Alison contacted me the other day. She was bidding at an online auction of BLM Mustangs. Could I help her make sure the ones she was looking at were horses that would suit her needs?
Choosing a horse can be hard in those cases where all we have to go is a few blurry pictures that hardly give us any idea at all of what the horse might be like other than that it’s a pretty color. We all know that pretty color isn’t a good thing to base our choice in horses on!
Most of the time, we get to see enough of the horse to judge the basic temperament. There are times when the pictures are so bad they leave us nothing at all to go by.
The pictures of this five-year-old sorrel mare were some of those. Taken from all the wrong angles and too blurry to see whorls, Alison passed her up because of the lack of info.
That narrowed it down to a few others.
One that she liked was a four-year-old bay mare. We could tell a lot more about this horse.
The pictures still aren’t great, and we don’t know what they are like across the rest of her body. We can tell enough to get a basic idea, though.
Alison was looking for a horse with a low whorl. This mare has that. She will be an introvert. Her ears are wide-set and well shaped, meaning steady and willing.
The profile is straight, again steady, and willing. Her upper lip is curious and active.
This one was definitely in the running.
A seven-year-old sorrel gelding was also among the choices.
This one had the same basic head type as the mare. We can’t get a good view of the whorl, though. Is it a single-center whorl?
Wide ears and a straight profile. His mouth is very short though sometimes causing discomfort with a bit. His head is thicker, and he might take a little longer to learn a lesson. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Once they learn something, it should stick without them thinking up fun new things or learning unintended lessons.
A nine-year-old bay mare was considered as a back up. She was getting a bit old to start from scratch but watching as others bid on horses she liked, Alison was attracted to this mare and thought her age might scare people away.
This mares head is different from the others. She is more refined.
Her nostrils are very large and open, alert. She has a large intelligent eye. Her ears are still wide-set and steady.
We can’t see her whorl, but I doubt it is low.
As the auction went on, some of the choices were knocked out of the running by rising bids. Only being able to bid on one horse made things tense. What if she chose one and the bidding got crazy, and she lost, having missed a chance to go for one of the others?
Despite wanting the sorrel gelding, Alison finally decided to go for the nine-year-old bay mare.
How did it work out? We don’t know yet! Alison won’t be getting her new horse for a couple of months. Hopefully, looking at whorls and head shape will have helped her decide on a horse that suits her and who will be just the horse she and her family need.
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