In its inaugural season the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup Jumping Series has been a major focus for the U.S. and Chef d'Equipe Robert Ridland. Thursday's competition marked the second and final Nations Cup competition for the North America, Central America and Caribbean League and a strong finish by the designated "point team" the Stars Team was vital to winning the League and Final's qualification. Additionally, to demonstrate the strength and depth of the U.S. program the second American squad, the Stripes Team, was also looking for a podium finish.

McLain Ward and Rothchild

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The U.S. did just as they had set out to do as the Stripes Team of Brianne Goutal, Katie Dinan, Candice King and McLain Ward cruised to a second place finish. While the Stars Team of Kent Farrington, Reed Kessler, Charlie Jayne and Christine McCrea earned a fourth place finish and in doing so clinched the top spot in the League and Final's qualification for the U.S.

"This really fit into our plan. It would have been nice to win but we had two good finishes," said Ridland. "We've now qualified for the Finals and won the League to boot."

Ridland also believes the strategy of having two equally powered teams helped the U.S. on Thursday and is an example of things to come.

"We did it a little differently than most by having two equal teams but I think it really worked out today. Each team had a mix of veterans and young riders or young horses with more experienced riders. I believe the future looks really good."

Course Design Leopoldo Palacios built a demanding 12 obstacle track that tested not only rider's ability to leave the rails in place but also ride efficiently to finish within the time allowed. It was made all the more difficult in the second round as high winds and pouring rain picked up.

Goutal (New York, N.Y.) and Remarkable Farms LP's Nice de Prissey were the pathfinders for the Stripes Team, collecting four faults after rolling the pole at fence three in the first round. In round two the 12-year-old Selle Francais stallion produced another four fault trip after dislodging the rail at the bicycle jump at eight.

Next up for the Stripes was Dinan (Wellington, Fla.) and Grant Road Partners LLC's 12-year-old Selle Francais gelding Nougat Du Vallet. In round one the pair jumped an immaculate clear over Palacios' challenging track. They returned later in the afternoon to repeat their faultless effort to be one four combinations to jump double clear.

"I was really pleased, Nougat felt great, I knew when we walked the course it was do-able but you still have to do it. There's always more pressure when you're on a team and it was only my second Nations Cup and I just wanted to rise to the occasion, stay calm and poised. I knew after the first round I was only halfway done and needed to make some adjustments for the second round. Which I was happy I was able to do. I'm just so happy and my horse jumped great," said Dinan of her double clear effort on Thursday.

Jumping in the third spot, King (Wellington, Fla.) and Campbell VDL produced a 13 fault trip in round one after lowering the heights of three obstacles and collecting a single time fault. In their return effort the pair demonstrated improvement with Stateside Farm's LLC's nine-year-old Holsteiner stallion just faulting at two fences and again collecting a time fault for a second round score of nine.

Rounding out the Stripes Team effort was Ward (Brewster, N.Y.) and Sagamore Farm's 12-year-old Warmblood gelding Rothchild. The veteran pair produced a tidy and efficient effort as a clear never looked in doubt in the first round. Jumping in a deluge of rain in round two, the pair repeated their clear effort to join Dinan and Irish riders Conor Swail and Cameron Hanley on the double clear list.

The Stripes Team finished on a two round total of nine faults.

Leading off the Stars Team was 2011 Pan American Games Team Gold medalist Farrington (Wellington, FLa.) and Robin Parsky's Blue Angel. In round one the 11-year-old Anglo-European mare lowered the heights of two fences for an eight fault effort. The pair returned with an improved trip in round two, just collecting four faults for a foot in thewater at fence four.

Kessler (Lexington, Ky.) and Mika jumped in the second spot for the Stars producing a near foot perfect trip in the first round that was just marred by a mistake at the plank at fence five resulting in four faults. The 2012 Olympic Games veteran and her own 14-year-old Selle Francais gelding returned in round two producing their second four fault of the day after also putting a foot in the water at four.

Jayne (Elgin, Ill.) and Alex Jayne and Maura Thatcher's 10-year-old Zangerscheide stallion Chill R Z produced a four fault effort in the first round after knocking a block off the top of the wall at fence 10. In round two they again jumped a four fault trip, just rolling the front rail of the oxer at fence nine.

