This message is from: Steve McIlree <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Julia--
Friday, February 26, 1999, you wrote: > Thanks for your comments, Steve. Answering as an individual (not as a > director) I feel the reason a composit picture of the "ideal" has not been > made is due to the wide range in conformation/type of a leggy "light" Fjord > and the other end of the spectrum, a big "drafty" Fjord. People being > people, I think it would be difficult to find agreement on what the "ideal" > looks like! Perhaps a set of pictures??? Certainly the spectrum of Fjord type cannot be broader than that of Morgan type, and yet the AMHA has managed to adopt a picture of the ideal that fans of the "old type" can appreciate as well as those who fancy the "modern show type". So, it can be done; it just will take some real guts to put everyone's vested interests aside and define the middle ideal. I just read the Breed Standard as presented on the NFHR Web site. There is not one of the 25 points under conformation that could not be shown with a good picture of a horse who was in the middle between "heavy draft type" and the "light riding type". The angle of the shoulder, the shape of the croup, the set of the tail, the arch of the neck, the length of the back; these all have an ideal which will be the same regardless of type. And it is this ideal that should be, in my opinion, illustrated with a good picture of a mid-weight stallion and mare. I don't believe that a set of pictures is the answer. Are you going to make the "draft type" representative the absolute heaviest acceptable? Who is going to say what is the limit? And of course you have the same problem when it comes to selecting your "riding type" representative. People are not stupid; they can understand that individual horses can vary in height, muscling and substance either up or down from a midpoint. I for one would love to *see* that midpoint. I would like to *see* the ideal neck; I would like to *see* the ideal shoulder; I would like to *see* the ideal croup, head, tailset, foreleg, back, etc. Then I could add or subtract some flesh from an individual and still see how he or she compared to the ideal. -- Steve McIlree & Cynthia Madden -- Pferd, Keyah, Skipper, Tank -- Omaha, Nebraska, USA Have you driven a Fjord, lately?
