How Arabian horse ears should look like
In a recent comment, Joe Ferriss talked about beautiful Arabian horse ears, as exemplified by the asil stallions’ Brimstone’s short, prickled ears. So Jeanne Craver sent me this photo of Brimstone. A picture worth a thousand words. Aside from the ears, Jeanne tells me that Brimstone, the sire of the black Sportin Life in the video below, had a straight profile too, and that he had a floating trot like nothing else Charles and her had ever seen (and they have seen a lot).
Number one Face
I have noticed the longer ears on Egyptian Arabian Horses for a long time. When I have questioned this “phenomenon”, I was sternly corrected and reminded that a desert horse, and especially a mare, needs to have long ears.
HUH? What about balance and harmony?
I have found that Dr. Hans Nagel’s breeding program consistently produces the type of ear that is found on Brimstone. Short and sharp. I love ears like the ears on Brimstone. I don’t know if this quality has more to do with selectively breeding for shorter ears or that in fact, lines like the bloodlines found in Brimstone or in the bloodlines of a stallion like NK Hafid Jamil, are predisposed to produce this quality.
For me personally, when I see a stallion like this, with his short and sharp ears, he just catches my attention and invites me for a second, third, fourth….look.
Thank you so much for making my day with the photo of this most lovely horse!
Ralph
Regarding the comment on a different posting re lovely heads, I often recall when the Davenports were given to have the conformation, bone and refinement, (this was after the Davenport community started writing wonderful articles and presenting their horses via advertisements in the Arab magazines), but were criticized for not so pretty heads.
And then CCC and others started emphasizing what beautiful heads their horses had via head shots in the ads and and articles.
So the critics agreed the faces were lovely, but the profiles…
So then profile photos were used as well. ;>
So often critics based their judgment on the inherent distortions of the camera lens, and not the horses themselves.
AW who was reminded that great pictures can result in as much disappointment to an interested visitor as poor ones can to the reader/viewer.
Thank you so much, both of you! He was a fine horse.
I do agree, they are lovely ears. However, I’ve seen many styles of ears on Arabians and asils for that matter. Take a closer look at the next topic’s example (Straight profiles are beautiful). Most sets of ears are mismatched – must show how much I look at the detail of the ear. The more noticeable mismatches are where one ear is tipped and the other is straight(er).
The NK program, Ralph, I agree, it’s producing these type of ears. Perhaps as a distraction to other conformational attributes
I too have noticed that some breeders of Egyptian lines are breedings for ears that I find way too long, too narrow, and which look like a razor standing ready to cut your hand if you touch them..
Regarding the smaller tipped in ears in some of Dr. Nagels breeding. His lines do include some measure of the stallions Hadban Enzahi and Ghazal both of whom appear to have had these kinds of ears, Hadban Enzahi more so. There are other combinations of German breeding with Hadban Enzahi which also show this from time to time. This feature was also found to some extent in some of Fa-Serr’s descendants, usually also with Fay El Dine. Sometimes the set of the ears is also a consideration and I like not only the curved in look but also those that are set a bit closer to each other from the front and not far apart as though coming up from the cheeks. I see more and more of today’s Arabians with ears farther apart than one sees in the older bloodlines. Although his ears were a bit longer than Brimstone, the Davenport stallion Kamil Ibn Salan had ears with that nice close set turned in look. It was even more pronounced when seeing him in person.
Joe:
Your message was very interesting. Linda Tellington-Jones revised her Getting into T-Touch book and I would have to check it again, to make sure that I am remembering correctly but she measures intelligence in horses by how far apart the ears are. The wider the ears are at the base, the more intelligence the horse has. Her book has so many interesting tidbits like this, in terms of facial features to discern a hors’s personality. I think it is a remarkable book!
From our experience, I would have to disagree with her. We have over 150 skulls here, and the ear setting don’t look like they have any relationship to the brain box, which is above the eyes and below the ears.
It’s all relative, of course, but most of our horses have bigger ears than a lot of horses…. so I was gratified to read Pure Man’s ““Three long; three short; three broad; three clear” …. and that would be long ears.
I also love their ears, but i am much more aware of them from behind and above, riding…. how expressive, how beautiful the curve.
There is no natural vista that is not improved by the frame of the ears of a good horse!
