And the Oscar for most blatant attempt to market a severely flawed animal for breeding goes to…
Jul 17 2007
Here’s the ad:
“Misty was a rescue because she has a crooked nose when she was born.She is 5 yrs old.She is broke to ride.She could possibly be bred to a red/white paint but not sure.She gets along great with other horses unless it is feeding time.She would make a excellent horse for someone that just wants one to give attention to or as a field companion for another horse or even breeding.Both her parents were registered but i never got her papers since she had a birth defect.Her birth defect is not genetic either.”
OK, let’s evaluate these statements. “She could possibly be bred to a red/white paint but not sure.” Um, so your fences suck or you deliberately bred this poor thing, even though you know she is (a) not registered or registerable (b) seriously deformed and (c) has bad conformation even if you don’t look at her poor nose?
“Both her parents were registered but i never got her papers since she had a birth defect.Her birth defect is not genetic either.” Let’s think about that. Why would a breeder withhold the breeder’s certificate unless he was afraid her birth defect was genetic and he did not want his farm associated with it? And exactly which vet determined this definitely was not genetic? Breeders, feel free to chime in – have you ever seen anything like this pop out of one of your mares??? I honestly don’t know. I just know I wouldn’t want to roll the dice to see if it might have a baby with a nose like that!
Besides the nose, this mare is not breeding quality anyway. She has a terrible short croup, the back is just funky, almost thinking about being a roached back, and she has a short ewe neck. They claim she is an unregistered Hanoverian but I have to say, I find that difficult to believe. (Hano experts, care to chime in?) Her tail set looks like that of an Arab, but there are other parts of her that look like a stock breed, like her neck. She looks to me like a low end Quarab. This entire ad just screams “we don’t know WTF to do with her, but we definitely want some money for her, so we bred her!”
Can I mention that gray is one of the colors you are LEAST likely to get spots out of? I know this, and I have never bred a Paint or Pinto in my life. I am picturing this unfortunately gray creature giving birth to an equally unfortunate small red creature next spring. I just hope it can breathe.
The longer I do this blog, the scarier the pictures that are sent to me. I hope this mare lucks out and gets a good companion horse home, but I know there will never be as many of those as there are horses who need them.
59 comments to “And the Oscar for most blatant attempt to market a severely flawed animal for breeding goes to…”
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I agree with every post on your blog. I am so fed you with bad breeding that I am sick…people bred crap to crap and expect to get good quality sport horses. My other favourite is breeding the crappiest, unregistered, lame-at-six-year-old mare to the nicest, elite, 100-day-test-winner stallion, and blame him when the foal looks just like the crappy dam.
Grrr…people stop adding to horse slaughter industry here in Canada and don’t breed Dottie because you love her and she is not “doing anything right now anyway.” Grrr…
This poor mare makes me so, so sad. It’s too sad to even make a joke.
Wow, her back looks like a cow.. I don’t know much about conformation, but that horse is so sad looking. Poor thing.
L
Cow-hipped? OMG I typed that before I read what Brinx said … scary!
I feel so sorry for this mare. If you could ignore that nose, she has a very sweet look to her. I hope this poor thing goes to a companion (non-breeding) home, although she would fit in at a circus.
I’m with FHD on the Arab traits.
Anyone familiar with the Arab mare Namusca?
http://www.midwestarabian.com/z_photos_old/video_gallery/namusca.jpg
Think there’s possibly a relation?
Darn it! Google “Namusca” and you should be able to find a pic.
This is one of the most pathetic horses I have seen lately. Well wait, there is the Blue Unicorn….
HEY!!! I have an idea!!! Lets breed this grey abombination to the homozygous cremello tobiano stallion from yesterday and get a colored sport horse!!!!!
Seriously folks this is one of the most obvious ads for “I have this mare, and I have no idea what to do with her, and well our homogygous tobianer stallion is just across the driveway, lets just breed her and she will probably have a REALLY vaulable and RARE spotted sport horse foal. After all spotted Hannoverians are VERY popular. We are gonna git us a newfangled warshing machine with all that there money”
OMG check out the namusca thing.. that is so gross! I thought it was a bad sculpture when I first saw it…poor thing is right.
Eeuww.
Okay … Namusca video!
http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=bq5Qy6IhKPk
Yikes.
