The striking difference of the two stallions Dhahmaan Hoobeishi and Montasar demonstrate the large range of heads of the Arabian breed. The “modern” “dished” face with a pronounced jibha stands in opposistion with the more konvex profile of a “desert bred” stallion. There are many statements that the Bedouins did not favour horses with a dished profile, because it hinders air flow and results in horses not fit for speed and endurance. In order to investigate this further, I made an x-ray of Montasar´s head, that clearly shows, that this kind of profile of the head does not interfere with airflow at all. Montasar, by the way, was a fast and never tiring riding horse. There are also descriptions of the head of the Arabian by Upton and Raswan, indicating that a head with pronounced jibha was favoured for by the Bedouins.
More on this topic can be found in the following PDF (an excerpt from my book BEDOUIN HERITAGE – The World of the Arabian Horse)
Is there any comparison between concave, convex and straight profiles for airflow volume, with heads of the same size ?
Where did Montasar live , and did he practice endurance racing ?