Riding in the anchor position for the Stars Team was McCrea (East Windsor, Conn.) with Candy Tribble and Windsor Show Stables' Zerly. The pair jumped a stylish first round but after losing a shoe early in the course the nine-year-old KWPN mare rolled the poles at the final two efforts coming out of the triple at seven for eight faults. In round two the 2011 Pan American Games Team and Individual Gold medalist used all of her experience as she guided Zerly to an impressive fault free trip.

The Stars Team finished on an overall total of 24 faults.

The Stars Team's fourth place finish resulting in 75 points paired with the 100 points the U.S. earned with a win at the $75,000 Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup presented by G&C Farm at CSIO Wellington meant they finished with a total of 175 points to top the North American, Central America and Caribbean League. The U.S. and Canada (172 points) have now qualified for the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping Season Series Final to be held in Barcelona, Spain September 26-29.

The team from Ireland finished on a score of four to earn victory in the $100,000 Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup, with the Stripes Team finishing second and Team Canada One earning third place on a score of 14.

To learn more about the CSIO5* Spruce Meadows 'Continental' Tournament visit; http://www.sprucemeadows.com/tournaments/view_tournament.jsp?id=25

Follow the 2013 U.S. Jumping Team here.

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Sometimes dressage riders think it is enough to teach their horses the movements, but they don’t take into account that a young dressage horse needs more than just movements to excel in competition and move up the training scale. Respect and self-assurance are the indispensable preconditions for building a harmonious partnership.

There is no question that horses are stronger than we are. Because they are flight animals, trouble can happen in the daily handling and work as well as at the more intense atmosphere of a show. All too often we observe bad behavior: Horses pull their riders around, do not stand still while they are mounted and use the rider to scratch their itchy heads. While all this is tiresome, it more importantly shows that the horse has never learnt to respect the rider as the herd leader. This is the position in which the rider needs to be, and so respect needs to be established early on. This includes fairness, which is key to a horse’s contentment and happiness.

The harmonious partnership we aim for begins with groundwork even before we have the young dressage horse under saddle. Securing a form of general obedience from the ground allows us to work in a relaxed way with our equine partner and helps a lot when it comes to riding because the horse has learnt to trust and follow us as he would in nature, following the lead mare in a herd. In this article, we show how we establish respect from the ground and how this leads to strengthening a horse’s self-assurance, which is necessary preparation for his first shows.

Step 1: Establish Respect
There is no magic. Rather, systematic training and consequence are indispensable in gaining a horse’s respect. And it must be done in a way that lacks any force, violence and injustice. Your uppermost aim has to be to become the herd leader, because in doing that you give your horse the security he needs when being worked, thereby increasing his faith in you and in the environment in which you work. The horse learns that you are the one determining the speed and direction in which he moves.

You do this by using specific body language and repeating short voice commands. Horses are usually quick learners. After showing them something new, given the right timing and praise, you only need about three repetitions to secure the behavior you want. One general remark on the use of the voice: In nature, horses communicate soundlessly. Voice aids are still useful, but we are not allowed to completely rely on them because in stressful situations the horse will pay less attention to them than to our body language. So the latter is of greater importance.

The basic needs: Groundwork begins by teaching the horse to halt, go forward and back up. With a young, unbroken horse, we most often use the Dually Training Halter designed by Monty Roberts. It works with pressure on the nose that can be quickly applied or loosened as needed.

Attached to the halter is a heavy lead rope that lies comfortably in the hand. Gloves protect the rider’s palms in case the lead rope slips through them when the horse jumps. We prefer a length of three meters (9 feet, 9 inches) in contrast to the usual two, because we have a better chance of holding on to the horse if he tries to break away.

With some horses it is useful to additionally use a stick/dressage whip to give signals, but you must first teach him to accept the touch of it on his body without fear. If a horse is not well-behaved on the ground when you begin with him, take a whip along with you, as it can be useful whether he pulls and rushes ahead of you or wants to trundle behind.

