A Post about Posts

                                      What the hell is going on with the breeding of halter stock horses?                                     Let's explore the change of the hind legs, shall we? Good.

We'll start simple. This is a post:

Well, three posts, but you get it. Straight up and down wooden posts. They are supposed to be able to hold up a fence or a building, or show markings for boundaries. They are not meant to sway, bend, or curve.

These are hindquarters from modern AQHA/APHA/ApHC halter horses:

I'm seeing a resemblance here. Halter stock horses these days are good for nothing. They have zero angulation in the hindquarters. It's like a straight line from the pelvic bones to the ground. What the fuck happened to the proper angulations of the hindquarter? You absolutely can not get any kind of movement out of a horse that cannot even bend its rear legs properly.

One theory is, they are breeding them to be as posty as possible with straight up and down legs and column straight pasterns to hold up their enormous beefcow bulk. I can see this as true. If you were to put any normal angulation on a 15 hand tall horse that weighs 1400lbs you'd be snapping ligaments, tendons, and bones left and right under the strain of holding up all that weight. Few of them look like they can even move past a walk with their post legs.

Horses with legs like this will never have a riding career. Those legs wouldn't be able to handle it. They are good for one thing only, standing at the end of a lead rope for people to gawk at.

Anyone need something to string rails between? These guys' ass ends would make fabulous fence posts.


Raevyn