When horses become herefords.

 ...I'm prepared to piss a lot of people off. Especially my horse-savvy friends. It's not in me to hold my tongue about something I feel passionately about. Get over it.

There's a lot of things that don't make any kind of sense to me in the animal world but there is one equine related thing that is just utterly inexcusable. The breeding of Quarter horses for strictly to be show exclusively in the halter ring.

Halter showing is showing off an animal at the end of a lead for nothing more than looks alone. Some are judged on how they move at a walk and trot, but still, only for looks. Halter animals are judged on conformation, not performance.

Most halter-bred quarter horses are created to strictly live in small 8 x 8 stalls day in and day out being pumped full of grain, and then be paraded around the arena for people to gawk at, never being ridden, rarely being turned out, and often having miserable, often short lives, The modern quarter horse that you see in the show ring is a complete trainwreck of every kind of flaw imaginable. It is a puzzle put together of all of the wrong kinds of breeding and equally screwed up conformation. You will almost never see a futurity or congress halter champion be an amazing performance horse. The freaks being shown in the halter ring as just that, freaks. Their bodies are so structurally fucked up and their gaits are so artificial there is no way they could ever make any kind of decent performance mount for any kind of rider.

Lets start with the basics.

These are very well-bred champion beef bulls of different breeds, the limousin and Belgian blue.

 They have gorgeous conformation by their breed standards, the right amount of muscling for meat breeds, and they aren't required to do anything as far as performance aside from walking around the ring and breeding. For what they are bred for and shown for, they are good representations of their breeds. They are meat animals used to create more meat animals. (While I am a strict vegetarian and do not eat meat I know my facts. Cattle are bred as meat animals.) These two are gorgeous animals and they are fulfilling their purpose by being shown at halter. They are showing off their conformation, muscling, and temperaments in efforts to be used as studs to create more meat/halter animals. They are lean while being muscular, have quiet dispositions, and do their job of breeding well. Nothing else is required of them. The perfect job for a halter animal.

This is the look that is being put onto quarter horses. They're being bred to look like steroid laden bodybuilders. They're being bred to look like animals used for meat, like beef cattle and butcher hogs. The bulkier the better.

Now let us move on to the quarter horses you see winning in all of the big halter shows and worse... churning out more and more of these freaks:

Adult Quarter Horses:

These animals are so structurally and conformationally fucked up it's enough to make anyone vomit. While they are clearly horses they look like beef cows! The similarities are almost uncanny. And their conformational flaws... Oh my. I will pick them each apart and point out their defects for you.

#1 Mare: First of all, 1500lbs on those tiny post legs!? It looks like an overmuscled draft horse body with tiny Arabian legs, pony sized feet, and a teeny pig-like Quarter horse head. Upright shoulder, low-set knees, saggy overthick tied in rear end, you name it. This animal is screwed up in more ways than can be counted. If it hasn't foundered within a short time of taking this photo, I bet it did shortly after. It looks like a beef cow horse hybrid. No horse should be that thick. There is no way those tiny post legs will be able to support that horse's bulk for long. And of course it's a broodmare, because anyone can see that there is no way in hell that those legs and that mass could carry any kind of rider. It looks like this animal was bred like a slaughter pig or cow, to have as much muscle as possible before being butchered for meat. This horse has the bulk of two horses on one structurally unsound skeletal frame. And of course, if you look behind her, you can see her buck-kneed filly. Of course she's being used to churn out more meaty horses.

#2 Mare: That head and neck do not fit on that frame. Period. Again a huge bulky chest, barrel, and rear. A tiny little head that makes her look like a pinhead on a very short neck, and speaking of her head look at how long and narrow it is, with a jug-head. Her withers are set far back on a flat back with a goose rump. Very upright shoulder, narrow legs, sickle hocks, and upright pasterns. This horse is the exact kind of horse that winds up with navicular disease by age three or four. The low-slung stomach screams 'broodmare' to me. She's probably been used to churn out more and more just like her. Founder and navicular are two things that will probably bring a quick end to her short life unless they can keep making money off of her fugly foals.

#3 Gelding: Whoa. It's like a butcher steer on four posts with a horse's head. None of the pieces match up, and put together they make for some seriously fucked up conformation. If that back gets any shorter it's ass end might as well be attached right to his withers. He's got a tiny little head with far too small a muzzle, the desired 'teacup muzzle', on a neck too thin and narrow for his body. His shoulder is very upright, his barrel too boxy and square, like a rectangle, his chest to barrel looks like a square in the angle of connection. He's much too heavy in the forehand, goose-rumped with a saggy rear end, too low set of a tail and look at those legs! It's like a cannon on toothpicks. Those lower legs look like the legs of a foal. They're very fine and much too narrow for his bulk. His knees are too low, he has bad gaskin connection, and of course, long upright pasterns and tiny hooves that just scream "navicular!".

