered as full thoroughbreds, nor can any of their offspring or decendants to any date. Quarter Horse, Paint, and Appaloosa registration allows for thoroughbred blood, since it was the thoroughbred that many of these foundation sires were based on. For Quarter Horses, appendix quarter horses (those crossed thoroughbred-quarter horse) can be registered, but must stay listed as appendix until the decendants of the horse have been deluted enough by full registered quarter horse to qualify a horse as purebred again. After all, the thoroughbred did play a very important roll in the early developement of this fine and popular breed. Even though the very first quarter horses may have beed grade horses, no doubt that even if their pedigree is unknown it is perhaps a bit to largely thoroughbred background. During the 1800's the thoroughbred was a popular mount for many farmers in the United States and they owned full or half thoroughbreds. Several of these came on to be cowboys, as we would consider them. These English horses were bred to mixed and feral stock to produce the quarter horse, Paint, and Appaloosa. Although much of the decent is unknown to these breeds, even "foundation" quarter horses, if 100% pure, more than likely have not only several thoroughbreds in their background (100 years before registration started), but also breeds such as saddlebred, the early American pacing horse (which eventually, after several crosses out to the thoroughbred, turned into the American Standardbred) spanish stock, and morgan blood. Hackney and cob also played a large roll.
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Paints and Appaloosas didn't start to be a breed on their own until the Quarter Horse Association, gaining popularity very quickly, decided to not let patterned horses be allowable for registration. This upset many people, who had some very fine colored horses and wanted to keep the colors alive. They started their own associations based on the patterns. They do allow both thoroughbred and quarter horse blood to be mixed in and consider it pure, since thoroughbreds have become a very pure breed within the last few hundred years and quarter horses are becoming so. Because these fine and beautiful breeds were based on thoroughbreds and quarter horses the associations see no reason why a paint/thoroughbred or paint/quarter horse cross would be considered impure if it's all from the same blood in their foundations (and is more easily traceable) as long as the color patterns occure, which was the foundation reason for starting the associations. |
Thoroughbreds have never beed bred for looks but rather brains, so any color pattern is acceptable (although bays and chestnuts are most common) and pintos and palominos are even being specially bred in small groups within the breed by those only concerned about looks. Fortunetly, because the Jockey Club's main focus is racing and breeding and not halter horses, most of the horses are not bred for looks or severely inbred and therefore are very intellegent creatures. After all, it takes brains to win a race. However, although conformation is not a huge part of breeding, generally horses which are put together quite well have the ability to coordinate themselves better than those who aren't and therefore run faster and better. These are the horses the public is interested in breeding...not that ill-conformationed mare that happens to be a rare palomino in the breed. This fortunetly keeps bad conformation out while remaining to be an intellegent breed, a trait mostly inherited from the ancient arabian horses, who needed to be very quick to learn and intellegent in order to servive and keep their masters alive.
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Head-the head is long and narrow, not so narrow as a
saddlebred's and not as stout as that of a morgan or foundation quarter horse. The eyes
are large and expressive, usually set at a slightly more forward angle than most other
breeds, giving them an honest and hard-working look. The nose should not be concave or
convex, but rather straight, and the area around the muzzle should appear soft and
fragile. The ears should be medium in length and narrow and tend to appear very upright in
positioning. Again, not as much as those of a saddlebred but generally about the same as
that of an arabian. Nostrils should be large to accomidate rapid breathing. The neck
should be long but narrow and have a definite triangluar form, not thick and straight like
some stock horses and heavy horses. Photo by Victoria Keith |
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Body-the height of a thoroughbred varies considerably, although the average height tends to be about 16 to 16.2 hands. Some are the size of large ponies while others (usually those bred for racing or jumping) may be as tall as 17 hands-or even taller! The body should be long and narrow with a wide chest and girth but not a wide barrel, and the body should not appear stocky, as this tends to reduce speed for longer distances (although this tends to make a nice sprinter!). There are 16-17 sets of ribs in the thoroughbred, although the Northern Dancer line introduced something new (or old, depending on how you see it!)...15 sets of ribs! Where did this come from? Long ago, the thoroughbred breed decended from three mostly-to-pure-arabian stallions. Arabians only have 15 pairs of ribs, while almost all other breeds have 16-17. This trait is recessive and it was quickly bred out...but managed to stay somewhere in there after several hundred years and pop up again! Genetics really are an important roll in the breeding of thoroughbreds, and this is widely considered before a good breeder chooses to breed a horse. He will only breed for quality, not just to have a foal. After all, those who were successful as paperents tend to have the successful foals and those who never were any good seem to have the same, and by racing those foals people lose a lot of money in the process and the foal usually ends up in the slaughter house when he's about 4. Shoulders should be angled slightly and not straight, should be muscular and flanks and hindquarters should be full, as well. The horse should not have a high abdominal area. Back should be rather flat. |
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Tail-the tail of a thoroughbred may be any color, and is usually carried lower than that of an arabian but is set high to normal on the back of a thoroughbred. Tails are not set and do not arch, and may be any length but are usually very thick and longer than the hocks. Tails are usually flagged more with stallions and geldings than with mares. The tail does not lie as flat to the body as that of a quarter horse, and is most like that of the welsh pony. |
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Legs-the legs should be straight and long. They should line up evenly with the body and should not overreach on the horse by any means. Hooves should be wide to support body weight. Knees tend to be big to support movement and legs should be rather thick, but they don't always end up like this. The legs of a thoroughbred are very refined (they are very important in running) and should be well-muscled without flaw of any sort except perhaps on the skin, which won't prevent a horse from running. Bones should appear strong, healthy, and normal. Pasturnes especially are prone to injury, so they should be thick and flexible. Overall, the legs of a thoroughbred should look like that of a halter quarter horse, only slightly longer and set at a slightly different angle farther apart on the body of the horse. Legs may be any color, may have markings and striped hooves are permitted. |
C. Kari Newman and The Lucky Thoroughbred July 1999
