Conformation Clinic: 2-Year-Old Reining Mares

When judging conformation, sometimes the top horse will be the most obvious, but if not, I may reverse the process and start with identifying which horse in the class shows the least positives. That was the case with this class of young reining mares. The first and second-place mares were more difficult to separate than the second and third-place pair, so I determined my third-place horse first. Then I looked carefully at my top two and applied the judging criteria of balance, structural correctness, breed and sex characteristics, and muscling.  The first and second-place mares are alike in many positive traits, but also enough different that the first-place mare became clear. Her balance and structure are just a bit better than the second-place mare, and since they are mares, I considered how feminine they appear, which falls under the breed and sex characteristics category. Among the considerations for judges of conformation is preserving breed type, so I select horses that come closest to that ideal.