OVERALL IMPRESSION: The Kiger Horse is “baroque” in nature due to its round body contours with the neck arising from the top of the shoulder giving them an elegant, collected stance. The Kiger Horse should be balanced in proportions and should move with ease and without wasted energy. The Kiger Horse, on one hand, should give an impression of strength without being bulky while, on the other, should not be so refined as to convey frailty or extreme refinement.
HEIGHT: 13.2 to 16 Hands (preferred is 14 to 15.2). It has been observed that Kiger Horses bred in captivity attain a higher height than those Kiger Horses from the wild range. (This may be due to a difference in nutrition.)
QUALITY: The Kiger Horse should have clean, dense bone with sufficient substance, well developed joints and tendons, with a fine body coat, tractable temperament but with good spirit.
COLOR: Variations of the Dun factor color: Dun, Red Dun, Grulla, Claybank, Bay & Black.
MARKINGS: A dorsal stripe is mandatory on all Dun, Red Dun, Grulla and Claybank colors and desirable on all Bays & Blacks. Dorsal stripes may be difficult to see or photograph on some Bay and Black body colored horses. Herringbone stripes radiating from the dorsal are highly desirable. Leg barring should be present and expression can range from dark lacing to strong bars. Additional highly desirable dun factor markings include: wither stripes, shadows and bars on neck and chest, barring on the back of the ear, dark marks around the rim of the eye, dark line along the margin of the ear with dark tips, cobwebbing and/or sooty or shadow mask on the face. Mane and tail should be full, with moderate bi-coloring preferred. All colors including Bay and Black must have lighter colored hair inside the ear. White markings are a fault which, if in excess, are a disqualification.
HEAD: Medium in size, clean cut and tapering slightly from jaw to muzzle. Head should be balanced and not overly refined. The profile side view can be straight, slightly sub-concave, or slightly sub-convex. Wide, clean cut lower jaw, medium fine muzzle with small and firm lips and medium nostrils. Ears should be medium in length, hooked at the tips on the inside and set wide apart and carried alert.
NECK: Medium length, arched, clean at the throatlatch, joined smoothly at the shoulder and deep at the point of the shoulder.
FOREHAND: Long shoulder at 45-50 degree slope, blending smoothly with well tapered withers. The withers are slightly higher than the point of the hip; well defined but not prominent. Forelegs should be moderately spaced with an inverted V appearance, however, without giving appearance of bulky chest muscling. Muscles in the shoulder and forearm should be long and lean. Viewed from the front, legs should be correct; viewed from the side, legs should be wide and lean.
BARREL: The body conformation of the Kiger Horse is distinctive, with a deep chest, short back, broad and moderately muscled. The barrel is oval, with well-sprung ribs, and a full flank. The sternum should not protrude.
HINDQUARTER: The hind legs should be squarely set and so placed that the Kiger Horse turns on his hindquarters with ease. The hips should be lightly rounded, with croup sloped gently with medium-low set tail. Muscles in the hip and thigh should be long and lean. The hocks should be wide, deep and clean. Viewed from the rear, the hind legs are usually closer at the hocks than the fetlocks, but not to the extreme.
CANNON: Short to medium, wide and flat with tendons standing well out from the bone and well defined.
PASTERN: Pasterns should be clean and strong, of medium length, the slope to correlate with the slope of the shoulder. Fetlock joint should not be round, but rather wide. Fetlocks should be scarce of feathering.
HOOVES: The hoof is dense with thick walls and recessed sole and frog. The Kiger Horse hoof tends to be round to oblong, be of medium size, and have more heel, steeper hoof angles and are dark in color.
ACTION: Light, lively, tending toward higher than average leg action.
CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION
DISQUALIFICATIONS:
- Bald face (white marking covering nearly the entire front of the face)
- One full stocking (a white marking that extends from edge of the hoof to the bottom of knee or hock or higher)
- Four socks (a white marking that extends beyond the top of the pastern joint on all four legs)
- White spots/patches on body that have pink skin underneath.
- White under the chin
- Grey
- Sorrel/Chestnut
- Palomino
- Appaloosa markings
- Buckskin
- Roan
- Lack of fawn (light color) in ear.
- Lack of dorsal (in all colors except Bay and Black)
- Malocclusions (bite)
- Monorchid
- Cryptorchid
