Judging Photo Shows Pt. 3

 (If you're just joining, I am doing a series on judging photo shows. You can click the "Judging Photo Shows Series" label at the bottom of the post to see other posts in the series.)

Hello all. Sorry for the unexpected hiatus. Life kind of went crazy last week, and I barely had time for anything. Everything should be mostly back on track now. :)

Now, back to the subject at hand!

Here is my first impression ranking, as promised.  

How did mine compare with yours? Don't forget this is just first impression, and has very little influence on the actual judging. Keep your sheet, because you will need it several times throughout the rest of the series.

Today's main topic is breed standard. For those not familiar, a breed standard is a statement of ideal conformation, color, temperament, and characteristics, issued by the official breed association or studbook (registry).

For this class, we are working with the Paint Horse breed. I will open a new tab beside my judging tab and load the APHA website. The APHA website is not helpful. The APHA website stinks. There is no official breed standard to be found. Thankfully, with a breed like Paint, you can usually find a reputable (preferably vet driven) website with a summarized statement of conformation and color. Mine came from PetMD.

The American Paint Horse comes in various colors, amongst them, bay, chestnut, black, palomino, gray, buckskin, and blue roan. But, more important than their physical coloring, are their distinctive white markings. While the marks vary in size, the patterns are standard. The two predominant coat patterns of Paint Horses, the overo and tobiano, are distinguished by the position of the white coloring on the body.

 

The overo (Spanish, for “like an egg”) patterned horse has white spots extending across the back between the withers (the highest point on the back) and the tail. Typically, all four legs are dark-colored, but in order to be considered, at least one leg should be dark in color. Scattered and irregular white markings also appear all over the body. The tail should be solid in color, and the horse itself can be either primarily dark or primarily white. The overo pattern is generally used to describe most patterns that are not the tobiano pattern, which can lead to some confusion when describing a horse simply as overo. They include the frame overo, the sabino (speckled), and the splashed white overo. Many overo-patterned American Paint horses have blue eyes, especially the frame and the splashed white, and the tail is a single color.

 

The tobiano-patterned horse, on the other hand, has a solid-colored head with a white spot at front, which can be of various shapes (e.g., blaze, star, etc). The legs are white, with an appearance of white stockings. Apart from these distinctive markings, the spots on the rest of the horse’s body are in sharp contrast to the colored areas. These markings are commonly found on the neck as well as the chest. Spotting may be oval or round, and the amount of white varies as well. Some Tobianos have a large amount of white, while others have so little white that they appear not to be spotted at all. The tobiano usually has dark brown eyes and bicolored tail.

 

In addition, there is also the combination of the overo and tobiano, the third accepted coat pattern. Because of the risks that are inherent in some breeding programs, in particular, the lethal white foal condition that is related to the frame overos, combining breeds from different patterns will result in stronger bloodlines. This is important for the strength and survival of the Paint Horse, and also adds vitality to the splash markings of the Painted Horse. The resultant cross is referred to as a tovero.

 

The American Paint Horse has a muscular and firm neck, a muscular yet short back, strong legs, sloping shoulders, mid-size ears, and intelligent eyes.

 

So now that I have found a breed standard (or a rough translation of one), I can start grading the horses. If I was judging a live show class, or even a really big, formal photo show, I would write down notes on each model as I went. OMHPS is much more relaxed, and my show was more of a summer bash than a spring soiree, so I didn't take any notes. I just mentally jotted down each model's info in my head, and shuffled them around in order (using the OMHPS judging software).

Important to Note: I do not usually DQ a horse who does not fit the breed standard, unless it is a massive discrepancy (think an unreferenced palomino Arab, or a TB with heavy feathering). If they are just un-conformationally correct, then I will place them to the bottom of the class. After all, sometimes it is Breyer's fault that a model was born with a course head or ewe neck! Color is a bigger problem, but I usually will just not place a horse with wrong color. I do typically tack on a judge's note, mentioning the color issue, because some showers just plain don't know.

ACTIVITY:

That was a lot of information, so let's stop there and pull out our handy-dandy class placement template. Reviewing the information given in the makeshift breed standard, and lightly referencing your first impression list, re-rank the models. You can find the photos of them in this post.

All done? If not, don't continue reading until you are. The rest of the post will sort of spoil the fun in doing this activity for you. It gives away the "answers".

After reviewing the standard, my list is at this stage.

Horse C was first on my 1st impression list as well. The photo is clean, the horse is clean, and the horse fits the breed standard well.

Horse E also fits the breed standard well. His back is slightly long, but that is where personal experience comes in. I am familiar with the Paint breed, and I know the average conformation fairly well. Not everyone looks like the ideal.

Horse A has excellent conformation, and is the same mold as Horse C.

Horse I is very well presented, and the conformation is neat and accurate. His legs are slightly long but once again, not everyone looks like the ideal.

Horse H is the same mold as Horse I, so obviously also has good conformation. I like the element of uniqueness in his color. Greys are not rare, just less common in models than bay or chestnut. He adds some nice variance to the class.

There is a lot of information in this post, so I am going to stop here. If you have any questions or comments, please post them in the comments!

Next post will be on workmanship, condition, and color impact. :) I promise that it won't be as delayed as this one. Thank you again for your patience.