OMG, OMG. I am scarred. I do love an Arab but that is totally sickening. ***cringing & shuddering***
ok, Namusca’s face creeps me out — it reminds me of those “twisted whiskers” greeting cards!
http://shamus.250x.com/a/TwistedWhiskers2.jpg
http://us.f3.yahoofs.com/auc/m3TgwWQ29qAQ/245×216-yahoo12.jpg?auAmqsLBJP.c0aLk
Although that kind of (shudder) stylilized face isn’t my cup of tea, are there any health issues or limitations on the usefulnmess associated with a face like that? (aesthetics aside)
I would like to say that there would be some sort of breathing or sinus problem and possible some problems eating. The muzzle looks extremely long to me and awfully tiny. It could just be some of the pictures but who knows? If there isn’t any problems, I would be amazed.
Oh yeah. Go by the website promoted on the video for Namusca.
http://www.midwestarabians.com
There is a wicked looking for on the recent sales page.
that is NO kind of hannoverian, no way in hell. lowrent, funky quarab is right on the money.
what she has there is a skeletal malformation known as ‘wry nose’ or to give it its scientific name ‘laterally deviated rostral maxilla’. there is no firm evidence that it is genetic, but then there is no firm evidence as to what else causes it, either. malpositioning in the uterus is a maybe, but not proven.
mild cases can straighten up over time, more severe cases require euthanasia due to causing breathing difficulties. any horse viable to survive will require surgical intervention so that they can eat properly, and constant dental adjustment throughout their lives. often the cosmetic appearance is just the start – i doubt her jaws meet in any normal way.
sickening because its clear this surgery hasnt happened. what a sad case.
Guess what, upon perusing their(midwestarabian) page more they are planning to BREED HER! A direct quote from the “featured horses” page: “Purchased by Gemini Arabians, Jim and Sally Bedeker, Maddox will stand to an incredible court of mares collected by the Bedekers’ under the guidance of Midwest such as National Champion Goddess of Marwan, Magnums Julep, Namusca, *Sunshine HFP, True Desire LL.
She’ll die in labor! Poor thing won’t be able to breath.
Namusca was born in 1984, she’s already had several foals and is probably dead (check out Allbreedpedigrees.com)
I just discovered your blog. I love it. Thank you for saying something that desperately needs to be said – although those that need to hear it most probably either won’t understand it or will refuse to accept it.
I know David Boggs and have bought many arabs from him. Although Namusca is absolutely freaky looking in my opinion. All of her foals have come out looking normal. She has no issues whatsoever, and she is still alive.
Everyone thinks she is “exotic” but I think its just gross.
But in Bob’s defence, she throws normal foals. lol
They BRED that Naumsca horse?!
On site actually refers to her as ‘exquisite’. Um…ew.
Oh vey! Poor mare. But the owner….wtf? Breeding her to some random stud???
I would guess there’s some Arab in the poor deformed dear though it certainly wasn’t enough to pretty her up. I think they thought “hey Hanoverians are fancy and expensive, lets market her as one!” Please let her be sterile and go to a good companion home.
As for Namusca, the deformed mare posing as a desirable exotic, she is still alive according to the Arabian Datasource. Given that she is only 23, either she is still capable of breeding or they are doing ET. Horrific. And yeah, people in the Arab world do know Midwest and David Boggs…..and no comment.
Lifelike, thank you for the description of the deformity…I definitely learned something today although I will say I hope I never see that in real life. Poor mare!
She has had 5 babies that are on allbreedpedigree.com probably more just not on there.
Ok I went to that site with the Arabian horses on there,the horses on there are simply stunning in my opinion,would like to know what Fugly thinks about these horses.
I just want you to know, I absolutley worship this blog and will pass it along to all my friends.
Maybe some backyard breeders out there will get the not-so-subtle hint. Probably not…
DOCSSCRIP … I was merely pointing out the Namusca mare with regards to that crazy head of hers as it pertained to today’s fine headed creature (a very Arab looking Hano). I’m not an Arab fan, but I didn’t see anything horrid on that website (well, Namusca aside that is. Because she IS just plain scary lookin’)
Well I agree on that 100% a little scary looking she is Namusca that is
The horse with the messed up nose that is supposed to be a Hanoverian if she were she would never pass inspection because of her defect.I think other reg. might want to do what the American Hanoverian is doing it stated Breeding stock is very carefully inspected and selected for correct conformation, athletic ability and inner qualities such as disposition and trainability.They have several inspections and test to go thru in order to become breeding animals now that is the way to go
ok, I googled “namusca” all I can say is WTF?!!!
