# Conformation Help - Legs



## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

Alright, so I'm getting pretty decent at body/udder conformation. The place where I get a bit confused is with the legs. There aren't as many photos of legs/legs issues in material as the body.

What are major faults, and what do they look like? 
(Anyone have photo examples?)
Which faults are huge penalties, and which are only slight penalties?

I'm used to judging meat animals and horses. When you are judging a horse's legs, they'll say they don't want cow-hocks, they don't want them to turn out in the toes, etc. They want straight, straight, straight everywhere. (Well except angulation in the hocks. They don't want horses who are post-legged in the rear.) In any case, being slightly cowhocked is natural for allot of horses. As long as it is slight, you won't get docked for it. Bucked knees aren't seen as badly as calf knees (which is a major fault)....toeing out slightly in the back can also be natural and if its slight you are not docked. At the same time, although its not desirable, toeing out slightly in the front isn't going to take much away from you, etc. How is it in the show pen for Nigerians (and other dairy breeds.)?

From what I can tell, most of the faults are identical to horses, but I'd like to be sure.


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

Oh, and what about pasterns? In horses you want them to be at 45 degree angles. From what I get, goats need to be pretty much straight up and down?


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## SDK (Jun 26, 2008)

its just like horses for the most part, sound and square and straight


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