Phrenology

[MargePiwowarski <MPiwowarski@compuserve.com>]

Doc Newall wants to know if those of us who give credence to evaluating
temperament by looking at horses heads practice phrenology on our friends
<G>.   It isn't the same.  I have long found that lots of things about the
mind of the horse can be accurately predicted by the shape of his head and
the old "original" horse whisperers (Rarey, Berry, and others) were all
believers too.  I was discussing the general disbelief and the comparisons
with phrenology with a British friend of mine who was shocked that it
wasn't a generally accepted means of evaluation here, it evidently is in
GB.  

She is far into the origins and dispersal of the equine family millenia ago
and says the reason it works for horses is that there are ancestral types,
(plains runner, bog trotter, mountain gaiter) with three distinct types of
heads, naturally selected for, according to the niche these forerunners of
our present day mounts occupied.  

The following examples aren't complete, but are approximate.

The plains runners used their eyes and noses to warn of predators, they
outran them.  They are the quickest to take flight and the "spookiest" of
prototypes.  (Guess whose decendants most of you are riding).

The bog trotters used their noses and ears as early warning systems, they
couldn't see far in their niche.  They were larger than most of their
predators and less worried about them.  They relied on size and power. 
Their descendants are the cold blooded breeds.  Calm, less likely to mind
confinement, sorta pushy as a result of their size and wtrength.

The mountain gaiters had to be sure footed but most of all had to be horses
who evaluated a situation before reacting.  Their niche did away with those
who took headlong flight, the terrain killed them before the predator got
there.  Their descendants usually "spook in place", will run only after
formulating a plan and will stop and face their predator as soon as the
terrain favors them.  They aren't opposed to a fight when they have a
terrain advantage, their descendants became the war horses of the middle
ages and their strains are found today in the Iberian and gaited horses. 
Their big, roman nosed heads were (and are) useful as balancing devices
over rough and steep terrain, mountain climates are cold, their nasal
design warmed the air better than the hot blooded plains runners had a need
for.

If one looks at head shapes as a genetic characteristic of the ancient
prototypes and think about the sort of mental characteristics which best
ensured survival, this "phrenology" stuff doesn't seem so much like pseudo
science.  Head shape and mind are not always linked but most often they
are.  

(Before any of you Ayrab folk start telling me about your horse's desert
ancestors, remember that horses did not evolve in the desert.  They have
been there for a few centuries because man took them there, left to their
own devices, they won't live wild in the Sahara.  Their forerunners were
plains runners.)

Marge (give me a bucket haid with a roman nose on a pacing horse)


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