From what I read on the conformation threads "light bone" is being critiqued quite commonly, and seems to be a concern for soundness. I agree that it doesn't look nice when a massive body stands on toothpick legs, but how often is it actually the light bone structure that makes a horse unsound, when the conformation is good otherwise?
It seems like most soundness issues are either tendon / ligament related (in which case I would suspect that position and structure of the joints have more impact than just bone), arthritic (same, would suspect this to be a result of joint structure and stress through work rather than bone), or things like navicular, founder etc, which aren't directly related to bone density either.
The only thing I can come up with that has directly to do with the bone are splint fractures, but even there I'm not actually sure it has anything to do with the horse being light boned. The other thing I can think of is actual bone density, but that would be impossible to see from conformation photos and would require x-rays like for women with osteoporosis...
So in the end, I would suspect that a horse with lighter build, a correct conformation and decent bone density is far better off than one that has bones like a tank, but other conformational flaws...
Am I completely off here?
It seems like most soundness issues are either tendon / ligament related (in which case I would suspect that position and structure of the joints have more impact than just bone), arthritic (same, would suspect this to be a result of joint structure and stress through work rather than bone), or things like navicular, founder etc, which aren't directly related to bone density either.
The only thing I can come up with that has directly to do with the bone are splint fractures, but even there I'm not actually sure it has anything to do with the horse being light boned. The other thing I can think of is actual bone density, but that would be impossible to see from conformation photos and would require x-rays like for women with osteoporosis...
So in the end, I would suspect that a horse with lighter build, a correct conformation and decent bone density is far better off than one that has bones like a tank, but other conformational flaws...
Am I completely off here?