Soundness and Symmetry. Why is it so Important for Your Horse

When we think about the horses we ride, train or care for, soundness and symmetry often go hand in hand and they are something many of us, quite understandably, take for granted. Of course, we want our horses to be comfortable and able to perform at their best. It's when we start to ask deeper questions about what symmetry really is and how it relates to soundness, we find ourselves opening up a much bigger conversation and It’s one we’ll be exploring in depth at the Horses Inside Out Conference 2026 - Soundness and Symmetry.

What Is Symmetry and Why Does It Matter?

In equestrian terms, symmetry often translates to straightness and is something we as riders and trainers are constantly striving to improve. The tricky question is, does perfect symmetry or perfect straightness even exist?

This is where this topic gets interesting. As you will already know horses (and humans) are all naturally asymmetrical to some degree, so can you ever truly achieve straightness? If your horse moves straight, are they simply compensating for that asymmetry through posture or movement? Is that compensation sustainable or healthy for their body?

It’s these types of questions that fascinate me, and for good reason - posture, symmetry and soundness are all connected.

When we talk about symmetry, we’re typically thinking about comparing one side of the horse to the other (left to right). It's not just side to side we should be considering but also front to back, and even the top line versus the underside of the horse. Essentially, we’re comparing the different parts of the horse’s body to determine how balanced and aligned (symmetrical) they are.

Symmetry encourages even distribution of forces throughout the body. When a horse is symmetrical and in good posture, forces are more likely to be absorbed and distributed evenly by the musculoskeletal system, reducing the risk of strain and injury.

The Impact of Asymmetry

On the flip side, if your horse has poor posture or asymmetry, due to conformation, past injury, or habitual movement patterns, certain structures may be under more strain than others. Some tissues simply aren’t designed to handle additional forces. That’s when we see issues arise such as splints, tendon injuries, repetitive strain injury, sidebone or other bony changes.

If you look at a horse with an asymmetrical limb, the body will very often change or adapt. You'll get things like sides bone or splints if you've got an asymmetrical limb. The reason for this is that the body is trying to make itself stronger in response to these forces. You might see these problems on inside, but not the outside of the limb and this is because of the asymmetrical forces.

This leads to a another crucial question - if you have an asymmetrical horse, should you work them to appear straight? Is that what’s best for their body, or does it simply look pleasing to the eye or the watching judge?

The answer lies in understanding how the horse is going straight and at what cost. Straightness must be functional, not just nice to look at. It needs to support the horse’s health, welfare, comfort and longevity.

Soundness and Its Many Guises

Naturally, we all want our horses to be sound but can symmetry affect soundness? Absolutely.

When we understand a horse’s conformation and the biomechanical forces that can through their body, we can often begin to explain why certain horses develop injuries in specific areas. It’s also important to remember that lameness is not always musculoskeletal. A horse can have pain from other areas of the body which could cause an unsoundness. It can be unsoundness due to dental problems or heart issues.

Put simply - A sound horse is a pain-free horse and pain isn’t always where you expect it to be.

This is why it’s so important to view the horse as a whole. If there’s one thing I’ve said countless times in my anatomy presentations, it’s that

“everything is connected to everything else.”

Discomfort in one area can, and often does affect movement, posture and behaviour elsewhere.

Mechanical Lameness

This leads us to another topic - mechanical lameness. This is when a horse appears lame or unlevel yet may actually be pain-free. Can an asymmetrical conformation or habitual movement patterns lead to mechanical lameness?

This is a difficult question to answer and where a deep understanding of the individual horse comes in. The longer we work with a horse, the more we understand their quirks, their history and what’s normal for them. However, even with that experience, there’s a fine line between what is acceptable in terms of unleveliness versus unacceptable lameness and distinguishing between them is a challenge.

This topic will form a core part of the Horses Inside Out Conference 2026, where we’ll explore soundness and symmetry over three fascinating days.

Looking Ahead to the 2026 Conference

I’m thrilled about the incredible line-up of speakers for the Soundness and Symmetry Conference. These include, Dr Sue Dyson, who, as far as I'm concerned, is the number one specialist. Her ability to assess horse movement is unrivalled. She has such an amazing eye, but also the ability to share her process and to train us to be able to be somewhere near as good as she is in terms of assessing horses. She has a very clear system of how to assess horses.

We’ll also be joined by Kevin Hostler, who will focus on spinal movement and understanding how the spine moves and how spinal asymmetries affect performance.

Another key topic to consider when we’re looking at soundness and symmetry, is making sure that we’re not just jumping on theories. It's very easy to see a compensation pattern or to think that there's a pattern there.

If a horse has a certain conformation or a certain posture, it can lead to stress and strains in other parts of the body. For example, some might say that if the left hip of the horse is lower, this causes problems on the right hand side of the back, the left shoulder, the right Atlas. The trouble with having these sort of compensation patterns in your mind, is that it’s just a theory. Once you learn certain patterns, it's very difficult to unsee them and you almost apply that pattern to every single horse that you see. This is why I'm so such a believer in trying not to learn patterns, because you need to look at each horse as an individual. It's really important to see what's truly in front of you and to apply science and facts. This is where having evidence based therapy assessment techniques are massively important.

At the conference to support this evidence-based approach, we also welcome Dr Gillian Tabor and other leading specialists who are putting the science behind the assessment of symmetry and soundness. They’ll be presenting the latest research-backed insights to help us all make better decisions for our horses.

We’ll be revealing more about our 2026 speakers and their topics in future articles over the coming months.

If there's only one thing you take away from reading this article (I hope you'll take lots more...), I encourage you to take the time to study your own horse’s symmetry and soundness. Observe with fresh eyes, question assumptions, and most importantly always remember that every horse is unique. The more we can understand and appreciate those individual differences, the better we can care for, train and support them throughout their lives.