It's Friday, I'm a Judge! Breed: Andalusian/Lusitano

It's a mini breed judging clinic this week! I wanted to do something fun, so I pulled some models that may look familiar! My very first post was a mini collectability class with the premise of the class being double judged for breed. As we close out our third cycle of the judging clinics, I wanted to return to the other side of that class and judge it based on breed. I thought it would be interesting to illustrate how placings can change in a single class depending on what it is judged for. 

As always, my personal judging history and credentials can be found on my About Me page. 

This week, we're looking at an Andalusian/Lusitano breed class. This is a pretty typical breed class found on a standard class list. Some shows might split them out, but typically they're shown together. Andalusians and Lusitanos are pretty similar, as both hail from the Iberian peninsula. Andalusians are from Spain, while Lusitanos are from Portugal. Let's look at the breed standards for both so we know what we're looking for. 

Andalusian:

• Baroque style - noble and proud look with compact and elegant body 
• Straight or slightly convex profile, nicely shaped ears and slightly arched and muscular neck
• Long sloping and muscular shoulders, round and slightly sloping croup 

Standard taken from Rousseau, Élise. Horses of the World. Princeton University Press, 2017, p 94. 

Lusitano:

• Noble head with convex profile, wide forehead, and large eyes 
• Arched and high set neck, deep chest, long and muscular shoulders
• Short back, sloping croup, small feet, low set tail 

Standard taken from Rousseau, Élise. Horses of the World. Princeton University Press, 2017, p 82. 

Andalusian stallion

Horse A: G3 Rearing Andalusian

Lusitano stallion

Horse B: Cantering Andalusian

Andalusian stallion

Horse C: Mini Alborozo

Evaluate each horse against their assigned breed standard. Make sure you're paying attention to which is a Lusitano and which is an Andalusian! When you have your placings in mind, mine are under the jump. ↓

The Placings:

🥇1st: Horse C - Mini Alborozo

In first place, I pinned the mini Alborozo. In my opinion, the traditional scale Alborozo is one of the most correct Spanish horses in the lineup, and his shrunken counterpart is no different. He has a very Baroque look, with a straight profile and arched neck. His hooves are nicely proportioned with his body as well, and he has a nice rounded croup. This run in particular does have a slight molding flaw that I've brought up before - his neck is slightly thin and pinched, likely due to the run being molded in the old plastic (read more about it here!) This is a problem limited to the Valerios, and I'd likely place a new plastic run over the Valerio if it was nice enough. That being said, the molding flaw is not enough for me to knock him lower than first in this particular class. 

🥈2nd: Horse B - Cantering Andalusian 

I pinned the Cantering Andalusian second. I show this particular model as a Lusitano, as I generally feel he fits that breed standard better (even though the two are nearly identical.) Like mini Alborozo, he works anatomically and biomechanically. His shoulder is a little shorter than I'd like to see, and his feet are a little big as well. His mane gives him some weird optical illusions with his back, but it's perfectly fine if you take the mane out of the equation. There's a lot of things I like about the sculpt, but for this class I personally like the Alborozo better in breed. 

🥉3rd: Horse A - G3 Rearing Andalusian

My third place pin is the G3 Rearing Andalusian. Compared to the other two sculpts, he is more cartoonish (this is pretty typical across the board for the G3 and some of the G4 sculpts). His back left hoof additionally has the appearance of being clubbed, which is a major conformational fault. He's not terrible when compared to the breed standard, but a club foot is a universally undesirable trait in horses, and it's enough to knock him below the min Alborozo and the Cantering Andalusian. He's a model with lovely shading, but this particular run is far better as a collectability entry. 

How did you pin this class? Did you notice how your placings changed from judging this on collectability? Remember, the rarest model on the table isn't necessarily the best breed horse!