Buyer coat color phobia real?

[McGurk]

I am sucker for a chestnut with chrome. Other than that, I am a big believer in a good horse is any color. I owned a fabulous horse that I believe was the ugliest App ever foaled. Cream colored, few spot, pink skin, just a few roan hairs on the legs, rat tail, no mane…

My preference for geldings is based mostly on the fact that it’s easier to manage turnout on my farmette as a single sex dorm than a coed. However, I did just buy a mare so there’s that.

Finally, I agree with the others that size will be a much bigger limitation on resale than sex or color. Size isn’t as big a deal with eventers as it is with hunters, but there’s still a bias. If you go for something under 16 hands, make sure it has a really efficient galloping stride and is comfortable jumping combinations set for a 12 and 13 foot stride.

[Xanthoria]

I brought a measuring stick to the barn once and offered to measure horses for people. I asked them all beforehand how tall they thought their horses were. Every single horse measured at least 1” smaller than the owner thought it was.

[Libby2563]

@Xanthoria

I brought a measuring stick to the barn once and offered to measure horses for people. I asked them all beforehand how tall they thought their horses were. Every since horse measured at least 1” smaller than the owner thought it was.

Yup!! That has been my experience too. I leased a teenaged WB who had been described as 18.3 hh his entire adult life by his very experienced professional owner. When I sticked him he was 18 hh (which is still freakishly tall IMO—frequently when I mounted I would see a strip of dirt along his croup that I had missed because I couldn’t see it).

[Larbear]

@Libby2563

I mean…you could just do what everyone else does and add 2” to the height when you advertise. Presto, 15.3 = 16.1 and most people would believe you anyway!

Lol and then there’s me (under 5’) looking for the 15.3 - 16h. I’m not super fussy about colour (though my heart does go pitter-patter for a dark bay ) but don’t want a grey. So what am I seeing a lot of? A whole lot of 17.3 greys or 15.3 greys

[McGurk]

Xanthoria,

I used to swear I owned the only stick in my whole state, because everytime I went to look at horses for sale for clients, the horses sticked shorted than advertised.

[Jarpur]

Went to look at a supposedly 16 hand second level dressage Andalusian with a friend. She really wanted something a bit smaller; I told her not to worry, the horse really would be 15.2 to 15.3, maybe even less, lol.

Turned out, he was 16.1 plus. He was great, she bought him anyway as a lifetime horse. Only time I’ve ever seen a horse be taller than advertised (I have a stick, too).

[Turntable]

Asa genuinely tall person, not a 5’7" with long legs but really tall, I do not know why people care so much about height. I care about the amount of bone, the amount of horse in front of me when I sit on them, if I can get my calf on somewhat and the length of stride and only those four things.

I have ridden 17.2hh horses whose ears go up my nose if they toss their head and 15.2hh horses that felt like I had all the shoulders and neck in the world out in front of me. That is a comforting feeling. Height is only one dimension.

[jvanrens]

I thought my STB was 17hh until the farm owner pulled out his measuring stick, alas I was wrong, he’s 16.3 and 3/4s.

[McGurk]

I agree with this sentiment. Not feeling that I have enough horse in front of me; or that I have to be very careful with my upper body not to overbalance, is way worse than feeling like you don’t have enough under your leg.

Truly the only thing that should matter for the jumping disciplines is the stride length.

[MsM]

At one point I was pushing 60 years old and had not ridden regularly in a decade. My retired horse was a Morgan. I was offered the ride on a little QH. My riding was really rusty. It wasnt helped by the fact that when riding, this horse appeared to have no head! He was built downhill and probably trained to go with a very low head at some point. After my upheaded Morgan riding this horse was a totally alien experience!

[Sticky_Situation]

Give me a smallish horse with a big stride over a 17.2h behemoth any day. Of course, it isn’t always easy to find the little ones that can move on a 12-13ft stride without speeding around and losing their balance, but the ones that do are so incredibly fun.

[2tempe]

@Libby2563

frequently when I mounted I would see a strip of dirt along his croup that I had missed because I couldn’t see it).

I can relate to this - except mine is only 15’3"

[fledermaus]

@Xanthoria

… Every single horse measured at least 1” smaller than the owner thought it was.

Well there’s my Morgan, who is 14.2 every single time I’ve sticked her and no one believes me. They universally think she is taller. I attribute this to her big butt, high head set, and dominatrix attitude.

[quietann]

@fledermaus

Well there’s my Morgan, who is 14.2 every single time I’ve sticked her and no one believes me. They universally think she is taller. I attribute this to her big butt, high head set, and dominatrix attitude.

Oh yeah, a good Morgan can get “big” really easily if there’s something to show off about. Some of the best show horses are barely above pony size.

With mine, at her best, people said she had to be nearly 16 hands. No, she just thought she was big! She’s 24, and a little gimpy, but still will puff up when she’s excited.

[chestnutmarebeware]

For 22 years I’ve refused to measure Rosie (APHA) because I know she’ll never make it out of ponyland. And I’m 5’8” with long legs that dangle below her belly in a jump saddle. I bought her as a weanling with tall parents, but she apparently takes after a short ancestor!

She’s your classic chestnut mare—stubborn, independent and a drama queen, and I have no good reasons for keeping her other than the fact that I love her cranky self! Plus, I can mount from the ground, and unlike my TBs, she’s comfortable to ride bareback.

I tell people she’s 15hh, but that’s a blatant lie, lol!

The photo is from her first-ever ride as a 3-y-o. She never grew any taller, lol!

[ShenanAnna]

Your Rosie looks like my 14 hand Quarab, Roo. The most fun ever! Rosie looks like she has that same fabulous personality. Roo was a chestnut mare, too, of course.

[skipollo]

I get that constantly from other people about my own horse. So many folks are convinced he’s a 17++ behemoth, but he’s 16.2 and a half (16.3 if he’s wearing glue ons) like officially sticked, 81" blanket. He’s not even a big bodied horse, he’s a medium-light boned OTTB. He’s very leggy though which in their defense does make him look taller than he is, but I think a lot of people’s ideas of what 16, 17, 18hh etc. looks like is pretty off.

My next one, color and size do not matter one iota. I want quiet quiet quiet, easy off property, good eater that’s just easy to manage physically and emotionally, and a gelding. I think my horse is the biggest I’d want (I’m only 5’2"), but I found the PERFECT gem in every way except that it’s 17.1hh, I’d be fine with a horse that size, but he would need to check every other box on my list.

[Paint_Party]

That photo is a treasure! Wish I’d kept more of mine like that.

[chestnutmarebeware]

It was taken in 2003 by the BO. You should see the ones from that day that I DON’T share: Rosie being a giraffe, Rosie trying not to fall over around a corner, Rosie looking like she had five legs going in different directions…

This day is particularly amazing to me because less than a year earlier Chester County, PA was hit with its first WNV cases and more than 60 horses got badly ill in less that a week. To make matters worse, Hurricane Diana hit and knocked out all the power at the same time.

Rosie went down from the virus but she never stopped fighting and the vet showed us how to lift her back up with only two people. We’d let her rest for an hour or two, then hoist her back up. It took 9 days before she could get up by herself, and the vet couldn’t be sure she’d ever be safe to ride.

[quietann]

And there are the ones that go the other way, like a friend’s Connemara/TB cross who topped out at just under 17 hands… He was built like a pony on stilts.