“only up to 2nd level which may be all the breed is capable of doing anyway.”
LOL…whoops! close the kimono honey!
I had an appendix that went to PSG, and an extremely unsuitable little PONY QH that went to third level and would have gotten a lot further if he hadn’t gotten injured…SORRY! There is no Tablet of Moses declaring which breeds go to which levels!
You may find more individuals within a given breed whose conformation is better for sport than halter classes and that hold up through training, and you may find more individuals within a given breed whose gaits are sport-like who score well percentage wise, but it actually matters little in the long run - suitability for upper level work in ANY sport is always an ‘individual horse thing’ rather than a ‘breed thing’.
And in plain fact, ‘suitability’ and ‘ideal conformation’ and ‘gaits’ intended for upper levels, is virtually worthless to most dressage enthusiasts, who will never ride above second level. What’s far more important to most people than scoring well or moving up is having a nice, cooperative partner to learn intro, training, and perhaps at a stretch, first level on, and for that, just about anything will do.
BUT…if many individuals in the breed have a very unbalanced conformation, such as an extremely heavy body on ‘baby doll’ legs with tiny feet, if they have sickle hocks, cow hocks and hind legs out behind them, if they have a front end that outweighs their back end by 2-1, if they have a neck that is shaped like a bulldog’s…no…actually, they may not stay sound long enough to get very far. And even if they are of a lighter modern type, if they have ‘pleasure gaits’ (a small, restricted trot and walk, and a shuffling, rather than a bounding canter) they may be limited in how well they can score, though often, not in how much they can teach their owners!
My appndx QH that went that far, was NOT heavy fronted, overbuilt or unbalanced, in fact he had a very balanced conformation. He did very, very well.
