Quarter Horse
by Shannon Call
Greetings! I’m Shannon Call, and I’m so excited that Macie invited me onto her blog. I’ll be chatting about a class of Breyer Quarter Horse mares.
A little about me: I’ve been collecting OF Breyers for over 40 years—back when the hobby meant sending self‑addressed stamped envelopes to other hobbyists for price lists and mailing printed photos for photo shows. I didn’t attend my first live show until 2017, but once I did… that was it, I was completely hooked. These days I make it to about 3–6 live shows a year, including BreyerFest Live. I also judge photo shows for Great Lakes Congress (GLC). More recently I’ve started live show judging too, which I am really enjoying. I am the current NAMHSA Region 7 representative. BreyerFest is the best weekend of the year.
On the real‑horse side of my life, I’m active in AQHA, competing in all‑around events and have shown at the All-American Quarter Horse Congress and AQHA World show. I serve as president of the Northern Ohio Quarter Horse Association which hosts three multiday AQHA shows each year. I also compete in western dressage and am trying out working equitation. My horse background goes back over 40 years and includes being a 4‑H kid (and later an advisor) growing up with my horses in my backyard, showing hunters and equitation with the Ohio Hunter Jumper Association, and riding on the Ohio University IHSA team for four years and two more as an alum in both hunt seat and western events.
Long story short: I love the competitive horse‑show world. I follow a lot of different breeds and disciplines, and the real‑world experience has helped me tremendously when it comes to showing model horses.
Now let’s look at our quarter horse mare class, starting with some background on the breed.
The American Quarter Horse, with more than 6 million horses registered, is the world’s largest equine breed registry. They are characterized by their heavily muscled body, powerful shoulders and hindquarters, and strong, sturdy legs. Their heads are finely chiseled and of a flat profile with a wide forehead. 17 different colors are accepted by AQHA. Markings do not typically affect a Quarter Horse’s registration but any horse with excessive white will have a notation on its registration certificate as an undesirable trait and uncharacteristic of the breed. The only pinto pattern known to exist in American Quarter Horses is the overo pattern. This includes subpatterns splash and sabino.
Known for its versatility and depending on how the horse is bred for a specific discipline, quarter horses come in varying body types, but all maintain the general quarter horse characteristics.
General rules of balance in conformation regardless of type:
When viewed from the side, the length of the shoulder, back, and hip should all be equal. This is known as the rule of thirds. The top of the neck should ideally be twice as long as the underside of the horse’s neck, or a 2-to-1 ratio. Ideally, the back of the horse should be shorter than its underline. The angle of the horse’s shoulder should be approximately 45°. When viewed from the side, the hip of the horse should appear square. The heart girth should equal the length from the underline to the ground.
As model horse judges we observe correctness of anatomy, biomechanics, and conformation, and may have to evaluate a model not standing square. We consider breed and gender characteristics. Since we are judging model horses we are also going to evaluate model condition, finish and molding artifacts due to the sculpture and molding processes.
For this clinic we have three quarter horse mares. All three models demonstrate strong quarter horse type. Two are in action and one is standing square. These three models are all in excellent condition and finish. Two models are matte and one is glossy. The finish if it is clean and complementary to the model does not affect my opinion on placings. These three models are all strong contenders in a QH class and any of them could be the winner.
Also remember that a judging opinion is just that, an opinion. A judge should have a good understanding of correct breed conformation, but they may tend to gravitate towards a mold, type, finish or just have certain preferences; that is human nature and why there is always another show and the same model doesn’t win all the time.
Horse A: Kendall
Horse B: Wimpy's Little Chic
Horse C: Delia
Shannon's placings can be found under the jump. ↓
The Placings:
🥇1st: Horse C - Delia
Lady Phase is set square which makes conformation judging nice. She has a nice 45 shoulder slope and matching 45 slope of her pastern. The rule of thirds is met here. This model shows good proportionality: short back, deep heartgirth, and a long underline. The neck ties in cleanly to the shoulder. This mold has a smaller eye that makes for less appeal and the older mold suffers from loss detail in the ears and forelock but this particular model is still showing nice detail. The older mold makes for less muscle definition in the hip but the muscle seen is correct in anatomy. Overall in my opinion she is the best Quarter Horse mare of the group.🥈2nd: Horse A - Kendall
Bobby Jo shows the strong muscular and square balance build of the classic cowhorse bred Quarter Horse. You can see the even thirds of conformation. This is an action model in a bunched and bent position of a reining spin or roll back. Sculpture wise in my opinion, this model has the most accurate muscle anatomy. A horse in a spin is rocking back over its hocks and lifting up through its shoulder, but even with that expectation this mold is showing a straighter than the ideal 45 angle shoulder. To create the sit back and have a model that stands well the hind cannon bones are longer than ideal and would make the hocks higher than the knees if the model was standing square. She has a beautiful large eye. This model displays a great hip for a Quarter Horse.🥉3rd: Horse B - Wimpy's Little Chic
The Roxy mold is a beautiful quarter horse type and shows a lot of femininity. The mold shows clean defined muscle that is relatively correct in sculpture but not as correct as the other two molds in my opinion. Her head is classic Quarter Horse, small, chiseled, wide forehead, neat ears and large eye. The neck is long and elegant and throatlatch is clean. The mold is in the extension phase of a forward lope so the model is stretched in appearance but still shows balance and a fairly close rule of thirds but does have a longer back than ideal. The outstretched foreleg has a longer cannon but this an artifact of creating a mold that can stand well. There is a thickness and flatness in the legs that appears coarse in my opinion which puts her in third.
No comments:
Post a Comment