Prospect thread for a possible resale horse -done

[WIChookchick]

Thanks for the opinions, I don't want this going to a bad place, and it seems to heading there, so I am ending it.
Thank you all for taking time to look at the pics I had up, and leave a comment about the prospects.
Carol

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

If they were the right price, I'd look at 3 and 4. Personally, I'd stay away from 2...I don't like white horses and I don't like his head or his color, so I'd say no on him.

 

[RabbitMage]

Number 2 also looks to be an Appy, so that's probably what's with his coloring.

I agree, I'd look at 3 and 4, but if 1 in in the same place I'd look at him, too.

If you're looking for a resale project, #4 might be your best bet. Registration and color might make him more marketable.

 

[RiverOtter]

Ok, thinking of resale value here.
It is next to impossible to tell anything about 1 from that angle except he has a nice face and I'd call that bay too. I'm not even sure he's cowhocked, he could just be standing with his feet close together. I would really want another picture of him before I even began to judge, but from what I can see I'd want at least another pic before I discounted him. Can't put my finger on it but something about him makes me want to see more.

2 is not gray, so you can't age him by color. He looks cremello. Conformation wise he's very plain, nothing great, nothing that screams he'll be unsound, just kinda ugly. But resale, if you can get him bomb proof he'll always have a buyer. He's not pretty, but I like his face, he's got a steady sort of look about him and if you can train him to drive or be steady in a parade people love white horses for that. KNow your market. Just geld him quick, lol.

3 is another rotten picture. His shoulder angle may or may not be as decent as it looks walking away and that little dip in the neck may or may not be worse then it looks there. Back seems a little long and I don't like the shape of it. Nothing says run but nothing says pick me either.

4 has a good back, nice rump for his age, decent neck from what I can tell at that angle, decent angle to the pasterns but looks upright in the shoulder though. Like it or not but color attracts buyers. That shoulder may give a little bounce at the trot but I think he or #1 would be the ones I'd want to put hands on in person.

I keep scrolling thru the pics and my eye just wants to slide past 3. I don't think I'd choose any of them for high level competition, but I think if well trained the other 3 have enough appeal to be good resale horses as long as you don't expect massive profits.

 

[The Wolf Queen]

Honestly id ask for better pics meaning close up side shots of them looking the direction their body is facing. I like 2 & 4 best. Both look like appys to me not grey, but I like 4 becuz his body is more even and his back is pretty straight. I dont care much for the face and neck though the face is too small and the neck is too thin & long. 2 I like because he has a nice big face and a thick neck. He looks like his withers are a little high and is out of preportion but is stocky. 3 I just dont like at all and id like to see a better shot of 1 though I like tha his rear looks round and his neck and face look evenly proportioned but his neck may be a little long. I cant tell. Definetly get better pics.

 

[abluechipstock]

i love appaloosas, i like #4

 

[michickenwrangler]

3 and 4 are your best options.

#2 has very weak hindquarters.

#1 has a narrow base. The cow hocks may or may not give you problems. Lots of cutting horses have cow hocks. I had a mare who had them and competed in 25 mile competitive trail rides UMECRA rules so they were fast paced.

 

[welsummerchicks]

The pictures aren't good enough to tell anything from, but of course I'll still try because I just can't help myself, nor can the rest of us.

This is a resale project, right, not a keeper?

You are again thinking you'll keep this a few months and sell for a profit, after halter showing and longe line classes?

Oh why, why do I even TRY to tell you anything???? LOL!!!

The first one, considering that I can't tell the conformation on ANY of them, is my favorite.

No, he is not a smutty buckskin. Some people would say he is BROWN, some would say, a dark bay. I would say BROWN.

Personally, when someone confronts me with the scintilatingly fascinating knowledge that their beloved Precious is some exotic color like 'sooty buckskin' when it obviously is NOT, I make a very strong point of referring to that horse, forever after, as 'BROWN'.

Normally, I make every effort to fit in with whatever erroneous terminology someone is using, but I make an exception for the eager seller hoping to market his brown horse as 'special' by calling it something that sounds more valuable than BROWN.

The white looks like it is going to grow up to be extremely heavy and unattractive to anyone looking for a riding horse. If I covered up the head and just knew the age and looked at the body, I'd say the same thing.

The cowhocked one - can't tell from the pics if he is cowhocked as he's standing with his hind feet so close together. Sometimes cow hocked horses do stand very base narrow too, but I'd require some convincing to be sure that wasn't just one bad photograph. Need a side shot to evaluate conformation. Cow hocks is something some Western people tolerate, but only to a certain degree. Beyond that, forget about it.

