I began writing the series “How to buy a horse” back in May. My, how time flies when the horse flies are out. For those just joining us, you can hop in here, and read Parts I, II, III, IV, V, and VI later.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In the case of horse shopping, a video is worth several thousand words. And an even greater number of dollars.
When I’m shopping for a horse for a client (or for myself) I like to see both, because there are different things to see in each.
In photos, I like a classic conformation shot. And for a hunter, a jumper or an eventer, I want to see how a horse uses his legs (especially his front legs) over fences. Those are the basics but I’ll look at a dozen photos if a seller has them and sends them, because it’s amazing what you can see in one photo that you might miss in another.
Videos can confirm what you suspect after you’ve seen the stills. Or they can surprise you.
Look at Jazz, who was #1 on the World Breeding Federation of Sport Horses Dressage Sire Ranking for 2011:
Looking at his hind end, and without knowing who he was, you might think his femur (thigh bone) is a little short for an upper level dressage horse. I do.
“F” is for Femur
I’m not the only one who thinks a long femur is important. Hilary Clayton does too, and it’s the feature she most associates both with good movement and with soundness.
But now look at Jazz in motion:
Here’s the truth when it comes to pictures and video:
The fact is that you can’t tell how a horse moves until you see how a horse moves. But movement isn’t the only thing a video can show you. There are usually other things you can pick up that will give you a clue about a horse’s history, not the least of which is how people ride or handle the horse you’re considering, and how the horse deals with it.
We all know that what goes on behind closed barn doors usually stays behind closed barn doors. So you might think that even if someone trained a horse to jump in side reins on a lunge line, they wouldn’t put it in a video (you also might wonder what would possess someone to jump a horse in side reins, but I can’t help you there). Sorry, I can say from experience, some people do this and they put it on a video. But look on the bright side, as I do: What an excellent opportunity to evaluate a horse’s willingness and submission!
I wish everyone would make videos the way I’d like to see them, but whatever you can see, you should. These days, most sellers are happy to take video and post it on youtube, publicly or privately. It’s so easy. If a seller hasn’t taken the time to do so (big names and big reputations excepted), I wonder how serious they are about selling.
Admittedly, it can get depressing to watch videos of horses for sale because too many sellers either don’t see or can’t admit that their horses are lame. In all fairness, it can be hard to see, especially if the lameness is subtle. That’s why it’s important to educate your eye. If you don’t trust your eye, ask your trainer and/or friends who have an eye for lameness, to share with you what they see.
Reflections on Riding 
Hi Katie,
A year or two ago they did a study on the confirmation of the top of dressage and the top of the jumping horses to see if they would adhere to all the standards set for the discipline. They all varied. I remember (I think) most had a rectangular shape, but most importantly, their mental attitude was great. It was a while ago since I read that article, but great to see that confirmation doesn;t say it all. It just creates a nice picture.
As with regards to sales videos, after reading your view, I think there are a lot of regional differences. Here we create interest from a video, not the sale. People do come by and see/ride the horse generally first before buying it. And shooting the footage as you described is not done here, it wouldn’t work. Yet it is good to know that other regions want different videos.
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Hi Monique – Thanks for your comments. I have Anky and Dirk Willem Rosie’s book, “Selecting the Dressage Horse,” and it is fascinating reading on the topic as well. Anky also believes that the horse’s mind is the most important part of the body when selecting a dressage partner.
Here, too, we create interest from the video, not the sale. I would never recommend that someone buy a horse from a video. But because here, unlike in Europe, we often have to travel far to see a horse, the more we can see in a video, the better.
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That horse has a gorgeous hip, it’s quarter horse/TB length which could give him a lot of power. His L/S joint is also in exactly the right spot to help him use that power. I’ve read that race horses with short femurs tend to make good sprinters, while those with long make good distance horses- quarter horses tend to have short femurs.
I’d like to see owners show more non-riding footage in their videos. I want to know if the horse is good about it’s feet, if the horse is sensitive about the girth, or if they’re a PITA about haltering or bridling because these could be indications of other problems. Like Coriander being upset about the bit because of his teeth.
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Jazz does have a really nice hip. No horse is perfect. And sometimes even the greatest conformation defects mean nothing to athletic performance. Look at Seattle Slew and his leg. This is a great story: http://www.thepilot.com/news/2011/jun/19/trainer-looks-back-memories-seattle-slew/
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I love a long hip, and it’s somewhat of a non-negotiable for me. Jazz’s femur does look short relative to the hip, though it’s certainly not short overall – and it makes me wonder if I checked out the conformation of some of his offspring if I would see the same thing. I hadn’t really seen his conformation or him going – but have come to think of his babies as very powerful, lots of airtime, and hocks usually following the front legs in a different time zone. They get highly rewarded because of the extravagance, power, the overall suppleness in their body, great cadence, etc. – but if they were trained to move and use themselves like daddy… well, we might have had a different gold medalist this year. It was close anyway… I wonder if that tendency is a combination of training and a shorter than ideal femur – I don’t think I’ve seen any of their conformation photos either, and need to check some out now!
That’s one of the interesting things I see at the top levels – with no perfect horse, such excessively strong positive traits help make up for the ones where horses are weaker. It’s kind of fun to me.
I think I need to write up a blog on my filly and how I bought her, since I rarely blog and haven’t blogged about her yet. Do you mind if I use your “how to buy” series as a reference in it? I want to get better about blogging, just so I can have a record to look back at as we go along.
One thing I look for in photos is changing hip and shoulder angles in different photos. Yes I want to see withers which are set back nicely, but in some pictures a shoulder may look more upright and in others it may look more sloped – and if so, it’s a good hint as to freedom of the shoulder. Even more, hip angles change for horses with very good s/i mobility. Of course you can look at how the s/i moves in a video, too, but for those of us with low bandwidth on our internet, a quick look at images helps tell if it’s worth the time to load a video!
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I have a video of a 4 year old Jazz mare on my blog, bred by a friend of mine. You can see a bit of her confirmation at the beginning and the movement in the video. She was under the saddle for 3 months, so that is barely any training. Although she gets a lot from her mother, you can see a lot of Jazz in her.
http://lifeandhorses.com/jazz-mare-and-a-black-beauty
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Parzival doesn’t have the short femur…and neither do either of the horses on your blog post, Monique. One superstar…perhaps others.
What makes a superstar? I think it’s a constellation of qualities (and an interesting topic for another blog post) but certainly what we think of as a conformation “defect” doesn’t rule out greatness.
Net, I really appreciate how you brought up shoulders, which are interesting in and of themselves. I think that angles can be deceiving, as you do. And if you ask people to define what makes a good shoulder or where the slope actually is, you’ll hear as many variations as there are smoothie recipes.
Also, Net, I’d really enjoy reading more about your filly (who I think is spectacular) and I’d be honored if you’d include any parts of this series that you think would be useful. There are a few more parts coming, and you’ve given me real incentive to complete them.
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Ok, I figured it was a good use of a lunch break after a very hectic workweek…
http://mountainsidefarm.blogspot.com/#!/2012/11/how-to-buy-horse.html
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And thanks for the comments! I love my filly, and her temperament doesn’t fail to make me smile on a daily basis. She’s at the most awkward phase I’ve seen her in so far right now, so butt high that I couldn’t make myself take a picture of her the other day. She was actually level when she got home, and has since lost some baby teeth, grown an inch in front, and probably grown about 3″ in back. I still suspect she’ll be just a little shorter than Tucson when she’s done growing.
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