I have to agree with Jeanne and disagree with Linda. I think ear placement and shape ultimately relate to aesthetic choices over the years. However, in the natural science of things, how the ears are used and how the cranial box is shaped independent of ear shape and location are tolerant of a range of diversity so long as the functional horse is intelligent and can hear well.
Add to that that according to Arab knowledge in general and Bedouin in particular, the closer the distance between the ears, the better the horse.
Hello Everyone:
I think I might have mislead you with my interpretation of the ears via Linda Tellington-Jones. On page 40, of GETTING IN TTOUCH WITH YOUR HORSE, Revised in 2009 by Trafalgar Square Publishing, you will find the following personality descriptions by ear:
1) “Wider apart at the top than at the base: Indicates steadiness and a tendency to be uncomplicated.”
2) “Stand straight up, set wide at both base and top: Horses having this ear are likely to be energetic and sometimes a little hot.”
3) “Set wide apart at the base: Likely to have a good capacity for learning. Steady.”
4) Long ears, narrow space at both base and top: A tendency to be changeable and inconsistent.”
5) Space between ears narrower at the top than at the base: usually this type of ear is very refined at the tips. These horses are often hot and spirited. Some of the champion Morgan and Arabian Park Horses and Saddlebreds have these ears , which gives them animation in the show ring.”
6) “Lop ears: This is a sign of great dependability.”
7) “Broad, shapely ear: Denotes steadiness and reliability.”
8) “Broad ear with little definition: A horse that is not going to ask many questions, but will go on down the road you ask. Medium Learner. Cooperative.”
9) “Fine or fluted with delicate definition: Usually signifies intelligence.”
10) “Pin Ears: Horses with ears like this are often willful.”
11) “Tufts in the ear: Often indicates willfullness and inflexibility.”
The book is full of very interesting personality observations by the shape of the nostrils, eyes, lips, chin, profile. Since Linda Tellington-Jones is so close to the Asil Arabian Horse, having campaigned many Al Khamsa horses to endurance rides, I wanted to learn her perspective, gleaned from her many years of expereince. I am not saying that she is the be-all, end-all of horses, just saying that I found her perspective intereting and somewhat refreshing. Hope you all enjoy reading this terrific book too.
I’m just not sure I would believe there is any cause and effect here. I can believe that a Saddlebred might both be selected for showiness, or “hot” and also for pricked ears. I don’t believe that ear shape is necessarily related to the brain itself in the cranium.
Brimstone (with very pricked ears) was not a particularly hot horse, but he was exceptionally intuitive.
Hmmm…I’m going to go out on a risky limb here..Not only do I strongly agree with Jeanne on this subject, I find the whole theory–of judging a horse’s temperament and personality from his ears–very like the old theory of phrenology in which a person’s personality and character could be “read” by bumps on the skull.
Using this theory to judge horses could IMO result not only in overlooking some very good ones, but could also put some horses at risk, as in “off to the killers.”
Personality and character are very complex, whether in humans or horses and discovering them is a process.
While searching for something else I just came across this discussion which I had not seen all of before. Elena’s last comment here is wonderful. I was intrigued with the Linda Tellington Jones list but to make such a list fit a proper scientific study would seem to require literally hundreds of examples for each of the 11 items mentioned. Would like to know if such data does exist. In what I have learned from Charles and Jeanne Craver regarding their extensive skull studies, it would seem unlikely to prove a relationship between the cranial box and the ear arrangement. An interesting aside is that a friend sent me a PDF of an old book from 1911 that has a chapter on Arabian horses of the Bedouin. In that chapter, mention is made of the Bedouin custom of tying the foal’s ears together to make them grow close together. The bindings remain on the foal for a long time to the point that some scaring is later looked for as a sign of a horse that has been obtained from the Bedouin. Interesting.
I’ve read things about sewing the foal’s ears together, but don’t know how true that was.
I can’t say we looked for a relationship in the cranial box and the ear placement. We did wonder about cranial box size and personality and athletic ability. Not sure our skull collection numbers were enough to say anything definitively! We did think that a wide opening at the back of the occiput, where the spinal cord came in to meet the brain, should have been related to increased athletic response and flexibility, but didn’t have enough numbers for that, either, really. The Carnegie team, that has the skulls, is interested in the background of each horse, to the extent that we know it, covering athletic ability, personality, age at death, cause of death, and so on. Perhaps it will all be reduced to statistics that we can use someday!
Wow, he is gorgeous