But it also lessons the leverage of the tendon, so weakness and eventual lameness can result. The horseman’s term for ideal distance from front to back of the lower leg is flat bone (describing the combination of bone and tendon), which gives the lower leg the appearance of more substance from front to back.” (1) Ah ha! At last my confusion about flat bone is resolved! If that tendon is placed too far forward, it reduces the circumference of the lower leg. “When viewed from the side, the lower leg, including bone and tendon, should be wide, not narrow and round. Yet flat bone has to do with something different than bone quantity. Thomas says that modern day equines have less bone for body weight than ancestral types and hence we have challenges with soundness. I’ve been working on an article on draft horse conformation with my colleague Doc Hammill, and he suggested that I read as background Heather Smith Thomas’s book The Horse Conformation Handbook. “You know that there’s tendon as well as bone in that measurement, right?” I hadn’t thought of it before, but of course he was right, yet that circumference measurement was the standard by which flat bone is judged in our breed.Īfter all this confusion in my past study of this characteristic of the Fell Pony, I was thrilled to finally find an explanation of flat bone that made sense to me.
When I took a homebred colt for his stallion licensing exam - a new experience for me, the colt, and the vet - the vet measured around the cannon bone to be sure it was greater than 8” in circumference.
The breed description says, “plenty of good flat bone below the knee (eight inches at least)…” so that razor thin bone didn’t meet the ‘plenty of’ part of the breed standard, so I remained confused. Later I saw a pony that the same breeder and judge had bred and the bone in the lower legs was so flat as to appear razor thin. I remember watching a Fell Pony judge and breeder whom I respected place well a pony in a show that I thought had round bone, the opposite of the desired flat bone. One of the earliest characteristics of the Fell Pony that I learned about, and was confused by, was flat bone.
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