Threecorners said: ...If the neck comes out to[o] high, he's high headed. It's hard to ask him to travel with his head in a more performance conducive mannor. When the head is in the rafters, his back is hollowed out. Thus it's really hard for that horse to gather, travel in frame and be collected. When he cant be collected, his hocks have a hard time coming up underneith him. Without the ability to get his hocks underneith him, he has no forward reach from behind.


While high head carriage may not be desirable for Western disciplines, high head carriage has nothing to do with a horses ability to coil its loins and reach underneath with the hind legs. This has much more to do with a strong loin coupling and the ability to use their ring of muscles. If you do not believe this, look at a dressage horse. Horses bred for dressage are bred for a higher head carriage. They are also bred to be uphill with strong loin coupling. This allows them to coil their loins to reach underneath their bodies with their hind legs. Many upper level dressage movements require the horse to sit down on their hind ends. High head carriage does not inhibit them from doing so.

Another thing that bugs me - I have heard some Western Pleasure people say a good WP horse is sickle-hocked so they can get their hind leg underneath better. If this were true, why don't you see this in dressage horses?

Susan