The Arabian Head

The Arabian

Head

From the very beginning I could pick an Arabian at a thousand paces. Whether it were in a haphazard mob in a roadside paddock, watching a horse working a few cows in a dusty arena, tied to a truck at a horse show, sweaty and irritable after a long hot day of pony club, or competing in District Hack at the local agricultural show. Without realising it, I would see them …my eyes were drawn to them like a magnet. There is little doubt that the head of the Arabian horse is one of its most distinctive features. What are those perfect numbers; the magic ratios which spell breeding and history; and where did I learn them? How did noticing the head become instinctive?

I am incredibly lucky to have amassed an amazing library of Arabian horse books. I have scoured and collected over the years, and been blessed to have libraries passed down to me. I am not sure if many of today’s fans are so lucky as to have such a wealth of information at their fingertips and to have grown up building a picture of this ancient breed based on centuries of texts.

And so I decided to draw together some of the finest descriptions, some of the pillars of perpetuating the breed type. Some of the most beautiful and clear explanations of what an Arabian horse was, and why it was so.

‘If perfect type were before us, certain striking peculiarities of anatomical structure would immediately arrest our attention – notably, the head … forms in our subconscious minds the pattern of all that represents intelligence and nobility in the horse.’ ... W Brown

‘The first thing an Oriental looks at when buying a horse is the head. They look for a head full of elegance, beauty and expression … The importance of judging the head first is this: Your first impression of the horse as it approaches you is merely your appreciation of his head.’ ... His Royal Highness The Late Prince Mohamed Aly

Roger D Upton states that ‘the head of the horse is an index to his character, moral and physical’ and goes on to describe the Arabian horse as having ‘not altogether a small head, it is, on the contrary, large in all parts containing the working and essential organs, it is small in those parts only which connect these essential organs’. Youatt is quoted by W Brown: ‘There is no surer criterion of a well bred horse than a broad angular forehead, prominent features and a short face.’

Carl Raswan and Judith Forbis describe a head with a ‘pyramidical’ shape, and Carl Raswan notes of his ideal Arabian that ‘his head … was fairly short’. Homer Davenport talks of a head ‘short from the eye to the muzzle, broad and well-developed above’ and this is reflected in the writings of Lady Anne Blunt who agrees that ‘the head should be large, not small ... but the size should be all in the upper regions of the skull. There should be a great distance from the ears to the eyes, and a great distance from one eye to the other … The forehead, moreover, and the whole region between and just below the eyes, should be convex’.

It is from this evolutionary design that the concept of the dished profile of the Arabian horse has developed. Indeed, what many interpret as a concave profile is actually dependent on the opposite – a convex profile. It is the shape of the forehead which is specified and agreed upon by many of our historical sources, and there is more material on this than the presence of a dish.

According to Homer Davenport one of the ‘great features, possibly, that a novice would notice quickest in the Arab horse, is the forehead, or jibbah, which cannot be too prominent’. FB Klynstra continues: ‘The forehead, or jibbah, must be somewhat rounded between the eyes.’ W Brown identifies the forehead as being the ‘first point of excellence’, and stipulates that it should ‘exhibit a bulge between the eyes up to a point between the ears, and down across the first third of the nasal bone – a formation of the frontal and parietal bones in the form of a shield’ and ‘seen in profile, the forehead curves to about a third of the way down the face’.

Lady Anne Blunt talks of a prominent forehead, and a large forehead is, according to His Royal Highness The Late Prince Mohamed Aly, one of the ‘few idiosyncrasies on which (the Arabs) will insist’, and a characteristic which ‘a Racer must have’. Randolph Huntington describes the most beautiful horse he has ever seen as being ‘full and broad’ between the eyes. Carl Raswan identifies a ‘high and shieldlike … bold, expressive forehead’ which is ‘bulging’.

There is an assumed connection between this broad forehead and cognitive strength. FB Klynstra suggests that ‘thanks to the forehead’s curve and breadth between the eyes, the Arabian ... has a larger cranial capacity than do other breeds’.

