@Background Pony #8384
Yes! I have my own headcanon about the different pony races, but summed up you could say that they are all more or less canine-like. There’s for example two kinds of unicorns, the more horse-like ones which are only a thing because at some time the races started cross-breeding and the ancient unicorns, which look like the typical “unicorn in a medieval painting” with more pointy horns, leonine tail etc. The ancient unicorns are more canine-like, most of them even have small tusks. Their original habitat were forests and because in my headcanon they are omnivores, they developed fangs and a smaller, canine-like bodyshape. Talking about pegasi, it’s almost the same, but they’re a lot slimmer. They’re not really that horse-like, because I am just not a fan of “horse pegasi/unicorns” (I find that just really boring for a mythical creature and in my eyes, it’s by far more interesting to experiment with the features of different animals).
However, the earth ponies are the most horse-like race of the ponies. They all have their typical, (mostly agricultural) somewhat-magical abilities, but besides that, they have the most “horsish” lifestyle of them all (I hope that makes sense lol). Also, barely any pony is purebred anymore, the modern equestrian world (the time the show is set in) has lots of earth pony/unicorn, unicorn/pegasus and earth pony/pegasus hybrids in it. Before equestria got united, hybrids were rare and were treated like outcasts. After they separated again (G5), they races also slowly stopped evolving back to their usual form, which also meant that some abilities got lost too. There wouldn’t have been anything like a pinkie-sense, because that’s an ability she gained from an unicorn ancestor (like I said, the earth pony magic used to be mostly agricultural like growing plants and finding the best places to grow them due to intuition). Hope that was helpful, bit off-topic maybe.

@Background Pony #2915
No, the artist’s visual vocabulary was primarily formed with canine anthro. Hence the stop and long nose with a nosepad (what looks like a shaved muzzle), predator eye set, general canine head shape, long mouth, triangle ears, short neck (in proportion to the body and limbs), even the jaw fuzz. All things that make canine heads look like canine heads as opposed to other types of animals.

Breaking out of pattern vision, and the symbols you develop when drawing a lot of the same subject is a big challenge even if you have help. What makes it especially difficult is the way your own brain is perfectly conditioned to interpret your own symbols, so you can be blind to their shortcomings. It’s the same thing as when you flip a drawing and it suddenly looks crooked and horrid, just more general.

Drawing ponies like dogs with manes could be exactly what the artist intended, it could be a step in their art journey. Judging by their comment above, it’s the former. Although if the effect is intended, it would behoove (hehe behoove) to tag as such. I think ‘dog pony’ is a thing.

@Background Pony #20B2
Yeah ^^

And the adventure begins 👀

is this some sort of fetish?

@Background Pony #2915
No, it’s just my artstyle

what?

Did they shave their fur on nose?