I think it depends, too, on what type you like to ride. I prefer to ride a horse with a shorter back-I have an easier time “feeling” where his feet are.
When I ride a horse with a longer back, I lose the caboose-I just can’t feel his hind feet. I have a harder time creating a good rhythm, and “reading” the length of stride.
If my leg were stronger, I probably wouldn’t have a hard time with a long backed horse.
Cute guy.
I am no conformation guru, but he seems to be just a bit longer than ‘square’ - to me anyhow.
As in he is just a little longer in the back than he is tall.
Getting a visible ‘collection’ with a butt high horse is more difficult, but can be done.
My sister’s old mare was build that way, too, and she managed to train her up to schooling Class M (In Germany, ‘medium’ level dressage, beginning flying changes I believe, I am a little rusty on that stuff)
Your guy seems to have nicely angled hind legs, Sis’ horse was a little post legged behind.
But to collect, you have to rock the weight on the haunches, move the center of gravity back. Every horse can profit from that, and I think there are plenty of stock breed that at look downhill, but manage to get their hind end under the body like nobody’s business!
When my horse was in the in hand shows, one judge in the “Potential to be a dressage horse” said, “OMG, finally, a short backed filly”, which won her the class.
I’ve also read that an old dressage guru liked a rectangular horse, believing that the horse’s centre of gravity was lower, making his balance better.
Then another big, US based breeder called some of their stock “long legged”.
So take your pick.
Personally, I like the coupling to be strong and feel that it is important to work on hills and jumps and strengthening exercises.
A long backed horse may have long pasterns, long neck, too. I like a long neck, (length of rein) and long pasterns can be weak.
But for collection, the shorter neck is easier. A long backed horse may be softer to ride and flatter over a fence.
The travelling Lipizzaners have very sway backs if you ever notice, and I am presuming from all that endless sitting trot and a unnatural life on the road. A short backed horse may handle that better.
Judge the horse in front of you. Conformation features do not work in isolation. Average may give the best of both.
Used to be long was preferred, now short.
Having owned both and certainly ridden a lot more of each, I would say there’s much more to it than that when assessing a horse.
I prefer a shorter back vs a long one. Both because I’m a heavier rider, and because I feel like I can better work with a more compact horse with how short I am through my limbs (I am tall in the torso, short in the arms and legs).
I am not a die-hard competitive rider, so my needs are less specific. I need a horse that is going to be sound and strong enough to dabble in a bit of everything under saddle, with a strong enough shoulder/rump to drive, and the heart to be a fun lifelong partner. Long, short, normal, doesn’t really matter that much, as long as they’re strong and sound enough.
I would recommend Deb Bennet’s book on functional conformation, for a detailed discussion of how the parts of the horse fit together. A horse can be “rectangle” for different reasons. His total body length can be long because he has a giant haunch, as your buckskin does, or a huge shoulder. Both of these are good things, and not the same thing as having a long back. A long back is one that is long in relation to the haunch and the shoulder.
What strikes me about your horse is that he appears downhill, as is true of many western breeds. It’s hard to see under the mane, but it seems as if his neckbone is entering his shoulder fairly far down the shoulder blade, in comparison to where his loins are. This is a separate issue from the fact that his neck is currently undermuscled and thin.
I think that his hind legs are in fact rather straight. He is standing under himself right now so they look more angled, but if you had him standing square I think that his legs would look straighter and that his butt would be a little higher as well.
So I don’t think his back is especially long, measured from the end of the withers to the hip bone.
If you are concerned about the strength of his loins, check the distance from the last rib to the point of the hip. The shorter the stronger. Also check if his SI joint is directly above his point of hip, or not. I’m thinking his is a little far back, which can make a horse more predisposed to lumbar strain.
Overall he is a classic type of quarterhorse, and they are athletic in their own activities, and can certainly collect when it comes to sliding stops, rollbacks, etc. But they are not easy horses to do dressage with, if that’s where the question of “false collection” comes from, because they don’t have the basic build to do those movements in the style of a warmblood or Andalusian.
As long as they aren’t so long backed that you have a weakness issue, it doesn’t matter to me. I have had both. I remember one school mare from my boarding days who was so long you could get 4 people ( comfortably) on her bareback ( not adults, kids, just to see). She did have some weakness issues as she aged , but everyone loved riding her and she was a sweet horse.
This. I have had horses with short and long backs and in the middle that could move and jump terrifically. And have worked with some on all three spectrums that didn’t. Why? The other aspects and proportionality factor into it heavily.
Thank you very much! So there is hope and I know what I need to work on to achieve it! I don’t have aspirations of becoming an extremely successful dressage rider but I would like to know how to ride a horse properly and avoid an “upside down” position. Thanks!
I have short arms and a large butt, and seem to gravitate to a shortish neck and a longish back.
I’m sure its purely coincidence 
I bred a mare, my baby (now 4 1/2) who has a loooong back; her dam was my competition horse (medium length back), sire was an imported Hanoverian jumper bred stallion (medium length back), so :sigh: It is what it is! (Some long-lost WB relative several generations back was surely the “guilty party” in this throwback gene 
)
She also has a long neck, a long shoulder, and a fairly long hip. At around 15’1’, 15’2", not a big horse!, but she stands over a lot of ground.
I do all of the bodywork mentioned by another poster: belly lifts, butt tucks, backing up hills, LOTS of core work exercises to strengthen and supple her, and Hillary Clayton’s “build your horse’s core” is my bible. Her back is in good shape (well, she’s young!), but I can see the “long span” getting weaker with age - so I do everything I can to work on keeping it healthy. No big heavy people on her (really, it’s only been me and the trainer who started her), no allowing her to go inverted, lots of gently hill work, LOTS of stretchy walk work, bending and suppling work. Her loin connection is smooth and strong.
She gets bodywork and massages as necessary, and I do TTouch exercises and some of the Masterson bodywork.
She does have a long stride for such a small horse!, and has a comfortable trot; the challenge with her is straightness - long back AND being green - as well as getting her connected back to front.
She “steps” over small jumps, and has a powerful spring to her jump; spreads are a non-issue. She will have a TON of jumping scope, and finds it all very easy; IME, if you have a long-backed horse who is correctly conformed elsewhere, it is an advantage OF. The other long-backed horse I owned was a Saddlebred/TB (when I was a teenager in Pony Club), and he could jump the moon. We always joked that “it took him forever to come out of the stall” :lol:, and he was built sort of like a tube (as is my mare), so there were the inevitable train jokes. CHOO CHOO! My husband makes fun of my mare, Hahaha, yeah, honey, very amusing :rolleyes:
Anyway, I agree with all the above posters in that “it depends”! Some short-coupled horses have tremendous jumping scope, and are like rubber balls over fences! They are certainly easier to “put together”, but OTOH they can hold tension in their backs and lock the topline against you; lots of lateral work to free up the ribcage is helpful.
Interesting topic!
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