on the BLM there is one i really like. I’d snatch her up if i didn’t already have my paddocks full right now. will message you the link.
I think the crossover market between Westphalians at auction for $6 - $15K (that’s the current euro to dollar conversion) prior to import costs and BLM mustangs is pretty small.
No doubt. I think eightpondfarm knows from other threads that I’m kicking around the idea of a mustang or two as a separate, long-range project. (When the kids have both left for college or can at least drive.) Hence her suggestion.
Eta: Mustangs & dressage. While they’re hardly going to take over the sport, there’s more than one mustang out there competing & winning at PSG & above. Iirc, certain herds have retained more of the Iberian horse characteristics than others. We watched Cobra perform a demo freestyle at Breyerfest 2019. It was the same year that Dominante XXIX was there. Cobra is definitely the smaller horse & doesn’t have quite the PRE heft to his neck that Dominante XXIX does. Yet, he definitely has the Iberian physical traits that are so suited to dressage & he’s legitimately darn good at it. Their height is obviously a limitation. Still, if you’re able to fit on a sub-16hh horse & have a good eye, mustangs are about the only option I can think of where you could even remotely find an UL dressage prospect for 3 figures. I’m willing to bet a much higher % of mustangs would be talented at lower level dressage, too.
**Kind of humorous tangent about Breyerfest – They had the demos running most of the day in the covered arena there at KHP. The vendors were up on the mezzanine level & people just wandered in & out to watch the shows as they pleased. Most of it was cute, flashy stuff like trick riders & Patrick the Mini (love Patrick the Mini!) It was hot as hell & I had 5 whining, wilting children with me & hoped to catch part Dominante XXIX’s performance before hauling them back to the hotel. I felt like that Eddie Izzard skit about dressage as I desperately rifled through my program: “When is it?? When is the dress-age on?? When is it ON??” My then-12yo dryly pointed out that I was the only one in a crowd of a few thousand who applauded the tempi changes. “I think you might literally be the only one here who kind of knows what you’re looking at…”
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My bad, I wasn’t aware of the previous conversations about your considering mustangs. My intent wasn’t to diss mustangs.
Eightpondfarm is a very passionate advocate for mustangs, which is wonderful, but in previous threads her advocacy has breezed past the mustang’s few, but very real limitations.
But again, my bad for assuming, and especially for assuming that someone interested in a Westphalian wouldn’t also be interested in a mustang.
That, I regrettfully admit, is pure snobbery on my part. And I’m not shopping for Westphalians.
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Oh, no worries! The equestrian pursuits in our household are more eclectic than most. Lol.
I am a horse-lover, period. I happen to have 8 mustang projects going on right now, and my focus is there for sure!..but my stable of horses is full of 10 others. Most of which are 'pure’bred of various breeds. *Morgan, Percheron, Standardbred, Arabian, Missouri Foxtrotter, ‘american curly’, Akal-tekke sporthorse X, a grade buckskin and two mules. (one BIG, one little 
). I’m not a warmblood person because i’ve never been a dressage person. I’ll never be a person interested in finding a horse that will help me compete in dressage. (but i will indeed be a person who wants to learn horsemanship til my dying day…which is why i haunt here)
Coming from Morgans, the short necks and thick throatlatches are pretty much my only critique of the basic mustang bodytype. And that’s an aesthetic criticism. Though, i do think that feature may not be as bad as a long neck in the discipline of dressage. Everything else about their bodies i love. The one thing that makes them really cool horses is probably not so much a ‘breed’ thing, but their background. That cleanslate when you get a raw one…once they step over the line and agree to be tame, they are there all the way. I’ve had dogs that were so completely willing. That would turn themselve inside0ut if asked…but not that many horses. These guys are all like that (mine are anyway)
