Advise of stifle confirmation for barrel horses !
huh?? not sure what this means. you need to be more specific here in terms of what you are asking and provide some information if you want anyone to respond. I have no clue what this means.
I’m asking about people’s opinions on conformation involving stifles. I don’t know how else to word that.
Well, any barrel horse is going to see significant pounding to its stifles over the course of its short career. Barrel racing is arguably one of the hardest-on-the-horse’s-body sports there is - because it is high speed & extremely small turns, which is, as we know, not generous towards long-term soundness.
Sorry. I enjoy watching barrel racing and know good horsemen in the sport, but I know exactly how often people have stifle problems in that industry.
You have to look at the big picture: not just the stifle. What a better question would be is - what is the equation from hip, to pastern, that bodes well for functionality in my sport? IE, how does the way the LS is placed affect the layout of the rest of the limb - if the stifle is straight, is the hock straight as well and how does this predilection affect the horse’s croup (is he goose-rumped?).
When the stifle is short and straight, and the hock as straight, why does it cause goose-rumped conformation? In my personal opinion, the goose-rump is caused by inadequate function of the rest of the hind leg, which causes the spine to contort down to compensate, and sacral scarring to appear over the croup. You rarely see a horse that is goose-rumped unless his stifle and hocks are straight or not aligned properly.
You will want to avoid straight hind end conformation. While this will make covering ground easier in some ways (and also will make the horse more sharp around turns, generally) it is a well-proven recipe for long-term soundness disasters. Too straight hind ends place excessive strain on the collateral ligaments, meniscus, and they also, when injured, seem to quickly irritate the suspensory apparatus. Major hock trauma usually follows, and SI problems shortly after. 
This is not good conformation, from a soundness standpoint. The loin is long and weak, the LS placement tipped too far forward and the point of hip does not align with either the stifle, or the LS gap - both of which are ideal for maximum stride length & soundness.
You can see clearly how the chestnut’s conformation has affected his muscling. His croup features lots of remodeling while the rest of his haunches look underdeveloped. Look at the under muscling beneath the hip, from POH to stifle, it is very undermuscled and weak with tight hamstrings and lower QH overmuscling/compensation. Look at the muscling up front to compare - this horse has more power in his front than his hind… and the muscles tell the story that the horse has been struggling behind for some time. What is drawing my eye is the total lack of definition in muscle from the POH to the early gaskin. The hocks are to the point of being too straight, which will affect soundness down the road as muscle & ligament elasticity dissolves as the horse gets older. In these horses once they hit the teens you start to really see their conformation catch up to them - they get very post-legged behind, and their pasterns often drop from the cumulative stress on their joints & ligaments.
The other thing that really impacts the stifle is the hock anatomy. Flat, open hocks are ideal, but too straight or open and they can cause major concussive injury to the horse over time. [IMG2=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“src”:"http://www.sunrisewest.com/images/Toby0328s550x425.jpg)
This gelding has a little bit, to my eye, of a better composition: His stifle is not placed too far back like the other horse, and his hocks are not as straight, but are broader and more “open”. He also has a long loin connection but it ties in better with his hind end conformation. Again we see a too far back LS gap, and lack of definition of muscling from POH to stifle.
Unfortunately QHs have really gotten homogenized in the way that they seem to have super short femurs with a “sucked back” stifle. I don’t know what the term is for that, but you can almost always tell a QH from another horse if you look at the shape of their stifle - it seems to suck back into the meat of the horse and lacks depth or definition. The gaskins tend to be shorter than other sport horses and the hocks not as broad, but twice as open. A lot of QHs also feature goose-rumped conformation, which places significant stress on the hocks and stifles as well.
Study the conformation of the top trainer’s horses. You will see similarities.
Racer’s Edge recently had a great episode with Jolene Montgomery, regarding conformation for barrel horses. Here’s the link.
One thing I’ve always been told is that a horse is “strong in the stifle” if their hindquarters have a nice hourglass look to them from behind. (which I will say that not many horses seem to have)
