dishy faces & personality

["Jeff & Bambi Forbes" <forbes@mountainmax.net>]

I am reminded of Linda Tellington-Jones analysis of characteristics of the
head (profile, nostrils, ears, eyes, chin, lips, jowls) and how it relates
to the horse's personality. This is from her book "Getting in TTouch:
Understand and Influence Your Horse's Personality"

As one aspect of the physical makeup of the head (according to LTJ) , "a
straight face is uncomplicated and learns easily, a dish face shows
sensitivity and sometimes timidity and a Roman nose usually indicates
boldness."  "A dish face with a long moose nose usually indicates uncommon
intellegence and confidence."  She warns, "these indications should be read
along with the other features that are prominent in the head."  When I
first started reading it, I thought, "yeah, right.."  but as I read on and
began to see the facial characteristics in her photos then read her
analysis, I began to remember lots of horses I've known and the aspects of
the shapes in the head did fit personalities.  

One thing she wrote  that caught my attention was:  "..an Arabian with a
straight profile is usually better for performance such as endurance riding
than one with a dish face."  Did the Bedouin know this also?!   Again there
is more to this (size of the eye, shape and size of the nostrils, jowl
size) and some of these things can be altered with the horses state of
mind, ie. a depressed horse can have a small, hard, eye and as he is worked
with and loved, his eye softens and appears larger.

LTJ did these studies to help horses into an appropriate discipline for
their personality, as people often choose an activity for their horse
before understanding who he was.  This might be a place to start for those
who are looking for an endurance prospect.  It would also be interesting to
hear how your endurance horses fit in with these theories.  Anybody read
it?  Interesting book.

Bambi


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