We start with the first exercises in the security and reduced space of our round pen, but later it should be possible to do the basics in every environment. For us, it is important to establish a “relaxing zone” in the middle of the round pen, where we allow the horse to rest after an exercise. Here, he gets praised and stroked and soon knows that this is a place where he can relax.

Lead forward. Lightly pull at the rope and combine it with a voice command. I use a “kissing” noise. Usually horses understand this very quickly and soon the noise is all you need to ask them to step forward. There are several positions the leader can be in: We prefer, particularly with stallions, to have the horse’s head at shoulder height. We walk relaxed at that position while keeping a certain personal space between us. The horse is not allowed to touch us, let alone push.

If a horse tends to pull, the typical reaction is to pull back. To stop this cycle, put either the Dually halter on or attach a lead chain running from the right cheek down over the nose and into your hands. It is not about using force but about refining the signals you give. Each time the horse tries to pull forward, give a short but firm signal with the lead rope and put the end of the whip in front of his nose. Praise him when he reacts promptly.

If the horse trundles behind you, carry the whip in your left hand and point its end at the hindquarters of the horse. Usually this is already enough, and the horse will catch up with you. If not, you can slightly tap the hindquarters to get the desired effect. Repeat until the horse has learned you will not tolerate him staying too far behind you.

Halt. A much-needed basic the young horse has to learn is to react to pressure applied by the rope running over his nose. The horse should learn to give to the pressure. If we want the horse to halt, we give a short impulse with the rope and combine it with a short but clear voice command. I use “whoa.” As soon as the horse reacts to this combined command, the pressure applied by the halter has to stop and he has to be praised accordingly. Some horses—in particular, sensitive, “electric” ones—understand the signals promptly, and you soon can give very fine impulses. Others will only react to your voice command. But some more phlegmatic types don’t react immediately to the impulse given by the rope over the nose, and you have to give several small but firm impulses in succession. If he continues to ignore me, I increase the impulse by putting the end of a whip in front of his nose.

Go backward. Once the horse learns to halt obediently and reliably, start teaching him to go backward. For that you need a rail on one side of the horse so he cannot evade you. Stand in front of him and take the rope with your left hand about where the snap attaches to the halter. The shorter the rope is held, the more directly the impulses are transferred to the horse’s nose.

With your right hand, hold the rope in a loop. The horse already knows that the pressure on the nose means to yield. It is important that the impulses you give via the rope are short but repetitive. If the horse does not react, use the end of a whip or bamboo stick to apply short taps on the shoulder. Eventually, it should be sufficient to give slight impulses on the nose for the horse to walk backward in a quiet rhythm.

Directly after the last step backward, you must establish the forward impulse in your horse again and ask him to step forward. With some horses, you may need to pause and relax for a moment at the end of the rein-back, but the horse must always be willing to step forward out of the rein-back at any time.

Step 2: Increase Self-Assurance with Long Reins
Once the young horse becomes familiar with the voice commands to go forward and he can halt, we begin longeing him in a round pen. We start with a single longe line, then add a second line so he gets used to them running behind his hindquarters. This is good and necessary preparation for the work in long reins.

Cautionary note: Find someone to help you. Remember that we have a lot of experience longeing and using long reins, and you need to be experienced too if you are going to try it.

Longeing and long-rein work releases the horse from the immediate proximity of his herd leader and asks him to discover his environment almost on his own. Going out in long reins develops and strengthens a young horse’s self-assurance and consolidates his faith in his rider, who now walks behind him. With more advanced horses, this work is a way of keeping them entertained between training sessions in the dressage arena.

What you need: We use a snaffle bridle with an egg-butt or full-cheek snaffle bit in combination with a flash noseband. The cheekpieces and noseband help keep the bit quiet and straight in the horse’s mouth.

We prefer soft, round long lines to flat, webbed ones. We attach them to the bit rings and always wear gloves.

We use the same voice commands we’ve been using. In general, the long reins replace the rider’s calves and together with the voice commands take care that the horse moves in the direction and speed we intend to go.

We don’t use a surcingle when long-reining so the reins can have more freedom of movement. We can touch the horses where we need to and can work them in a more sensitive way than when the reins are fixed on a surcingle.

