Richard would point out that the conformation of what they had imported was visibly changing around 1970........i.e. flatter croups, longer necks, finer bone, generally more refinement.  (Side Bar:  I've only been to one horse show....The International Arabian at Albuquerque about 1990 for about 2 hours............it did not impress me).

Nessous's conformation did not win my eye as Stallion material.   I started riding him as a five year old and his performance was/is so superior to most horses that I sure should have kept him a stallion!

Crockett's take is Judges, High Dollar Owners, etc.  put their personal phenotypic values on what they think looks good and people breed for those traits much like continually coming out with new models of vehicles.   I can not say whether this is good or bad for the Arabian.  This is why Richard was so outwardly ornery toward horse shows and the equestrians showing.  The reason I got along with him is that I did not know anything about horse shows; fortunate for me.  If you look at Al Khaima it appears (except for the fine articles on history, breeding, etc) the focus of participants is mainly showing.  Show Arabians are touted as "athletic with endurance."

Outlaw Trail breeding defines athleticism and endurance as year after year putting your blood up against the best and biggest 100 mile endurance fields carrying 225#'s with most others carrying much less (up to 100#'s less) and continually winning or performing well.  As Charles Craver told me many years ago, "you are the only one doing with these horses what was meant to be done with them."

I would think that other disciplines such as steeple chasing, flat track, three day eventing , etc. emulate the Bedouin breeding tradition of breeding that blood that has been continually,  rigorously tested.  Only in this way can you eliminate blood that is metabolically or mechanically flawed.

OT's blood is  very line bred with as few as four horses since 1948..............as in the case of five generations to Dymoni RSI (Nazeer, Moniet El Nefous, Gadaf and Rabanna).  We chose the stallion Rave On Ravenwood to add genetic diversity because he not only has Richard's imports but adds the race tested blood of El Deere, Sid Abouhom, Balance and Zaafarana.  His get are probably the fairest horses at OT.  They are really nice to watch and look at...................but it will be another 7 years before we'll know if their metabolic, mechanics and endurance will be up to our standards.