The OP asks if she should pass or pursue this horse.
I brought up Nautilus because for almost 2 pages posters are suggesting the horse has a medical issue. I suggested that perhaps this is just one natural horse’s way of going…and oh, BTW…here is a famous example of a horse that does somthing similar, eg., Nautilus.
I also said perhaps this is not the horse for the OP.
OP asked for an opinion, I gave my opinion. It is worth exactly what she paid for it.
See, I thought of Strapless! [ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“title”:“59860cb63613bd89dd18a2d12b037fef.jpg”,“data-attachmentid”:10749974}[/ATTACH]
I learned something. Here is a 2015 COTH article on Strapless
https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/tbt-when-strapless-galloped
And video of Strapless on a AHJF course in Palm Beach
[video=youtube_share;Me1cRrnTHx8]https://youtu.be/Me1cRrnTHx8[/video]
I think this much is clear— if you want the horse for the hunters, Pass! There’s so many amazing American bred hunter prospects, why import (yet another) one of the European’s duds.
However, if your in love with the guy, would you consider a discipline change to the jumpers? Because if the swishing isn’t pain related, those classes are probably much more suitable for him in terms of judging.
Best of luck finding a suitable partner!
What bothers me about the image of the tail you’re showing is that it’s convex curving up instead of concave curving down. I don’t mind a horse that likes to carry its tail a bit, but aside from a full Arabian flagging tail, a convex up tail suggests tension in the spine. I have a horse that does this when she’s excited, and you can tell it’s a bad idea to get on her until it relaxes back downward. For a horse that does this all the time suggests something odd somewhere. I can see taking a chance on a jumper if everything else was perfect but not on a hunter or a dressage horse.
I understand the context of your post better now. Gotcha
I saw Strapless go a couple times at the end of her career and I wouldn’t say she carried it like the OP is describing she did lift it over fences but she also jumped like an absolute freak, a total freak. So I think that weighted out any small business of tail lifting. And I don’t recall her flagging it all the way around
Right but the point I’m trying to make here is that a successful athletic career isn’t enough for me to believe that the tail swishing isn’t pain related. I don’t care if it’s a horse at a local gymkhana or at the olympics. We know that horses are able to work through the pain and do their jobs anyway.
Strapless didn’t carry her tail out straight like OP’s potential horse. It was lifted some, sure, but it had a natural curve to it. I also agree that her jumping form overall greatly outweighed what her tail did over fences. Then again, few horses could gallop around these days like Strapless did and get those scores, if we want to get really nit picky about hunter judging.
You do realize that American bred warmblood ANYTHING wouldn’t exist but for the European breeders that have spent all of the time, energy, money, and generational commitment to refinement of the sport horse, right? Quite frankly the American breeding model is broken due to a variety of reasons, but they simply don’t generate the quality of horse that the Europeans do. I have bought American, I have bought Canadian, I have bought overseas. Each horse was the best one I could find for my relatively small budget. I would buy an American horse again, but the nice ones are few and far between as compared to our European counterparts.
Thank you to everyone who said to research the siblings/lines. It was quite a fascinating experience.
The tail carriage appears in the sire line very strongly.
And it even appears further back. If you want to get an idea of what this horse does with its tail, basically his entire sire line does the same thing. Also, every baby that I could find in that line also has the same tail. That’s not to say that its appropriate for the hunters, but absolutely fascinating to me. I honestly haven’t decided what I’m going to do yet, as the horse is super in many other ways, but the tail is a big detraction. Would he be forgiven for his tail with his amazing front end, way of going, and look? Not sure. But for all of you who took the time to respond, I appreciate your input greatly. Lots to chew on.
Thank you! That is super interesting. Thanks for digging that up.
that is so cool! I have to say as a Hunter judge I can overlook that type of tail if it’s not swishing or wringing. But yah, it will have to do all the other things right 😆
Fascinating. He certainly comes from a long line of horizontal tail holders.
Interesting sometimes how strong the genes are. 
To me, this is the most fascinating part about shopping European bred horses. I will say I owned a very “old style” tail holder type, and while he held it just like his pretty premium registered momma did, he wound up having some major SI problems too. It’s hard to say without seeing the whole horse how much of a distraction it is and whether he also moves it in a way that can be considered to show tension or lack of submission. I don’t think a fake tail will do much to change the movement, but it might help make the tail not look shortened so much due to the way he carries it. But please be sure you tie it in well if you go that route–I think I hate worse seeing the 2-part tail flying around!
Very interesting.
Interesting that the oldest video the horse has a flatter croup which is what I associate with a flagged tail, younger generations seem to have lost the flat croup but kept the flagged tail. Not following my pet theory that the angle of the croup makes it more comfortable for some horses to flag their tails when moving and/or more difficult for others.
My theory is that the angle a tail hangs at with a flat croup causes more tail/butt chafing so horses with a flat croup learn to keep their tail up out of the way.
Very interesting. Before seeing the vids you recently posted I would have said no. However after watching the vids of his sire-great grand sire, and knowing you like him so much. I’ll be the odd woman out and say go for it.
Surprised no one has suggested testing for EPM yet. A lot of the horses I have seen that were truly positive for it had some odd tail action going on.
A weighted tail makes it difficult for the horse to hold the tail out or up. Tails go from 1/2 pound to 2 pounds, I think. The AQHA horses all use them because a very still, flat tail is highly desirable. It only took 1/2 a pound fake for my horse to hold his tail naturally. His normal go was very similar to the OP’s prospect.
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