I look at her and, like the general consensus goes, see a very low-level Arab-mix. Perhaps Quarab, but I would think a QH would have given that poor thing a butt.
I can’t say anything else. I’m still trying to get that Namusca picture out of my head. Need…more…brain…bleach!
Was David Boggs the person who was suspended or somesuch for having cosmetic surgery performed on halter Ayrabs?
Regardless, those Arabs all look freaky to me. IMNSHO, breeding for those facial extremes is the cousin of breeding for halter horse freaks. The dishy Arabs are to the horse world what the Pekingese is to the dog world – man made deformity.
Hey, here is that website i was talking about where i made the extra cash.. later! i’m going to cali next week..check this out
Its the spitting image of this Jersey Cow…
http://www.jmcwd.com/redirected-images/jersey-cow2.jpg
I think you’re right about the low grade quarab mix. This one is a whole lot of fugly.
Wow, i didn’t read the “blog” part, i thought it was an arab/X the whole time until i got down to the bottom, this is one horse that needs to be taken off market and spayed. *nuff said*
Aarrrgggghhhhh, if only spaying mares was as cheap and easy as gelding, might help just a little bit with the fight against fugly. The poor mare in the ad, she is trained, yay, so ride her, please please don’t let her reproduce. Namusca could eat an apple through a picket fence — exotic, exquisite — gag.
Trich – it’s one of the Boggs that was disciplined for cosmetic surgery – aren’t there two (brothers maybe?) involved with Arabs? It’s been a long time since I was active in the Arabian show world, but it was where I started and worked for several years.
How do you get “possibly” bred to a “red/white paint” anyway? This is so sad. I’ve made my contributions to the fugly horses of the world in my ignorant youth, but now I see people breeding for Pintaloosas and Tennuvians and want to cry. Over 100,000 horses slaughtered in the U.S. every year, and some folks gotta try and make up their own new breed? Go rescue a Haflingaraloosa, I mean a “Spotted Sport Horse” and stop making fugly babies!!
While Namusca’s head is on the far extreme side of extreme, she is in all other respects a beautifully put together horse. Neither parent has a head that extreme, so it’s possible that the breeder did not expect that face to result – willing to give the benefit of the doubt. I put that breeder in a very different bucket to the ignorant/greedy backyard breeders deliberately breeding poor stock like we see here.
While you certainly have a point about her conformation, you’re mistaken that a grey horse is less likely to produce spots (either pinto or Appy). However, if she is homozygous for grey (got the grey gene from both parents), any babies she has will eventually turn grey. If she is heterozygous for grey (only has one copy of the grey gene from one of her parents), the foal has a 50% chance of turning grey. If the sire passed on a pinto or appaloosa gene, the foal will have spots when it is born. Eventually, the hair will fade to white, but the skin will stay spotted, and be visible when the horse is wet. Often, when the horse is still fairly young, the spots will have grey hair contrasting with the white. Most people who want “colored” foals prefer not to get ones that will turn grey, since they aren’t as flashy once they fade out.
OMG!!!!
I agree with you 100%.
Majority of theses horses will end up under fed and/or being slaughtered and then all the bunny huggers will be up in arms about that as well.
Brilliant blog!
Despite this mares horrible conformation, poor bone, slanted croup and ewe neck, the nose is not an issue. The poster is correct that the Wry nose, or deviated Rostral Maxilla, is a congenital birth defect and not inherent. It is caused my mal-positioning in the uterus, nothing more. Many wonderful breeding animals have wry nose. It cannot be passed on. However, one would have to be rather hard up to purposely breed to an animal with so many conformation faults….which would probably result in a like foal, unusable as a performance animal and sadly not put together correct enough as breeding stock.
Wow, telling it like it is! I love it, show no mercy, let all the ugly secrets come out…
On the matter of the crooked nose birth defect. I am a farrier and work of 2,000+/- 100 head of horses a year. I see it all. Back in the early 90s a client of mine went to a production sale in SD to buy a stallion prospect. This was at the place of a very well respected AQHA breeder who has received every award that AQHA can bestow on a breeder. In other words, they don’t breed junk. Roger bought the top stud colt for $4000 which at that time was unheard of. When that colt’s first foal crop hit the ground, every one of the foals had a crooked nose, the heads were all J shaped. Some died, some had to be put down, one was kept and was able to be ridden. After the first two were born that way, Mr High Dollar Stallion Prospect had his name changed to Extremely Expensive Gelding.
