 Barked: Sat Dec 22, '12 2:20am PST |
 | |  | | Nooooo.....that's where dog breeds are so fascinating. With horses, there is the Arabian and then everything else. I guess in parts you can say draft horses, too, for they are uncommonly big and also incredibly stable and even done right. But the Arabian has all these exquisitely extreme structural points. Certainly the head is its fame, but they can have fewer ribs than other breeds, which of course makes for more room for those hearts and lungs, and the bone is fine but unusually dense, making them sort of untouchable when it comes to endurance. So they are sort of extraordinary....certainly the Bedouins, amongst all other breeders of any other animal....are the geniuses. I don't really think a dog has quite THAT equivalent. And of course the blood is exceptionally old but exceptionally pure. Their books have been closed forever  And they get away with a lot tighter inbreeding there.
Dog breeds vary a great deal in type, but a lot more in function. My old vet actually devoted his life to showing American Saddlebreds in dressage. Not what they were meant for, but he liked their flash and carriage. He retired to devote the rest of his life to that premise. Most horses can do what other horses can. Maybe not as WELL, but there is little one horse breed can do that another would be incapable of. GSDs can do a lot, but it's not like you see them as hunting dogs Dobermans would be even more useless as a general rule. Very few breeds have across the board ability. Usually most the farm dogs. Kerry Blues are the most I know. They can herd, hunt, guard. But it's a terrifically different premise. Horses don't have the targeted drive balances that dogs do. |  |  | |  |
|
| my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become pals | [notify] |
1