First exercises. The first time we use long lines on young horses, we stay in our longeing circle or round pen, but you can also use a normal arena or indoor. We use all the commands the horse already knows from his weeks of groundwork.

Day by day, we explore the yard a bit more. For example, we might go to a nearby field or to the edge of the forest. If you observe that the horse is more and more comfortable in his new position ahead of you, show him some new tasks to deal with, such as walking into puddles or over logs, walking, trotting or even jumping over poles on the ground. Never forget to promptly praise him after he has mastered a new task.

The more faith he develops in you and himself, the more you can look for new challenges. We may ask our youngsters to pass by a grazing herd or work in long reins next to others. Or we might ask them to go through the creek running through our property. After extensive rainfall, we sometimes have a kind of lake in our courtyard, and we like to ask the horses to walk and trot in there to get used to water splashing their legs and belly. Be sure to do everything slowly, never asking for a second step before the first one. Then your horse will develop positive self-assurance, helping him to deal with the same things more easily when being ridden.

Step 3: Desensitization—Prepare Your Horse for the Unknown
Sometimes there are dressage riders who think that working their horses in a focused manner is only possible by excluding them as much as possible from any outside influences. A horse might be oversensitive for whatever reason and so needs to be worked in quieter surroundings in the beginning. But, in general, we are strong believers that it is no good hiding horses behind the walls of an indoor arena with the atmosphere of a monastery. Dressage horses are destined to be competed at shows and there they will find a whole lot of stimulation and noises that could easily distract them if they have not already seen and heard as much as possible at home. This is particularly necessary for stallions.

So part of our dressage training at home is to desensitize the horses to a lot of different noises and visual impressions that could come at them when it counts the most—at the showgrounds. Of course, we will never be able to simulate the special atmosphere at a show, in particular the ones held in a big stadium. And we will never know for sure what we will find there. But the more we show the horses, the more we know how they might react, and that gives us, the riders, the chance for prompt reactions. For example, we accustom stallions to working in the presence of mares step by step.

Cautionary note: Get help to do this, and remember that beforehand the horse needs to have learned respect for and faith in his rider.

The easiest form of desensitization is to keep horses outside as much as possible where they can see and hear a lot more than they do just standing in stalls. It helps to include regular trail rides in your training program so that your horse is not panicking if a bird flies out from a bush. Training outside in all types of weather helps horses when they have to compete in rain or worse.

The most decisive factor is that you have a firm impact on your horse if he spooks. “Firm” doesn’t mean to bore spurs into his flanks and holler loudly for him to pass the frightening object. Such a reaction, often seen, only strengthens the horse’s flight instinct and lets the “monsters” appear even more dreadful. Horses think in pictures and next time will associate the monster with the pain of the spurs or whip. Instead, when your horse meets a frightening object, react in the following way:

• Take the reins a bit shorter and halt in front of it. Allow your horse time to look or sniff at it quietly while you talk calmly and pat or stroke him. This also calms you down as the spook of your horse usually also makes your heart beat faster.

• Then pass the object a few times on each lead in walk, preferably in the shoulder-fore position.

• Now divert your horse’s attention from the object that frightened him by starting to trot and going on with focused work. Very effective, for example, is riding lots of different transitions so that the horse soon puts his thoughts in another direction and forgets about the fear.

Often it is typical objects like flags rattling in the wind, umbrellas being opened, running and barkings dogs, loudly clapping crowds or music that frighten young, inexperienced dressage horses at shows. Luckily, these are things that can quite easily include in desensitization training at home. All you need are some helping hands confronting the horse while you sit in the saddle. The advantage is that, in this case, you are aware of the fact that your horse might spook, jump sideways or show a little rear as a first reaction. Go slowly, step by step.

Don’t confront your horse with more than one frightening object in a lesson. Switch to another one the next time. Then, on another day, go back to the first object to confirm the horse’s positive reaction. If he ignores the once-disturbing object, great, but try once more on another day until there’s no significant reaction to it anymore.

There are horses that have to repeat this training several times over a longer period and only a very few never become bombproofed. The decisive factor is that you and your horse have built faith in and respect for each other. Then the horse will not bolt away panic-stricken.