W Brown agrees that: ‘The bulge of the forehead, its height, width, and depth, actually gives a larger cubic inch brain capacity than that possessed by other breeds, and may have something to do with the extreme intelligence of Arabians.’

The dished face or concave profile is certainly extrapolated on by some of history’s most recognised voices on the Arabian horse. Carl Raswan specifies ‘an extreme concave indenture … of the whole nasal bone, whereby distinguished ancestry is recognised’. Judith Forbis describes a profile which is ‘straight or (preferred) slightly concave below the eyes’. According to Wilfrid Scawen Blunt the ‘forehead (is) high and slightly convex, but with a sudden upturn of the profile, such as is seen in the gazelle. This can hardly be too exaggerated’.

Much has been written about the eyes of the Arabian horse. According to Lady Anne Blunt the Arabian’s eye is ‘full and soft’ and ‘large and mild’, and Judith Forbis describes them as ‘luminous’, ‘liquid’ and ‘flashing with life and fire’. The lashes are ‘usually the colour of the horse’ … and are critical in ‘shading the eyeballs, and protecting them against sun, sand, and rain’, according to W Brown.

Owners and lovers of Arabian horses will certainly be familiar with the expressiveness of this wonderous breed, and it is a characteristic that has been outlined over the centuries. It is the eyes that communicate so effectively with their ‘prominence and brilliancy’ (Youatt quoted by Major Tweedie). His Royal Highness The Late Prince Mohamed Aly describes this expression as ‘gentleness in mares and courage and vivacity in stallions’. W Brown

agrees that ‘the glance of the mare is quiet and expressively gentle: that of the stallion, fiery and arrogant without being either cruel or malign’.

Prince Puckler describes the stallion Haleby as having ‘expressiveness of the head and face, almost amounting to coquetry’. According to Randolph Huntington, the eyes are ‘large, brilliant, and of the speaking kind’ and Wilfred Scawen Blunt highlights that ‘it is no sign of temper in the Arab horse that the eyes should show white round the cornea like human eyes, and it is a peculiarity of the breed appreciated by the Bedouins’ and Peter Upton agrees: ‘It is not a fault to have some white around the eye like a human eye.’ Obviously, some may disagree.

Another characteristic frequently seen in animals evolved to live in a desert climate is black skin or markings around the eyes. This reduces the reflection of light into the eye, protecting it from sun damage, and is seen in the Arabian horse as described by Lady Anne Blunt: ‘The space round the eyes should be free of all hair, so as to show the black skin underneath, and this just round the eyes should be especially black and lustrous.’ Black skin is also less susceptible to sun burn and skin cancer, and the skin of the Arabian horse is ‘blacker than charcoal’ according to an Arab poet quoted by Major Tweedie. In accordance with this, Wilfred Scawen Blunt writes that ‘the skin of the muzzle and round the eyes should be dark and bare of hair’. This fine skin ‘appears almost translucent’ agrees His Royal Highness the late Prince Mohamed Aly.

Our personable and expressive Arabian horses also communicate with us with their ears, another feature highlighted in standards, descriptions and praise over the centuries, and described as the ‘second point of excellence’ by W Brown. It is one characteristic that is passionately described yet strangely variable. It is possible that the sexual dimorphism apparent in the ear of the Arabian horse, ie.: ‘The ears of mares are a little longer and not so pricked as those of stallions’ (W Brown), the fact that ‘mares often have somewhat larger ears than stallions’ (Peter Upton), or that ears ‘smaller in stallions than in mares’ (Judith Forbis) has led to conflicting information being collected from various sources over the years. His Royal Highness The late Prince Mohamed Aly describes ears that ‘should be well set, carried well, and pointed at the end’, and ‘long’ in the Racer. Lady Anne Blunt also describes ears that are ‘long like a hind’s (antelope)’ and ‘not very small’. Interestingly, Palgrave describes the ear as ‘short’ and Roger D Upton also describes them as ‘small’. Homer Davenport explains that ‘the ears are not small, but are so perfectly shaped that they appear small’, and Major Tweedie agrees that the ‘ears are not short and not long – though long ears may be seen in Arabians of the highest class’.

