Tuesday, February 17, 2009

What is a Spanish hip?

I often see people with Spanish horses of North American descent that don't have a clue what a Spanish hip is suppose to look like. There is not one set type such as the horse MUST have rafter hips. The ideal type of a Spanish hip would be this: the pin bone should give the appearance of flowing evenly with the base of the tail, the croup should give an appearance of roundness ( you will read on different boards as this being a round sacrum), there shouldn't be any excessive muscling over the wing of the ilium or the points of the ilium. One of the points of Spanish conformation is to have smooth muscling, not bunchy or excessive muscling. With this, the points of the ilium shouldn't be high where it gives a boxy appearance when viewing the horse from behind. There should also not be a muscle line that comes off of the pin bone (the semitendinosus). You often see this muscle line on say a QH or TB. The hips should also not be broad when viewed from behind. The Spanish horse is a light horse breed, therefore, the width of the hips should not be set wide like you would see on say a draft horse and also on a QH. There should also be a smooth transition that goes from the wing of the ilium into the back. There shouldn't be any sharp dips to the back. The tail should also be set on low. High set tails are a characteristic of Arabian horses, and so therefore should be avoided in breeding Spanish horses. The bone on a Spanish horse should also not be dense, nor should it be overly refined. The canon bones should be round. The length of the pastern should not be really short ( as seen in draft stock) nor long (as seen in TB horses). It should be medium length. Giving the appearance of stability, but also flexibility. The hoof should be round with an evident heel, but also toe. The hoof shouldn't be pan shaped liked what you would see on a draft nor lacking a heel like most modern bred horses seem to have.

1 comment:

  1. Kim, I like your description, very well thought out. You need to post pics so people can get the anatomy straight in their heads. Nice job!

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