Coloured hunters...

Queenbee

Queenbee

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How bad is the bias
I want to enter Ben into some ridden hunter classes into the future but was talking the other day about coloureds an bias in things like hunter classes, basically he is a hunter, nice Confo, looks like from this weeks string test he will mature to 16.2 /16.3 but he is skewbald... So what is the bias in Non coloured classes?
Ta very muchly x
 
Red Andes won HOYS as a coloured (went champion), and also went to HOYS as a ladies hunter (sidesaddle) and a heavyweight hunter.

Endeavour was placed every year at HOYS in the coloureds, and also in the hunters.

A coloured has to have as good conformation as everything else in the class - if that is the case then they stand a reasonable chance. Yes, there will be some judges who don't want to see coloured horses in hunter classes, but the good ones do well. An average coloured in a hunter class will probably be down the line and below the other average horses.
 
QB, my big coloured mare did ok in hunter breeding as yearling, but bumped up to county level as a slightly more gangly 2 yr old, they weren't as keen, even though (in my opinion) she is well put together, has lots of presence and moves very well.

The coloured folk didn't seem to like her, as she didn't have enough brown on her....would regularly place better marked, but poorly conformed horses above her. Haven't shown her for a bit now...waiting 'til we can come (safely!) out under saddle and hopefully wow everyone!

Bit of vid of her last year as a very green 5 year (have to say, not much better now as not many opportunities to ride between rain drops and windy spells up here!)
http://youtu.be/RqAtmPNwagM
 
Poots she is lovely :D I'm just really hoping, there is a bit of an ulterior motive tbh, oh bought ben for me, I saw him as a 2 week old foal and he was my Christmas present 6months later :D my oh's grandfather donated the ridden hunter cup at one of the shows and I would love to win it on Ben, it obviously won't be for a while, bless him he is only 3 and only just about to be backed, then all we will do is hack on until he's rising 4 so probably will look to enter him as a 5 yr old, but was just musing really :D
 
I think even county level jdges would not be biased against coloureds these days. In 1980s we showed our skew in hunter youngstock classes and felt he was judged fairly.[ but as stallion he later couldnt compete in HIS classes, but did in unaffitliated Smalls. In fact he was a proper hunter with many seasons to his credit]
If horse consistently stands low down in the line then his conformation/stamp/type just isnt quite good enough. Might be better in sports horse classes if that becomes the case.
Person above with nearly white coloured - yes, you re so right she wont do well in colored classes- when we bred coloureds and one came out 'like a jack Russell' markings wise , we knew we d have difficulty selling - no matter how nice everything else was. I think judging with prejidice against whiter animals wrong , but it happens all the time.
 
God I'd love just once to be brave and motivated to get to county level!! Perhaps if he comes good we might get there although certainly no plans for that level, just a few nice local shows, perhaps one or 2 end of next season and then on from there as a 5 yr old...
 
It is nice to do an occasional county, but they are such hard work (I'm terminally lazy!). That's why I spent most of my youth pinging over fences and just occasionally having to plait to stressage at a ODE!
 
cornbrodolly said:
If horse consistently stands low down in the line then his conformation/stamp/type just isnt quite good enough. Might be better in sports horse classes if that becomes the case.
Person above with nearly white coloured - yes, you re so right she wont do well in colored classes- when we bred coloureds and one came out 'like a jack Russell' markings wise , we knew we d have difficulty selling - no matter how nice everything else was. I think judging with prejidice against whiter animals wrong , but it happens all the time.
Click to expand...

Agree totally with these thoughts, if the horse is good enough it should do as well as any with comparable conformation but as an aside, I have a very nice coloured mare for sale with someone (they have better facilities than me); they've had loads try, she's done nothing wrong and they've liked her enough to want to buy her but they've all baulked at the amount of white she has; very frustrating.

OP, best of luck with your boy, would be amazing to win that special cup; hope you do.
 
M thank you x I guess my main though was that if you had 2 horses equally matched in everything but colour, then they would probably put the coloured 2 nd, but we can hope, it's not the only class we can do but it's the one that means the most ;)
 
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