(Analysis by Judy Wardrope) Editor’s note: Last month, in our May issue, BN published an introduction to a series of three articles asking the question: What if a horse designed itself? – focusing on the three Olympic disciplines. This month, as the title implies, the article considers what anatomical elements and physical qualities would a showjumper choose. Would it like to be handsome? Are colour and markings important? How about size? Or would the self-designed horse prefer components that provide optimum mechanical efficiency, soundness and longevity?
If the jumper designed itself it might well choose to model its structure after #1. He jumped in 33 Nations’ Cups, two European championships plus one World Cup Final and was still competing (1m60) internationally at age 20 (when the photo was taken). He was still jumping Grand Prix courses at age 22, though he was no longer travelling to other countries.
Like all the horses pictured here, a jumper that wanted to engineer itself to be a durable athlete would have a lumbosacral gap (the gap just in front of the high point of croup) bisected by a line drawn from the top of one hip to the top of the other hip...
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