Re: RC: dishy faces

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

Toni, Becky Huffman is right that there is a tremendous variation in Arab 
"type" from a fairly flat profile to extremely dishy.  While it is 
theoretically possible to get so much dish that it would interfere with air 
intake, I have yet to see this happen.  Horses who tend to that extreme are 
generally "fine" all over and more apt to break down in other areas first.  
In terms of dentition, this is a subject that I've discussed at length with 
several equine dentists.  Ironically, extremely fine-headed Arabs tend to 
also have smaller dental arcades, and hence don't have a great deal more 
dental problems than those with less fine heads.  The most problems we see 
with dentition are in the Quarter Horses that are bred for short heads on 
massive bodies--they tend to still have large dental arcades that can be very 
crowded and abnormal in heads that are too short for the "rest" of the horse. 
 (I admittedly have dealt with more halter QH's than halter Arabs, and so has 
my dentist--but we've dealt with some pretty fine-headed Arabs among the 
performing Arabs that we see.)

It seems to be very true that you don't ride a head--both in the sense that a 
plain one does not detract from performance and that a very dishy one does 
not hinder performance, either.  The biggest performance problem I've seen in 
really tiny-headed Arabs is that most snaffle bits are too big, and those 
with a single joint will often jab the horse in the roof of the mouth.  This 
is easily solved by going to smaller bits and to double-jointed snaffles 
(French mouth) that lie flat across the center of the tongue and don't jab.

As to bloodlines in which tiny, dishy heads occur--many modern Egyptian 
horses tend toward tiny, dishy heads, but I can also find some tiny, dishy 
examples in just about every other major line.  One CMK example is Dreamazon. 
 His son, Jim Jones winner SSA Csea Dream, also has a fairly tiny, dishy 
head, and I haven't noticed it bothering him any...

I personally am far more concerned about the restricted windpipes, long 
backs, shallow heart girths, upright shoulders, shallow hips, tipped 
pelvises, and long cannons on modern Arabs--I think those are far more 
destructive to performance than dishy heads.

Heidi


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