Yes it can happen. Those were the only ones I have seen other than the picture here.
Keep up the excellent work on this site.
Nearly Normal – how WONDERFUL though to hear that the breeder did the RIGHT thing and cut off his balls.
That’s encouraging. Kudos to them.
Those Arabians on the Midwest site are very pretty to look at but they are bred to win prizes so they all have over-long necks which tend to make them heavy on the forehand and those trots that make everyone gasp are all done with the legs, the hip doesn’t appear involved at all thus making the horses unable to really step up under themselves. Couple that with the looong neck and you’ve guaranteed a horse heavy on the forehand. Luckily they’re small horses or would probably have major soundness issues.
And once again fuggly horse is right when the faults hit you upside the head with a two by four.
However when it comes to a good photo, not only does she like the “pretty horses,†but she doesn’t actually critique any of them. Of course I’ve been accused of being unfair to fuggly horse and told look at the “pretty†horses she’s critiqued. This is what I found.
We all need to look at something pretty- No justification on why the horse is breeding quality, other than it’s pretty. Maybe there is a reason with such good bloodlines she’s 1000 dollars and they don’t want her?
Now, I am NOT a warmblood expert (really? Wow) by any means. But when I see this filly and $10,000 – and that’s the kind of buyer breeders hope for. Again this is an amazing photo but not a confirmation shot and fuggly horse likes him because he’s pretty!
she looks like a nice sensible mare – and the photo is so pretty, done by a professional photographer with lots of show sheen! Yea!
They are both AQHA breed show halter quality- Exactly why? Oh because one has some points (at a show with only one entry??? Well all know this happens in AQHA) It’s not even a confirmation shot, but we like the “pretty horsey†with lots show sheen and a professional photographer. The other horse “just looks†like a halter horse, never mind that she’s been stood on a hill to hide the fact that she’s got down hill confirmation along with a whole host of problems. But she’s pretty, with lots of show sheen and the photographer do such good job hiding all those conformation faults.
It’s easy to critique that nags, but really, lets see if Fuggly Horse knows anything about conformation, (hit, it might not be so obvious a blind man would see it.) Or you can stroke your own ego. (which do you think fuggly horse will choose and her side kicks) will choose?
This site isn’t about information. If people wanted that they’d go the The Horse .com, or UC Davis, or Dr. Debb Bennet. People have being breeding these “nags†for thousands of years. Surprise the world hasn’t ended! This web site changes nothing. It’s a farce. It’s simply away for a group of people to feel better about themselves by picking on other people. If you all really care that much, do something about it. Don’t breed your own fuggly horse. Of course you’ll claim that you don’t. Your up there on your high horse feeling “better†than everyone else. But I have a challenge. Why don’t fuggly horse supporters send in photos to be critiqued of their horses. Lets just see who’s not breeding what. Usually the people who spend their time complaining about what they don’t like about other people, are guilty of it themselves.
I am so very tickled someone like you has the know how and the smarts to speak up on this nasty horse issue! YAHOO! I have been in the horse business for over 25 years , came across and judged many breeds , including judging at the Arabian horse nationals in the early 1980′s. AS for Namusca, that is the most deformed face , it looks like a hog snout. To say it is exotic, SHAME on them ! !It is an abomination , I don’t care if it doesn’t supposedly get passed on, it is in a pedigree and it will rear it’s ugly head again somewhere! This is the problem with American horse breeders , they can’t take critism nor can they cull thier garbage. That mare would have had an axe to her head in the Bedohuin tribe , as for the Bogg’s brothers, their horrible reputations speak for themselves , just ask around reputable Arabian breeders and they can tell you those stories. I just despise the head & colour breeders!
Obviously, thinkinghorseman is on the wrong page because well… I see no halter horses in this blog entry. Second, this person has also clearly never HAD aprofessional come out and take photos for you.
Wanna know why you can’t base a hrose off professional photos?? Because professional photographers MASK and COVER UP their flaws. “Oh, she has an ugly point hip, ok, lets turn her this way!” and them once they develop the photos, “Oh no! You can see how ugly her hock is! It’s ok, because we have PHOTOSHOP!!” Clearly, thinkinghorseman is still in the early ages and doesn’t realize photos can be touched and retouched with computers now. Basing professional photographs with amatuer ones is like taking a picture of and a picture of a model. Who do you think looks better?? Probably the model! Cause they reset their ear set, they longate their necks and remove any acne!
