09/10/2026
The very first thing that catches my eye in a postural assessment is the relationship between the horse's wither and their croup. For me, this is the foundational component of the entire postural assessment and it's the nucleus that all other variables circulate around.
If you're starting out on your postural assessment journey, the wither vs croup is the easiest thing to indentify. You are only looking for two landmarks, and these two landmarks are very easy to find:
- The withers: which are comprised of the tallest dorsal spinous processes of the horse's thoracic spine, forming the bony prominence in front of the saddle.
- The croup: which is the bony landmark on the top of the horse's hindquarters and is the colloquial term for the tuber sacrale (where the left and right iliac wings of the pelvis meet).
Here's how you assess the wither vs croup relationship:
1. Stand your horse on flat ground
2. Identify the highest point of the withers
3. Draw or visualise a line from their withers back towards their hindquarters. Keep that line parallel with the ground.
4. Look at where the croup is relative to that line, e.g. does the line intersect the croup? Or is the croup higher or lower than the line?
These factors together and in their separate parts can give you an insight into what the horse's forehand and hindquarters are experiencing respectively.
The height of your horse's withers tells me a little bit about their thoracic sling development.
The height of their croup tells me a little bit about their hindquarter development.
The relationship between the two tells me about the horse's overall way of going - e.g. how easy they might find it to move forwards, how difficult they might find it to stop. It also might tell me a little bit about how they feel, with wither low or "flat" toplines being associated with a depressed-like emotional state.
As with everything with horses, there are so many things that influence their posture and the great thing about this is it gives you so many different avenues for improvement. My favourite ways to influence a horse's wither/croup relationship are:
- Allow more horse-centred movement, e.g. turnout time on varying terrain.
- Make your horse happy (yes, really!) Enrichment goes a long way here.
- Support their hoof balance and comfort.
📸 The difference in wither/croup relationship and concurrent topline development after 6 weeks of a slightly different hoof care protocol for a horse who is field kept and not in any training outside of enrichment.
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