>>> I have to disagree here. In dogs, different breeds are as apparant as the difference between a dog and a cat. With horses, a lot of times, you can't tell the difference between the different breeds.
I don't think so. I can certainly see huge differences between most Icelandics and most Arabs. A lab has a lot in common with a golden, and for pet purposes, a setter can be quite similar to a lab. If you are talking pet purposes, a standard poodle or a lab can be good pets, but are pretty different dogs. On the other hand, what do a Shire and a Paso Fino have in common with a Shetland pony? About as much as a Chihuahua with a St. Bernard, or the Yorkie with the Boxer. Many QH have a lot in common with many Paints, but not all. There are horse breeds whose traits overlap a lot, but some breeds are very dissimilar to other breeds. The majority of the dogs these days are pets. Most horses still have to do some sort of "work", even if the work is only carrying grandma around the trail at a walk. >>>> Crossing with Arabs seems very logical since Arabs have been crossed with practically everything successfully. I would like to see and follow more of these crosses. It could be argued that a good many Arabs are not really "Arabs" any more. The dish-faced, flat-crouped, swan-necked Arabs don't really serve any useful purposes that I can think of, but we are biased towards the conformation of our Arab, and the mare that Lynn bred sure looks nice. A big honking Icelandic head on a long Arab neck could be a very bad thing indeed, and I'm sure there are many other traits that could recombine that would be just as unfortunate. Arabs have been crossed with about everything else - true...but some I've seen are anything BUT successful - I'm thinking of a particular swan-necked Arab that someone was trying to use for dressage....NOT good. Many of the dish-faced Arabs are so extreme that they have dental problems and breathing problems...I wouldn't want to breed those horses to anything. Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.13/1205 - Release Date: 12/31/2007 3:32 PM
