Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Weight of horse compared to rider

> Hi Joe
> Perhaps you wouldn't feel the same way if you were way over 6 feet

Again, it is the feelings of the humans that seem to be dictating the
desire for a taller horse--NOT the ability of the smaller ones to carry
larger people.  The smaller horses do so with ease, and couldn't care less
about what sort of complexes the people have about it.

> Mankind has evolved and is much taller as a whole

Evolution and selective breeding are not the same processes.  We need to
remember that and not confuse the two.

>I never bash the CMK breed, which can be on
>  the small side on the average

This isn't about CMK or any other specific line.  From what I've observed
in many years of ride vetting and various other endeavors is that the
average-sized horses of ALL lines do better than their taller compatriots,
on the whole.  BTW, the only two 16 hh Arabs that I've seen in my lifetime
that were truly proportionate had high percentages of CMK breeding--but
also had crosses to something else--one was Bezatal, who qualifies as CMK
but has a significant cross of Babson Egyptian, and the other was an
old-timey stallion with a close-up *Witez II sire line.  Some of the
soundest and most successful Polish track horses have been smaller as
well--Wiking comes to mind off the top of my head.  And likewise the
average-sized Polish horses and Polish crosses with CMK have on the whole
done better in endurance than larger horses of the same breeding.  This
has been true both with the older Patton Polish crosses as well as with
the modern ones.  One of the worst tall horses I ever saw happened to be
CMK, BTW--and came from a breeder who espoused the "bigger is better"
philosophy.  If there is any difference with CMK or with other
preservation groups regarding this issue, it might be that fewer of the
preservation breeders have been sucked into the philosophy that breeding
for tall is a desirable thing.  I just returned from speaking at the
national Al Khamsa convention, and they have breeding philosophies quite
similar to many CMK breeders on this issue.  I don't want to put words in
anyone else's mouth, but having visited Edie Booth with her Sa'ud horses,
I don't see that groups like hers are striving for tall horses, either,
but rather trying to maintain the athletic Arab as he is.  So to say this
is a CMK vs other lines issue is simply not accurate.  It is a matter of
physics and biomechanics, regardless of bloodlines.

Heidi



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