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Consistency is a characteristic which applies to showing, basically. It is a measure of how much a horse's show score may vary between the two shows it is during a given week.

A perfectly consistent horse (Perfect Foundations, for example) will have exactly the same score both times it is shown in a week. If it scores 45 in the first show, it will score 45 in the second show.

There is a chance for a bit more variation in horses that are rated Consistent by the Consistency test that is part of the new Performance Inspection. That rating allows up to a + or - 2 variation in scores.

It works like this: if the horse's base score that week is 35, and it's consistency is +/- 1, its score may be as low as 34 or as high as 36, giving the possibility of three scores--34, 35, or 36. It might score the same thing both times, but it will not necessarily do that. If a horse has +/- 2 consistency, then there is a 5 point possible range in show results--33, 34, 35, 36, 37. Lucky horses have their scores swing up more than they swing down, but there is no way of predicting exactly what their score will be for any given show.

Horses that test Inconsistent will have even wider variability in their scores.

That said, Inconsistent horses can be as profitable as Consistent ones. In fact, if their scores swing up more than down, they can gather a large number of points in their lifetime.

Consistent horses are a bit more likely to produce consistent foals, but they may still produce inconsistent ones. And two inconsistent horses have a chance of producing a consistent foal. There is that much randomness built into the possible results.

The worst thing about inconsistency I find, is that it will spay/geld some good breeders because inconsistency is taken into account when doing breeding advice. So I try not to use inconsistent stallion or mares for the most part