Conformation Clinic
Evaluate and place these aged AQHA mares. Then see how your choices compare to our expert judge’s.
Aged Quarter Horse mares.
HERE WE have a class of mares, and as such, their femininity or lack thereof will have a bearing on placing. I’m judging them based on the rule book’s criteria of balance, structural correctness, breed and sex characteristics, and muscling, and looking for the most positive combination of those components. Balance is considered the most important of those, but I want a horse that best combines the most positive characteristics from all categories.
I try not to get carried away with the pieces, but to look at the big picture. I’m looking for the horse that gives me the best first impression. When I’m walking around the horses in a class, I make mental positive checks or negative checks in different categories. If my first sense is that a horse has a positive profile, then I ask myself why. That horse often has positive checks in most of the categories I’m looking for. If the next horse strikes me as having a negative profile, I ask myself why, and analyze the components. The reasons are in those components.