I just went young UL prospect shopping this past winter. I had this list of requirements:
Gelding, 4-5 years (but would consider 6 yr olds), 15.3 to 16.3 h, no previous soft tissue injuries, 8+ mover, uphill, minimum of 75% TB blood, ideally full TB. I also wanted but would compromise on no previous known injuries at all, under 20 races, bay (obviously this one was very shallow and would go out the window easily!).
My specific criteria for evaluating conformation included:
Sloped shoulder, neck tied in high, and a low stifle. Uphill topline. No long backs. Neck shouldn’t be too short. Pasterns not too long, not too short but juuuust right.
I was well prepared to sacrifice on somethings but not others. I knew I wanted a true UL prospect, and preferably something that could win at those levels. That meant movement in all three dressage gaits was a priority, although I made the walk/canter a bigger priority than the trot. Still I thought the trot needed to show promise…yes you can improve it, but a 3 might only improve to a 6 while a 6 can improve to a 9 trot.
I wasn’t too worried about the jump, honestly. Now part of this stems from not seeing a ton of free jump videos in the area of horses I was looking at (mostly OTTBs), which meant a lot of the jump videos were from horses being ridden under saddle, jumping maybe 2’ fences. I don’t expect a lot of horses to be too impressed with that height, nor need to try that hard. If they do…I worry they are either scoped out at low heights or possibly too spooky to handle the UL. I did want them to hint at the ability to jump well, so part of my method if I tried the horse was to have the seller jump a new or bigger fence to see if the horse snapped his forelegs a bit more, or cracked his back at all.
I wanted a bright but calm look in the eye, something that indicated intelligence but also a stability about them. Spookiness is fine but I didn’t want panic when introduced to something new.
What I ended up with was something with fewer compromises than I thought I would have to make. The TB gelding I bought fit all my required categories: fantastic movement in all three gaits (and unsurprisingly turned out to have a fantastic gallop although I couldn’t test it out in the indoor in the winter when I tried him). Level-headed intelligence that tends to progress through training slowly but surely. He hadn’t been jumping long and was too tall to take the 2’ fences seriously, but we tested him over a 2’6" Swedish oxer and he showed promise in his form. Obviously he was 100% TB, he hit all my conformation must-haves including being extremely uphill, and had no known previous injuries.
Places I compromised: The horse is 17.1, significantly taller than I preferred, but he’s narrow as a fish and most of that height is in his legs so he takes up my leg well. He’s 6, which I worried was too old. That has turned out ok because he’s so long and mentally immature so if I had bought him at 5 or 4 I don’t know how he’d remotely be ready any time soon. He raced 27 times, which actually I like now because he came out with no injuries and in great physical condition, so I’m pretty sure he’ll hold up well to UL eventing. His jump isn’t phenomenal yet but a huge portion of that seems to just be him sorting out his ridiculously long legs and it gets better every session.
So basically…you need a lot. And who knows if he will really ever pan out.
