THE LUSITANO PROFILE:
The Lusitano is a horse of great generosity, willingness, nobility and high spirit, which combined bless him with an irresistable character. His compact structure makes him agile with elevated movement's, thus his ease and extroadinary ability as a classical riding horse, not to mention a wonderful all-rounder.
|  |
 | On average, the Lusitano stand's at between 15 hh and 16.2 hh, although do on occassion's reach other height's. Similar to northern breed's, Lusitanos' are most commonly found in all varieties of grey and bay, although all solid colour's and some variation's do exist.
|
HEAD: Fairly long, slightly convex face with large, expressive eye's and fine, attentive ear's. Together, these feature's create a strong look of confidence and kindness. |  |
NECK:
Round and muscular, yet sized in proportion to his compact body and set nicely in position by a wide base supported by a strong shoulder, with a narrow connection to the head. Thus, forming a solid, yet fluent topline, especially over the wither area.
WITHER: Unlike most breed's, the Lusitano's wither is set slightly higher than the croup, while maintaining a visibly soft connection between the back and neck. A contributing factor to his elevation capacity in high school movement's such as the Piaffe and Passage, and helping towards great upward power from behind. |  |
SHOULDER:
Nicely proportioned for his compact body, quite long, oblique and muscular providing sufficient support for the neck.
CHEST:
Good, medium width, fairly deep and muscular aiding his smooth execution of lateral movement's and providing good lung capacity.
BACK:
Following the withers roundness, the back continue's on a fairly horizontal line. This, along with it's shortness, strengthen's the connection between the shoulder and hindquarter, all of which contributing to a comfortable ride.
RIBCAGE:
Well developed with a deep girth, fairly arched ribs and a nicely filled out flank.
CROUP:
Considerably wide, short and muscular while also slightly convex, showing all of the necessary characteristic's for both propulsion and concentration.
HINDQUARTER:
Nicely rounded to provide strength and slightly oblique to stay in proportion with the shoulder. Length and width dimension's are practically identicle. Point of hip is somewhat invisible and the tail sit's in a low position, therefore staying in harmony with the natural curve of the topline.
 |  |
LIMB'S:
The forearm and thigh are both well muscled, leading downward to the knee and hock which are both strong and defined joint's. The cannon bone is short, therefore providing good strength and stability, followed by strong fetlock and pastern joint's, decreasing the risk of concussion-related ailment's. The hind limb's show good angle's, presented by the vertical alignment between the point of rump and the point of hock. The measurement of bone is little in comparison to some breed's, however Iberian horses are widely acknowledged for their bone density, therefore compensating for their smaller dimension's.
An important consideration to have when observing the younger Lusitano is that they tend to reach physical maturity around the age of 6 years old, therefore proving a slower developer than other breed's, such as the Thoroughbred, which many of us may be more familiar with.