What the historical sources do agree on is that the ear should be ‘fine and beautifully shaped’ (Lady Anne Blunt), ‘sufficiently open, pricked, and altogether well-formed’ (Roger D Upton), and ‘thorn-like’ (Palgrave), characteristics that combine to give an alert, interested and intelligent appearance. Judith Forbis specifies that the ears should be ‘flexible, beautifully chiselled, sharply outlined … and well hollowed’. W Brown confirms that like other desert animals, the ears are ‘covered inside with fine thick hair, as protection against the light desert sand’.

As aforementioned, the breadth of the forehead is a sign of breeding and so is the size of the muzzle. Palgrave identifies a head which is ‘broad above, and tapering down

to a nose fine enough to verify the phrase of “drinking from a pint-pot”’. W Brown identifies ‘the distance around the jaws being often two and a half times that around the muzzle just above the nostrils’, saying that the ‘nose is very small’ and highlighting that ‘the point of the face does not terminate in the nostril, as in European breeds, but in the tip of the lip’. Wilfred Scawen Blunt goes on to clarify that the muzzle ‘cannot well be too finely tapered. The saying that an Arab horse should be able to drink out of a coffee cup is hardly an exaggeration’.

Like the camels with whom the Arabian horse shares its desert development, the nostrils can be closed to protect against the dry air and fine sand, and ‘in repose, it should lie flat with the face, and be little more than a slit, running upward and outward’ (W Brown). On excitement or physical exertion, the ‘long and well chiselled nostril’ is, according to Roger D Upton, ‘capable of great distension’.

W Brown paints a picture by writing about ‘long, delicate nostrils dilating when in action … upward and outward beyond the profile of the face, like a red rose’ whilst Carl Raswan likens them to ‘petal tips of a rose or like delicate shells’. FB Klynstra describes a head that ‘almost gives the impression of being made up only of eyes and nostrils’ and Roger D Upton agrees, saying the ‘whole head seemingly expressed by eyes and nostrils’.

The Arabian horse has distinctive cheek bones which ‘are large and sharply defined, deep and lean’, according to W Brown, and the ‘jaws stand very far asunder’. Indeed, the head is ‘wide between the jaws’ (Carl Raswan) as the ‘two branches of the jawbone widen near the windpipe’ (FB Klynstra), and this is ‘sufficient to insert a clenched fist’ (W Brown). In summarising this Lady Anne Blunt says that ‘The head of the Arabian is larger in proportion than that of the English thoroughbred, the chief difference lying in the depth of jowl. This is very marked, as is also the width between the cheekbones.’

In conclusion, as admirers of Arabian horses, we can all agree with Roger D Upton who says, ‘The beauty of the head, ears, eyes, jaw, mouth, and nostrils, should be seen to be appreciated.’ Author Rachael Portus Images courtesy of Pat Slater & Anne Gilbert

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

His Royal Highness The Late Prince Mohamed Aly (Breeding of Pure Bred Arab Horses); Lady Anne Blunt (Pilgrimage to Nejd via The Abbas Pasha Manuscript, Judith Forbis and Gulsun Sherif); Palgrave (via The Abbas Pasha Manuscript, Judith Forbis and Gulsun Sherif); Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates (Vol II), Lady Anne Blunt; Roger D Upton (Newmarket to Arabia); Nobility of the Desert, FB Klynstra; W Brown (The Horse Of The Desert); Carl Raswan (Drinkers Of The Wind); Randolph Huntington – (A Harris in The Blood Of the Arab); Judith Forbis (Hoofbeats Along The Tigris); Judith Forbis (Classic Arabian Horse); Major Tweedie (The Arabian Horse); Homer Davenport (My Quest of the Arabian Horse); Wilfred Scawen Blunt (The Arabian from The Encyclopaedia of Sport); Wilfred Scawen Blunt (The Arabian from Standard Cyclopaedia of Modern Agriculture); Peter Upton (The Classic Arab Horse).