Quote:
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.


In a horse that is bred with a fairly level head or neck set, high head carriage tends to hollow out the back.

Quote:
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?


I would say that those would possibly be the people to lazy, or whatever you want to call it, to train a horse to move correctly with their hind end engaged. Also, I fear that it may come from being marked down if their hind legs drag back into their tail at all. The thing about that is that I would generally be looking at the hock, myself.