Critique for eventing?

That is true - the seventh cervical vertebra IS a much more reliable guide. The vast majority of horses (even so-called uphill horses) will be slightly downhill, a few will be level, and a very small few will be truly uphill.

My point in mentioning the racing thing is that all racehorses are bred for the same thing - SPEED. So, they will all have a lot of characteristics in common. What do a racing QH, a racing TB, and a racing Teke all have in common? In my experience the majority of ALL 3 breeds are markedly downhill. It's less noticed in TB's and Tekes because they have higher withers than QH.

So what about this guy?



Or this guy?

Both are downhill, second horse worse than the first.

HOWEVER, I like the second horse more than the first overall. First horse has a long back, I don't like the shoulder, and that hindquarter is less than ideal.

Second horse's hindquarter is worse than the first, but shoulder is better, as is back length.

Not going to comment on the necks, I don't like either. Pastern angles are nice on both, first horse's are perhaps a touch on the long side but that might be an illusion created by those LOVELY short cannons. Second horse's cannons are long.

Neither is ideal... but then, Hickstead was slightly downhill and absolutely NOT built to jump, and look what he could do. There are always the incredible few that defy their conformation.