>> I'm going to be perfectly honest with you - the neck set into the shoulders
>> is hard for
>> me to see - what I see is how a horse is at that moment in time. You could
>> take that
>> same horse and have him standing with his head lower, and to me it would
>> look like a
>> lower neck set.
I think it's VERY hard to see in still pictures. I think I can see it many
times, but
honestly, I suspect it's only because I have a lot of horses here to stare at
all the
time - some with a more "western pleasure" topline, and some with the
higher-headset.
And, most naturally high-headed horses CAN lower their necks when asked, and
even the
lowest-necked horse can lift his head when he's on alert, or if he's cranked up
with the
reins. The easiest way to know the difference is to ride a lot of horses on
loose rein -
horses who have had some basic training and are relaxed when ridden. Or, spend
a lot of
time watching a lot of different horses at liberty. It's the horse's relaxed
headset, the
one he defaults to when he's not concerned or forced, that is the one that
matters - not
the multitude of headsets/position he may assume for brief moments during the
day.
>> I, too, like a more erect head/neck - looks more regal!
Any time we start talking about conformation in Icelandic's, I get that old
Seinfeld line
stuck in my head: "not that's there's anything wrong with it..." Neck-sets and
even neck
lengths in Icelandic's are like that for me - within reason, of course. I
really don't
worry much about the variation in necks I see in Icelandics, but I sure as heck
am
disturbed by what I've seen in pictures from the "show people" relating to
necks they see
as good, and what they are breeding for. My concerns lie more to the future...
Does
anyone remember that picture of the horse that got a "10" for neck? I didn't
like that
neck at all. It was too muscled underneath - to me that indicated bad
conformation or bad
riding, probably some of both, and it worries me that was the "perfect" neck to
Icelandic
judges. Anyway, back to the normal range of Icelandic's, I've ridden ones with
low head
carriages that gait wonderfully and are fun to ride....Brunka and Trausti come
to mind.
I've ridden horses that gait well that have higher head/neck sets: Skjoni,
Runa, and
Eitill come to mind. (None of those three have long necks at all - Runa's and
Eitill's
necks are pretty short.)
If you are going to say that you like the regal look of the more erect
heads/necks ("not
that there's anything wrong with that") you just have to realize that may
affect the
horse's gaits to some degree. The gaitedness of a horse originates in his rear
end, but
the front-end can be the "tie breaker" in determining with of the soft-gaits
the horse can
easily do. Example: a horse with a longer, lower neck can often get a head
nod going,
which really affects the rhythm in whole body. And a head nod can make the
difference in
whether the horse does, for instance, a saddle rack or a running walk. It's a
matter of
personal choice, and what the rider wants to do with his horse, and of course,
the
neck/head is only one of many factors that affect gait. The main thing I'd
say about
the shorter/higher necks is that it's probably easier for those horses to get
into a
hollow-backed frame, so if you like that posture, you just have to be careful
to watch for
hollowness...again, just a personal preference, but a reminder (particularly to
anyone who
hasn't studied conformation) that the horse's body is all connected, so we
can't just
order the "options" we like and expect them to all work together well.
Karen Thomas, NC
