One thing to keep in mind when watching “fronty” hunters. Even the best western pleasure morgan will snort it up, crank it’s neck and pop it’s knees when excited. It’s in their blood, regardless of lineage. A lot of those hot hunters are simply excited by the show ring and haven’t totally acclimated to their job. We don’t get to put a sign on the horses “first time hunter”! LOL.

As for the shoeing, well, it is my humble opinion that there is a serious lack of qualified morgan farriers, and many smaller stables get whoever the local guy is and those guys don’t understand that there is a serious difference in the disciplines. And you know the old adage “the more you tell your farrier what to do, the more he’s going to do what the hell he wants”

I get that Morgans have more natural up and down motion than a TB or Warmblood, and I wouldn’t expect daisy clippers in a Morgan hunter class. But I don’t get why they have long feet and weighted shoes. Why are trainers shoeing for saddle seat motion on their hunters, and why are judges rewarding level motion? That’s not an efficient, ground-covering gait.

For the vast majority of “Park Hunters”, they are simply not suited to be English horses. It may be that they are totally uncomfortable picking up their head and putting their nose in the way an English horse needs to do it, or perhaps they don’t have the length of neck to accomplish this. A horse may LOOK like he can pick his head up and trot like a banshee, but that may not necessarily mean they WANT to or would be remotely good at it. A very talented 4 year old hunter in my barn went from being an English horse at 3 to a hunter at 4. It sure looked like he could pick up his head and trot right off, but he didn’t like it, wasn’t comfortable doing it, and flat out didn’t want to. So he became a hunter with a big trot and a high, yet arched and beautiful, neck, and he was much happier and a lot more successful in the ring. To anyone that didn’t know him, he looked like he could probably pick his head up and be an English horse, but it just wasn’t him. Until you are the trainer of the “park hunter”, it’s impossible to know whether the horse has the desire, conformational ability, or talent to be an English horse.

If I’m watching a class and thinking to myself which horses would be better hunters than English horses, it’s usually the ones that extend their legs OUT a bit more than UP and can really power off the back end. I personally look for a little bit of a thinner neck with more natural arch to it that’s tipped forward just a hair more than your average competitive English horse, a prettier face, and a bit of a longer horse – the really short backed guys look a little too compact to me.

A hunt horse that has some action, fluid movement and a big stride is breath taking.

A lot of hunters are overshod to get that movement and sometimes it really hurts the overall picture. The horse’s movement shows how artificial it actually is. To me, that is not what a hunt horse should look like.

Blue – I hope when you said “big moving” you meant extension. I agree, that’s lovely. But it annoys me no end to see a “park hunter” trotting down the rail. I don’t understand why riders/trainers don’t put these horses in appropriate saddle seat divisions.

It is really hard to just look at a horse from a distance. I would say handling the horse or seeing it in it’s natural state would be the only definite way to know.

If it is a seasoned horse that you can handle, I would say assess how well they like their job. Higher headsets are acceptable in the hunter division but obviously you want them to look like a hunter. A pleasure horse may get tired or worn out with its job and changing to a hunt horse might be a good option. They might not hold their head up and be as crisp in their movement as they once were. I think that moving to a hunt horse in that case would be a good choice. It is so competitive these days and horses are being asked to go above and beyond. If they don’t have the edge that they once used to it might be best to drop them down.

If it is a youngster that has not been shown or even broke yet, I would assess their natural head carriage. A horse might pick up like a park horse but if they aren’t up headed it will be a huge battle. I am not saying that it can’t be done, but why waste your time when neither rider nor horse will be happy?

The best results will probably come when you turn a horse out and allow them to do what they want to do. They will hold their head where it is comfortable and it should give you a good idea of where they want to be.

I guess what I really want to know is, what is it in a horse that is not yet a hunter that makes a trainer decide, “that would be a great hunter”. Are there any traits you should look for in an eng/classic pl horse if you are looking to find a hunter in a saddleseat horse?
If you were interested in finding a horse to introduce into the hunter division, what would you look for? This is if you had not handled the horse, you were just watching it at a show, looking at photos, etc