Desensitization is just a way to strengthen this respect and faith and see if it is already strong enough or has to be deepened even more. When your horse is familiar with several different objects and doesn’t panic or spook at them, you can try an obstacle parcours, or obstacle course, including several of the objects following one another. You can ride this parcours or lead the horse, however, the motto has to be “make it more difficult.” This kind of overstimulation will harden your horse and done step by step, it will help enormously at a show.

It is also useful to take the horse to a show just to work in that atmosphere. There, you can see how he reacts to different objects and determine whether he still needs training at home or if you can start him with a quiet conscience.

Knowing that the young horse’s future is destined to be in the dressage arena, we set a good foundation from the ground. This kind of work helps you and your horse master the first starts outside the secure surroundings of your home turf. The horse knows that whatever comes his way does not have to be frightening because you, as his herd leader, are at his side.

Stefan Schneider and Uta Gräf are headquartered at Gut Rothenkircher Hof in Germany. Schneider, a veterinarian specializing in equine dentistry, has competed in jumping, reining and working equitation at the highest levels. Gräf is one of Germany’s most successful competitive and classical dressage riders. Both are well known for combining top sport with natural horsekeeping. At home, Schneider works the horses from the ground while Gräf does the riding. Gräf’s DVD series, “Joy of Dressage,” comes out in English in April 2013. Schneider has co-authored the book Stallions Care and Management. Look for reviews of both in future issues (gutrothenkircherhof.de).

For more from Phillip, check out his book Modern Eventing available at HorseBooksEtc.com.

Horses come in many shapes and sizes, and while all can benefit from basic dressage training, not all are physically capable of performing at the higher levels. One of the factors that can limit performance potential is conformation—the geometry of the skeletal framework in terms of the lengths and angulations of the bones and joints.

Ideally, the pelvis of a dressage horse should be long to give a large area for attachment of the propulsive muscles, and it should have a moderate slope to facilitate tilting the pelvis, lowering the haunches and moving the hind legs forward under the horse’s body.

Given the relationship between form (conformation) and function (performance), it is definitely helpful for the dressage rider to develop an eye for conformational features that affect a horse’s potential for dressage. The purpose of this article is to describe key features of the anatomy and conformation of the hindquarters with the goal of helping readers to evaluate important conformational features in this area.

Figure 1: Difference in shape of the sacrum. The bones are positioned so that the head of the horse would be to the right and the tail to the left. The sacral spines are labeled S1 to S5 and the green line shows the croup angle. These specimens illustrate how the size and shape of the bones vary between horses. In the top sacrum, the first sacral spine (S1) is short and poorly developed and the croup angle is 24 degrees. In the bottom sacrum, there is a more marked difference in length between the second (S2) and last (S5) spines and the individual spines have more of a backward slope. The croup angle is 30 degrees. These are examples of the diversity seen among normal horses.

Identifying Conformation
One of the secrets to being a good evaluator of conformation is to develop the skill to see beyond the outer layers of skin, fat and muscle in order to visualize the lengths and angles of the bones that lie beneath. Visualization of the bone structure is easier in some parts of the body than others. For example, below the elbows and stifles it is easy to see the outlines of the bones and to assess their conformation. In the shoulder and hip regions, however, the bones are concealed beneath the large, powerful muscles that attach the limbs to the trunk, making the bone structure more difficult to evaluate.

With that in mind, let us focus on the horse’s hindquarters and the differences between the shape of the croup versus the dimensions of the pelvis. The external contours of the croup are easy to see, but they give little information about the underlying pelvic structure, which is more relevant in our conformational evaluation.

Let’s start by taking a look at the bones that underpin the structure of the hindquarters: the sacrum and the pelvis (see Figure 3). The sacrum is part of the vertebral column located between the lumbar region and the tail. Although there are five sacral vertebrae, they are fused together into a single bone, the sacrum, which means that there cannot be any movement between them. The joint between the front of the sacrum and the last lumbar vertebra—the lumbosacral joint—is quite mobile. Its movements can tilt the sacrum and pelvis forward (flexion or rounding), flatten the croup (extension or hollowing) or turn the haunches to the side (bending).

