Fugly, fugly, fugly horses of the day!

Mar 24 2008

For those of you who hate it when I diverge into discussions on training and ethics and that kind of thing…today’s blog is for you. An alert reader has found a veritable warehouse of Fugly Horses for our viewing, um, pleasure? And of course – you guessed it! – there is a “partial dispersal” sale going on with prices starting at just $450! FORTY HEAD are available. Forty head just like these…

Yes. It’s a stallion.

The breeder proudly proclaims “He is homozygous for the tobiano gene (he will never produce a solid foal), and homozygous for the black gene (he will never produce a sorrel or chestnut foal).” Well, I am not surprised you are bragging about that because I can’t imagine what else you could say about this critter that wouldn’t make your nose grow. Downhill, goose-rumped, short fat neck…blech. And of course we did not bother to clip him up or wash the white parts for the pic. Does he pass on the nasty yellow urine stains to his foals, too? (Hint: Don’t stand your filthy tobiano up next to your very white vinyl fence. The comparison makes him look even dirtier.) He does have a nice shoulder but that’s about all I can say.

When I see a front end like this, I say to myself “poor guy, someone really ran the shit out of him on the racetrack.” In this case, bzzzt, I am wrong. He is only green broke and only 6 years old and his front legs look like that! Not sure if he is just that way or someone really f’ed up on the nutrition as a baby, but either way, not what I’d keep a stud. Also a good example of weak loin attachment. Better neck than #1 but still not a pretty one.

Again, we are bragging about color, color, color here – he’s black! I guess that is why they think he is worth nine thousand dollars. No, that is not a typo. They honestly think their green broke, over at the knee stud is worth 9 grand. *headshake* Oh, did I mention he is that ever-so-desirable 14.3 size? Black green-broke hony – just $9,000!

While I will say that this palomino three year old stallion is a huge improvement over #1 and #2, I just about swallowed my tongue and snorted hazelnut iced coffee out my nose when I read the price. FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS. With 30 days of cutting training and 65 days of reining training on him (yeah, he’s not three until JUNE…good job y’all ruining his legs, I love it when people do that). Now, for comparison’s sake, for $40,000 you can buy a gorgeous Holsteiner mare who is a finished jumper or a 17 hand AQHA gelding with THREE Superiors or a gorgeous Oldenburg mare who’s a finished eventer or (sticking to the same disciplines), a stallion who is ALREADY a World Show qualifier with an extensive record in reining and cutting. Why is old yeller here worth $40K with NO show record? Come on!

If that wasn’t enough for you, you must see their APHA Mares Page. I was going to feature one of them here, but I couldn’t decide on which one. 90% of them are screaming to be barren trail horse mares, and the other 10% are not photographed in such a way that I can really see what they look like. A bunch of them are ribby. Honestly, they look like they were collected for about $500 each at auctions all across Texas and it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that was their history. After all, with such great stallions, why spend money on quality mares?

OK, I changed my mind. I have to show this one. Check out her topline. Do you think you might have a weight issue here? Just maybe?

*sigh* Another day, another forty or fifty head of completely unremarkable horses being dumped…

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