Conformation

I've decided to start breeding for colour and conformation... with some of my breeds... currently weeding out any foundations that are less than 56.50 conformation from my herd... 

Would anyone be able to explain how the conformation works... how to improve the conformation of horses over time? Also how to get to that ever wanted 100.00 conformation? I just don't get how it works.

individual areas of conformation seem to be an average of mare confo + sire confo, plus or minus a few points. Most often it seems to be ‘plus’ a few points, but sometimes it’s a perfect average or, in some unlucky cases, it’s lower than either parent. There doesn’t seem to be an easy way to calculate expected conformation since it is so varied. 

with foundations, what i’ve had success with, and I believe others have as well, is pairing horses with low scores in one area with a horse that has a higher score in that same area. the overall score is less important to focus on than the individual areas. For example, if i have a mare with a score of 42 in hooves and 69 in head (and high 50s in everything else), she’d be the perfect mate for a stallion with a 70 in hooves and a 46 in head. Ideally their foal would end up with mid/high 50s in both areas, which is a jump from “poor” to “good”. 

In a 6 generation experiment of breeding foundation horses with 60+ confo in each area, the highest i was able to get a 6th generation foal was 66-ish confo. So it seems that breeding post-recode foundries up to 100s in confo would take almost 50 generations. That was just one experiment though; it might end up being many fewer with some above-the-average foals. 

My best suggestion if you want to breed good confo from foundations is to start with good foundations. No poors (I personally try to have minimum individual scores of no less than 55) and ideally 58+ overall confo. 

Thank you for the help. I'll go through my herd and see if I have any more poors to get rid of!