Figure 1 shows the anatomy of the sacrum from the side view. The underside is formed by the fused bodies of the five sacral vertebrae with their five spinous processes protruding upward. The spines on the sacrum get shorter from front to back. The tips of these spines form the topline in the middle of the horse’s croup.

Figure 2: Horse pelvis articulated with the lumbar vertebrae. The horse’s head would be to the right and the tail to the left. The three bony prominences have been labeled: point of croup, point of hip and point of buttock (see Figure 3, p. 52). The acetabulum is also labeled; it forms the articulation of the hip joint. A lower position of the acetabulum favors the ability to perform highly collected movements.

The orientation (slope) of the sacrum varies with the horse’s posture. Horses with good strength and tone in their core musculature hold the lumbosacral joint in a slightly flexed position and keep the croup slightly tucked. Loss of tone in the core musculature may be reflected in poor posture even to the extent that the pelvis slopes upward toward the tail head.

As you can see in Figure 1, the amount of shortening of the sacral spines varies between horses, and this also affects how much the croup slopes downward toward the tail head. Note that in the live horse, the gluteal muscles may bulge on either side of the sacral spines giving a rounded profile, so it is important to assess the slope of the croup (sacrum) on the midline between the gluteal muscles.

Immediately behind the sacrum are the vertebrae of the tail. The length and angulation of the sacrum affect the position and carriage of the tail. A flat (horizontal) croup is associated with a high tail set and a high tail carriage as shown by the Arabian in the top photo in Figure 5. A sloping croup gives a lower tail set and a lower tail carriage as shown by the Friesian in the top photo in Figure 6.

Figure 3: The position of the sacrum and pelvis relative to the contours of the hindquarters. The three prominences on the pelvis are marked by red circles: 1. point of croup; 2. point of hip; 3. point of buttock. The red line running from the point of hip to point of buttock indicates the slope of the pelvis. The green line indicates the slope of the croup. In this diagram the two slopes are approximately the same. This horse has a rather flat (horizontal) croup and pelvic angles, and the acetabulum is placed relatively high.

Courtesy Hilary Clayton

The pelvis connects the bones of the hind limb to the vertebral column via the hip joint and the sacroiliac joint. When seen from behind, the pelvis is somewhat U-shaped with a narrow separation in front where it curves around and above the sacrum (see Figure 2). The union between pelvis and sacrum at the left and right sacroiliac joints suspends the sacrum beneath the pelvis and anchors it in place with strong ligaments. The sacroiliac joints, which are located on either side between the high points of the croup, do not allow a significant amount of movement; their function is to transmit propulsive forces generated by the hind limbs.

The hip joints are on either side of the lower part of the pelvis, where the acetabulum forms a rounded socket that receives the head of the femur. The hip is a highly mobile joint that allows the entire hind limb to swing back and forth and to move sideways in abduction (swinging outward) and adduction (swinging inward). A low-set hip joint facilitates compression of the hip angle and is advantageous for allowing the horse to perform highly collected movements.

Figure 4: The Warmblood. The warmblood is often considered the standard for ideal dressage conformation. The photo below illustrates how the hindquarters of successful dressage horses often have pelvises that tend toward the longer end of the spectrum and have a moderate slope.

Photo by Arnd Bronkhorst

Pelvic Length & Angulation
The pelvis is surrounded by the large muscles of the hindquarters, making it difficult to distinguish the contours. But, fortunately, there are three bony prominences on each side that are easy to see and feel and that we can use as landmarks to assess pelvic conformation. These are the point of the hip (tuber coxae), the point of the buttock (tuber ischii) and the point of the croup (tuber sacrale). Pelvic length and slope are measured by drawing a line from the upper part of the point of the hip to the point of the buttock, which is a few inches below the tail head (Figures 2 and 3).

Both the length and angulation of the pelvis are key conformational measurements that affect the horse’s strength, power, speed and agility. A larger (longer and broader) pelvis has more room for attachment of the powerful gluteal and hamstring muscles that provide propulsion during locomotion.

