It's Friday, I'm a Judge! Breed: American Gaited

Happy Friday! It's time for another judging clinic. We're back in the land of mini breed today. Like with our last breed judging clinic, we're stepping out of a class for a single breed and instead evaluating several breed assignments against each other. 

As per usual, my credentials can be found on my About Me page. 

This week, we'll be examining an American Gaited mini breed class. This could encompass several breeds, such as the American Saddlebred, the Tennessee Walking Horse, the Rocky Mountain Horse, and the Spotted Saddle Horse, among others. It's entirely possible depending on a show's class list that some of these breeds could be split into their own classes (particularly ASBs and TWHs) but for the purpose of this judging clinic we'll be lumping them together. 

The Entries: 

Saddlebred mare

Saddlebred: 

• Well-shaped head with large expressive eyes and gracefully shaped ears set close together, long arched neck with a fine clean throatlatch, deep and sloping shoulders
• Strong and level back, level croup, tail carried proudly 
•  Front legs set well forward under the shoulder, hind legs vertical from point of buttock to the back edge of the cannon bone
• All colors acceptable: chestnut, bay, brown and black are most common, with gray, roan, palomino and pinto occurring

Information courtesy the American Saddlebred Horse & Breeders Association https://www.saddlebred.com/aboutthebreed

Horse A: G1 Saddlebred

Tennessee Walking Horse mare

Tennessee Walking Horse:

• Definitive head with small well-placed ears, long sloping shoulder, long sloping hip
• Fairly short back, short strong coupling, bottom line longer than top line 

Information courtesy the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' & Exhibitors' Association https://twhbea.com/the-breed/conformation/ 

Horse B: G3 Tennessee Walking Horse

Saddlebred mare

Saddlebred: 

• Well-shaped head with large expressive eyes and gracefully shaped ears set close together, long arched neck with a fine clean throatlatch, deep and sloping shoulders
• Strong and level back, level croup, tail carried proudly 
•  Front legs set well forward under the shoulder, hind legs vertical from point of buttock to the back edge of the cannon bone
• All colors acceptable: chestnut, bay, brown and black are most common, with gray, roan, palomino and pinto occurring

Information courtesy the American Saddlebred Horse & Breeders Association https://www.saddlebred.com/aboutthebreed

Horse C: G2 American Saddlebred

Take a minute, look over the documentation, and decide how you would place this class. When you're ready, my placings can be found under the jump. ↓

The Placings:

🥇1st: Horse C - G2 American Saddlebred

In first place, I pinned the G2 American Saddlebred. Out of the three options, she is the one who most closely fits her assigned breed standard and has a realistic coat color. She has the well-shaped head with large expressive eyes and ears set close together. Her back and croup are level, and her front legs are set under the shoulder. She's additionally chestnut, which is the most common color found in Saddlebreds. 

🥈2nd: Horse B - G3 Tennessee Walking Horse

The G3 TWH I pinned in second. She's not a bad example of the breed, but the G2 ASB adheres to her breed standards a little better than the TWH does. The TWH mold, like many of the G3 molds, has slightly cartoony features. In this case, her ears are large and her legs are thick. The two are just about equal condition-wise - they both have small pinprick rubs that can be seen in their photos. 

🥉3rd: Horse A - G1 Saddlebred

In third, we have the G1 Saddlebred. It's one of those interesting cases where the mold is good anatomically, but the color is unrealistic. Resist dapple gray is a gorgeous Breyer color, but it's not one you're going to likely find in real life. In this instance, this particular example comes from my personal show string. She's received multiple yellow NAN cards at a variety of shows, and multiple section champions (and even once an overall collectability champ). Despite this, she has never placed in the breed half of the class - and she shouldn't! In any other color this mold would be my top pin. 

How did you place the class? Remember, you do not need to place the class the same way I did! The top two placings honestly could have gone either way.