And yes, I’ve had plenty of professional photographers out for my horses and they always ask if I’d be interested in the price for retouching my pictures to get rid of flaws.
Why, oh why, do people insist on advertising everything as breed-able?! What happened to “with some work, this horse could make a nice trail mount,” etc? (Not necessarily this horse in particular, but all these bizarrely built horses you post pictures of). The job of broodmare/stallion is not one that lots of horses are up too, nor is Olympic level jumper, etc. I’m sick of people trying to make horses something they’re not.
Thinkinghorseman said “They are both AQHA breed show halter quality- Exactly why? Oh because one has some points (at a show with only one entry??? Well all know this happens in AQHA)”
Sorry Thinker, you do not get points in AQHA shows if you are the only horse in a class, and in fact only a half point is awarded for a WIN over 3-4 horses in a class. To get one point there must be 5 horses and the horse must win over them all. If the pretty mare has 40 points she did a lot more winning than most horses do. She did not simply show up and get automatic points.
thinkinghorseman: you sure have a lot to say for someone who cant even SPELL conformation. i suggest you do some actual reading before you get down to ‘thinking’ – FHD did an entire post critiquing exclusively her own horses a while back.
‘pretty’ = good conformation.
‘fugly’ = bad conformation.
you say a horse isn’t necessarily breeding quality just because its pretty (at least, i THINK thats what you were trying to ramble out). so what WOULD you consider makes a horse breeding quality?
dont tell me – that it be YOUR horse *sniggers*
thinking… I’m a supporter. And I gelded my horse at 11 months. And I am willing to have him critiqued if it makes you feel better. I don’t think any of us are on “high horses” about our animals being superior- if anything, we are proud of ourselves for recognizing their faults and that they’re not breeding quality. :p
While Namusca isn’t to everyone’s liking, even in the arab world, she produces gorgeous foals with beautiful conformation. If you can look past her head you will see that she moves like a dream and has a great neck, back and hip, and legs. She has never passed her extreme head on to any of her foals.
Wow….the Namusca horror is just scary! That poor horse, I don’t see how she can actually breathe very well…
My 12 year old daughter wanted to know how they bred a seahorse to a horse, and my niece thought she was a giraffe/horse cross!
In regards to this poor horse that you posted a picture of (looks like she’s a Holstein/horse cross!)how anyone could even consider breeding her is just beyond me!
I’m far from any sort of horse expert, but it doesn’t take a genius to see this. I just don’t understand why people think that mentioning breeding is requisite for a sale ad?!
Namusca,
Is actually a beautiful mare, but yes her head is overly dished and is a bit different. She actually doesn’t have breathing problems and overall she has great conformation and her foals have all been substantial animals in the show ring. She has lots of quality Russian breeding in her. She is a great mare and maybe her head isn’t exactly what we would like to see, but she has thrown very quality foals and is a great mare. They don’t know exactly what caused her head to become so dished. ie something in the womb etc but it is not genetic. Even her grandget as very quality Arabian horses. So, don’t base a horse just because it has one fault. You should be looking at the other horses on this blog and not picking on a high quality broodmare which has produced quality foals and her bloodlines are impeccible. She would have never been so reknown if she didn’t throw such nice foals. None of which have a dramatically dished face as she, but still are very beautiful.
hiya all, lve seriously enjoyed my evening here in Australia reading about(as well as learning) different defects and peoples ideas/comments concerning these.
One thing that does get me mildly peeved is the ‘nesty’ comments as many horses will end up with the so called ‘nesty’ look due to breed/type and MORE importantly from being fed on the ground.
Show/halter class breeders are well aware of what can and often does happen with animals necks/chests who are fed on the ground their entire lives and take appropriate steps to deal with this.
From the photo’s we cant really judge if its conformational or feeding regime as l said elsewhere on here some faults are in direct relation to husbandy(care of animals) being able to touch these animals would help us decide as to where the fault really lies in my opinion
I knew a warmblood broodmare with a hind end like that (Oldenburg or Hanoverian–can’t remember). I thought she was an Arab until I asked, and found out she was a twin. She was stunted and a little oddly shaped, but definitely nothing on the order of “Misty.” Thankfully she had decent overall conformation. Her babies were lovely, incidentally.
Oh, come on Shellsbells…horses were designed to eat off the ground. Have you ever seen grass grow on a tree?
Ugly necks are NOT created by feeding a horse on the ground.