A Photographic Guide to Conformation

I had to get this book for my conformation class, and I was really worried about this class. This book is so easy to follow and understand. There is a glossary in the front. And as the title says, there are photos for all the conformation things. If wanting to learn about conformation, this is one of the books I would say is a must!

I bought this book for a reference while doing intercollegiate judging a few years ago. Although I learned nothing from the book's text, it was nice to use the pictures to study other structural traits. The book does its job well - listing a few faults or good points for the majority of the pictures. It doesn't describe the traits in any detail, but an experienced horseperson wouldn't find this a problem. Intermediate riders might find the most benefit from this book, using it to strengthen pictures in their mind when learning about faults from other books or live horses. I can't see this book being overwhelming to beginners, but they might not have encountered some of the terms and colloquialisms that the author takes for granted. I would have preferred more color photographs in the meat of the book; it would have made some of the older pictures more clear. Most color photos are "poster pictures" of different breeds and colors that seemed tacked on to the end of the book. I did appreciate that some pictures were taken at angles. This made it a bit more useful applying studies of live horses to photographs.