The chestnut with the 3 white legs and the 'going away' picture - I realize that a 'hammer head' or anything other than a 'baby doll head' makes the average person shriek 'Skank!', but the fact is, one does not put a saddle on the head and sit on it, and the shape of the horse's head shouldn't mean squat. The whole attitude of looking at a horse and rejecting him because he's not got a head that looks like it was cut off a halter Arabian, is reprehensible.

But it is also reality, and if I was getting a resale project aimed at many typical groups of horse persons, I'd make dam* sure it had a cute little baby doll head. But I'd probably be muttering under my breath the entire time I had to look at the dainty little baby doll head. Especially slapped on a horse with a big old rear end, it looks stupid.

The appaloosa color on the last one is encouraging as some people are blind to anything except color, and that can depending on how you advertise it, your area and who shows up to look at it, help to sell it. If you live in hunter jumper land apps are a hard sell.

 

[dutchhollow]

I like the brown one (1), to me looks like he is standing with his feet togeather, not cow hocked. We used to call that seal bay I think, tho I had a tennuvian like that that shedded out black in the spring and stayed black thru most of summer, then back to dark bay (brown!).

2, I am not a fan of white, or cremello, double dilute,whatever he is. White eyerims and pink noses don't do it for me. But some people like them. If his temperment is nice and easy, might be OK

3,don't like. Looks like a couple different horses glued together.

4, I like this guy, looks younger. Color sells. Not sure I would bother putting hardship papers on a gelding.

As long yearlings they will look better (or worse) next year. If ya had a gun to my head and said pick, I would go 1 or 4 (one if I was to keep, 4 if I was going to try to resell._
How far are they from you?
The old saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words' (if I remember it correctly), in horses it should be "5 minutes with horse is worth a thousand pictures"

 

[patandchickens]

Is there much of a market in your area right now for priced-up horses that are not yet being ridden (or have only been lightly backed, not actually showable)?

I find that real hard to believe, and would urge you to be reeeaaaalllly cautions and reality-checking before plunging into this... but, it's your life, plus you obviously are in a better position to know your area than I am

So while I still think the thing is going to be a money pit at best, I will comment on the horses at hand:

First, I do not think conformation should be a major criterion for you. TEMPERAMENT is about 60% of it IMO, much of the remainder being (as someone up above said) "cuteness". Temperament obviously cannot be evaluated from a photo but IMO you are heavily best-off with a well socialized horse who learns fairly rapidly but can take a joke and has no existing bad habits.

#1, who the heck knows from that photo. If he *really* stands like that I'd forget about him but it may be just an awkward moment. His face is moderately cute and he is fine-boned which for some reason is often popular among the set you're apparently pitching to. I can't tell a blessed thing about his conformation, you would need REAL photos or to go see him.

#2, is a plain white app (stroke against him in most places) with an unattractive head (strike two) and quite possibly a traditional appy tail i.e. not too darn much of it (strike three). If you were looking for a horse to keep and use, none of these would matter (although it's also pretty unathletically built and personally I'd pass it by even for myself); but they are the dead OPPOSITE of what you want for resale. You want something of which you can take photos that will make teenagers go "mom, we HAVE to go look at THIS one!".

#3, another semi-useless photo like the first horse's, but it is pretty clear to me that he's a much less cute-appealing horse. Long back, not much hind end I think, long straight low neck, head not set on well, whole big lotta white on face, and a really sour expression. Mind you the expression could just be "a moment", but honestly nothing I see there screams "resale project" to me. If he has a stellar temperament and looks better in person he might be a candidate so if you are bored you might go see him but I would totally not hold my breath.

#4, That is a rather old pic of him, perhaps as a weanling or just-turning-1? Looks very young -- leggy, short-backed, short-necked, not much mane or tail. I would not draw much conclusions about him without a recent pic. Certainly he is the most obvious prospect of the four in the sense of having flashy color and being probably non-ugly. But I was never brilliant at playing "guess what adult horse is lurking inside this weanling" and it has been way to long since my eye has been calibrated on that at *all* for me to want to guess what he looks like now.

Personally I would be going to see all except #2, unless they were more than 20-30 min away in which case I'd bug the seller for much-better pics. TEMPERAMENT is really the single biggest factor here in my opinion, and you don't want to get so stuck on visuals that you pass up a really-saleable personality for a cute butthead.

I still think it's a moneypit though. You want to 'flip' a horse, look for RIDEABLE horses, and expect you may lose money even on them.

JMHO, good luck, have fun,

Pat