Figure 5: The Arabian. These two Arabians are of very different types. The top horse is a successful halter horse and is posed with the hind limbs camped out and the lumbosacral joint extended to make the croup appear as flat as possible. In this horse the croup angle is horizontal and the pelvic angle is 10 degrees. The high tail set and high tail carriage are also exaggerated in this pose. If this horse were not standing camped out, both the croup and pelvic angles would be a little more sloped. Neither the excessively flat croup nor the tendency to stand and move with the lumbosacral joint extended are desirable characteristics in a dressage horse. The lower photo is of a successful Arabian Grand Prix competitor. The angles of the croup and pelvis are parallel and measure 20 degrees. Perhaps unusually for an Arabian, this horse has a good ability to tilt the pelvis forward and engage the hind limb.

Top photo by Arnd Bronkhorst, Bottom photo courtesy Hilary Clayton

Horses that race over short to middle distances, such as racing Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds, have the longest pelvises, measuring up to one third of the total body length. A short pelvis offers less area for attachment of the propulsive muscles, but this is compensated by greater agility. Dressage horses have pelvises that tend toward the longer end of the spectrum, though not as long as racehorses.

The angle of the pelvis is measured relative to the horizontal with the horse standing square. Using these landmarks, an average angle for a dressage horse’s pelvis would be around 20 degrees. In his doctoral research, Swedish equine biomechanics expert Dr. Mikael Holmström found that the average pelvic angle in elite Swedish Warmblood dressage horses was 30 degrees. However, it should be noted that Dr. Holmström measured pelvic angle from the upper part of the point of hip to the hip joint.

These landmarks will always give a steeper pelvic angle than if it had been measured from the point of the hip to the point of the buttock. It’s not a matter of one method being right or wrong; it’s just two slightly different measurement techniques. However, you need to know which landmarks were used in order to evaluate and compare the results.

When the lumbosacral joint is flexed, the rear part of the pelvis tilts forward, bringing the hip joint and hind leg farther forward under the horse’s body. Equine conformation analysis expert Dr. Deb Bennett refers to this as “coiling the loins,” which helps us to visualize the effect. With the pelvis tilted forward, the frame is compressed and the hind limbs act closer to the center of gravity, providing more upward (rather than forward) propulsion. A significant amount of pelvic tilting (and untilting) occurs during each stride of canter when the lumbosacral joint flexes as the hind limbs are pulled forward and extends as they are retracted.

In piaffe and canter pirouettes, the horse can maintain lumbosacral flexion and keep the pelvis tilted forward throughout the stride because in these movements the hind limbs are not retracted. In horses with a flat pelvic conformation, the sublumbar muscles that are responsible for lumbosacral flexion exert less leverage than in horses with a more sloping pelvic conformation. Thus, it requires greater force to flex the lumbosacral joint with a flatter pelvic angle, and lumbosacral flexion compresses the hip downward, rather than tilting it forward. On the other hand, an overly steep pelvis may restrict the rearward swing of the hind limb and interfere with the ability to extend the stride. As with many conformational variables, extreme pelvic angulations in either direction are not ideal; and an intermediate angle is preferred.

Figure 6: The Friesian. Friesians were originally bred for use in warfare and agriculture. The breed is still popular as a light carriage horse, and the top Friesian photo is an example of the Baroque type used for driving. Note the steeply sloped croup and pelvis (both 20 degrees) and the consequent low-set tail. The Friesian sport-horse bloodlines, as illustrated by the horse in the bottom photo, are becoming increasingly popular for dressage. This Friesian sport horse has greater length and less slope in the hindquarters compared with the horse above.

Photos by Arnd Bronkhorst

In recent years, selective breeding for specific performance criteria has produced horses that excel in dressage, though these superstars are out of the reach of most riders. It is possible, however, to find horses of a variety of breeds that have conformation favorable for dressage. The key is to learn how to distinguish between horses that have the physical attributes needed for dressage versus those that are better suited to another occupation.

The breed photographs in this article compare the conformation of the croup and pelvis of an outstanding warmblood dressage competitor (Figure 4) with two representatives each of the Arabian and Friesian breeds to show the diversity of croup conformation within these breeds (Figures 5 and 6). The photos show that there are horses in each of these nonwarmblood breeds that have suitable conformation to become good dressage performers.