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@katthewriter

Haha, I wouldn’t really call myself classy. I just have preferences on horse build for equine sports, since I compete in them – the most functional build is the build that does the sport the best, and as it turns out the typical QH build isn’t the best for the sports I like. 🙂 Sport horses like WB, Sport-bred TB, or Sport-bred Arabs are simply more athletic. I have nothing against a functionally built QH, but the fact is is that they’re hard to find anymore.

It has to do with anatomy, and how the anatomical bone structure effects a horse’s movement and athletic ability. QH have quite honestly been bred for super-specialized disciplines that in a wide range of areas, they lack overall functionality and the ability to compete in that wide area of disciplines and do it in a pain-free manner for the horse. The horse’s best interest should always come first, but unfortunately in the show world, which many horses are bred for and especially QH, that doesn’t always happen because ribbons/cash is more important.

Taking it on from a functional standpoint, I simply prefer breeds that are generally built in a manner that makes it easier for them to lighten the forehand and carry themselves naturally under saddle. This reduces impact on the joints of the spine, legs, neck, and shoulders immensely, and so forth reduces wear and tear on the horse’s body overall. They are able to stay sound, happy, and competitive longer as well as able to compete better than the poorly-built horse. Take dressage, for example – any horse can do dressage. It’s basic fundamentals of knowing how to communicate with the horse and move his body around, nothing more. Any functional animal can excel at dressage – and yet we see only a small amount of horses actually making it to the top levels. Therefore, we can infer that those horses that didn’t make it must have some intrinsic flaw in structure somewhere that’s been passed on through poor breeding practices that were allowed for profit. Change one small aspect – the length of a femur, the closeness of the elbow to the rib cage, the angle of the pedal bone – and you change the whole of the horse’s movement and ability to complete a task and complete it not just adequately, but excellently. 

If you made it through the jargon(I’m highly fascinated by bio-mechanics.), the take home point is this – the functional animal is the best animal to me, as a competitor. Personality and relationship are wonderful things, but for safety’s sake and  fairness’ sake to the horse, it’s simply not good to ask a non-functional horse to try and complete a difficult task, because it could greatly injure the horse. The more flaw to the natural order, the more chance of injuring the animal. I take great risks to avoid doing so – so naturally, I prefer to ride a functional horse. Form to function – conformation is what most people call it. 😉 (And, just on a side note so I’m not misunderstood, because I have a bad habit of only half-explaining things on paper and leaving the rest in my head – I’m not trying to argue with you. I’m just explaining why I said that and what my logic behind saying it was.)

As for the Arabian helping to make the QH – yes, that’s true. But it was so far back that that blood(beyond the obsession with tiny faces) has been nearly wiped out with the addition of a thicker and heavier build. You’ll note, some of the most successful and sound QH look more like thick TB’s than QH – Reys Dual Badger is my all-time favorite cutting stallion, because while he looks like a QH, he carries the lightness and correct build as well. Compared to horses like Metallic Cat, who is ridiculously sickle hocked and very downhill built, he’s miles better.

Appaloosa’s are very nice, when they’re true Appaloosas and not QH with appaloosa coloring. The true Appy is a very fast, well built breed that rivals Arabs in endurance. 🙂

@deeprun

Icelandics are actually very popular in endurance anymore. That tolt is fast, efficient, and smooth the ride. I’d definitely try one out if you can. 🙂 My own mare is a grade Arab X who’s only about 14.3hh, and my secondary mount is a Welsh/Peruvian Paso that’s only about 13hh. Short is great as long as they have the gaits for it. 🙂 I know many people on small, 13-14hh Arabs that can dominate the field. Taller horses are becoming pretty popular though simply for longer stride.