#4 Stallion: If those legs were any straighter and devoid of angulation you may as well have set him up on two-by-fours. He's built like a butcher steer with a flat back, virtually no withers, a straight shoulder, saggy rear end, low tail-set. He has a decent head and neck but they don't fit with his very rectangular chest, barrel, and rear end. His legs are very upright, too straight. They lack all the right angles for him to be able to move properly. He's got way too thick of muscling on his upright shoulder and down on to his upper forelegs. The goose rump and very sloping croup along with his being very heavy in the front end means he will never be able to get his too-straight rear legs under him for any kind of propulsion. Lastly, while he has short decently sloping pasterns he has tiny feet that won't be able to take the impact from his overly large frame properly.

...and it starts young. Look at these four weanling/yearlings, and how conformationally fucked up they are from birth. They're like baby steers on posts. They look like animals being raised for slaughter. Get as much meat on them as quickly as you can...

Weanlings/Yearlings:

#1 Weanling: I'm wondering where they got the deer, okapi, butcher pig, and horse parts to combine to make this freakish creation. The head and neck don't even look like they are part of the same animal. Roman head, upright shoulder, no withers, saggy goose-rumped rear end, buck-kneed, long upright pasterns, tiny hooves. Look at that rear end... it looks like the rear end of a pig that's being raised for hams. Of course the chest, barrel, and rear end are far too big for those fine over-at-the-knee post legs. And those pasterns just scream "navicular!".

#2 Yearling: Post-legged, too compact, too bulky in the fore/mid, way too much muscle on the hindquarter. Pencil necked, camped under in the front, and what a screwy chest. The neck is too short and too narrow. And ass end is way too big. The pasterns aren't too bad but the bulk on such a young animal is ridiculous.

#3 Yearling: Look at how fucked up this thing's legs are!? They are all sorts of funky. Sickle-hocked camped under, post legged, upright shoulder, nearly ewe necked, square chested, buck kneed, huge saggy hindquarter... Again, it's like a butcher steer on toothpicks with a horse's head. And who the fuck needs a gum-chain on a yearling!?

#4 Weanling: Oh my. Look at the teeny little head and short pencil neck on this poor thing. She has no withers, a flat back, a goose rump. Is built very downhill with a very heavy front end. Her ass is the size of an adult mare. Her whole front end is like a rectangle. No angles, just bulk. And those have got to be the straightest post legs and shoulders I have seen in a long time. On top of it look at how long and upright her pasterns are. I bet she will have navicular by the time she is three years old. Her hocks and rear legs are just scary straight. Jeeze.

It's like they have created their own breed of meat horse. We have beef cattle, butcher pigs, mutton lambs, venison deer, etc. All of these animals that are bred to produce lean muscle as fast as possible and carry it until they can be slaughtered and eaten. And there is the Quarter horse. These are basically modern day meat horses. They won't ever be good for use as anything else except breeders to produce more freaks. They are huge overfed overmuscled animals that are paraded around a ring for judges to criticize. This is exactly what show beef cows, show butcher pigs, and show mutton lambs are used for. When shown at halter they are being judged on body structure for use of creating and carrying their muscle which is effectively meat. Then they get judged on the quality of their muscle, fat content on their bodies, and the likeness. This is the exact same thing quarter horses halter bred horses are being judged on, except for the meat quality.

But it may as well just be the same thing.

Halter quarter horses are bred in the masses. Breeders say they have to breed sometimes upwards of over two hundred foals a year to get three or four really good champions. They are bred to get big fast, most are over 15 hands tall as yearlings and from day one they try to get them bulky as possible because that is what wins! The quarter horses that look like double muscled bodybuilders on posty legs with teeny feet are the ones that win. They are completely useless as performance animals. So what will end up of them after their halter showing days or they don't win enough at the end of a lead rope? Either they will go on to produce more of these ring-bound freaks by the masses or they will be sold. The ones that are sold with probably end up as money-spending pasture puffs due to the structural issues and conformational flaws before being sold again. Most will end up at auction, and what then? Over half will wind up on a double decker bound for New Holland auction before being transported off to Mexico and the slaughterman's knife so they can be sold overseas for humans to eat. Cold but sad reality. In the end, in the never-ending quest for ribbons they really have created America's very own breed of meat horse.