If the “BEST” jumping photo shows your horse hanging a knee SOOOOO badly that I am left to wonder how you both didn’t end with a rotational fall, maybe you shouldn’t use that photo.
Sorry…but no one else in my household would be able to commiserate.
You may continue with your regularly scheduled program.
On a happier note…how many more days until roading hounds?
Hmmm. I’d be interested in seeing such a picture, having trouble visualizing. By which I mean I’ve hunted horses for decades with ‘relaxed’ knees, not tight, knee snapping show hunter form, but they bent 'em just enough to clear the fence, saving the extra energy for the next however many fences and miles.
I hear you. We all have pics that make you wonder why anyone would have paid money for said beast, but as a sales pic? And a less than classic form regularly over smaller stuff might mean you aren’t going to end up upside down but I’ll take a snappy set of kneesies any day. Would be a deal breaker for me.
The problem I suspect most people have selling hunt horses is a lack of action shots to choose from.
Every season I have a fresh batch of photos hanging around at the meet and heading for the first cover, but neither friends or professionals find it that rewarding to hang out in the woods all day hoping that their ears and knowledge of the country will let them get ahead of the field (while being sure they are not crossing a line) so they can try to get a dramatic action picture.
If I was selling a hunt horse, and had one action photo I’d consider using it even if it was imperfect. Proving that a horse hunts is far more important to me as a buyer than proving that by sitting next to an arena for an unknown number of days there was one split second where it looked like the horse had good form.
I believe in this case the problem was the action shot itself, which revealed a horse one might not want to be sitting on over a fence.
If you are going to ask $15,000 for said beast, his knees better snap 95% of the time and I would hope you’d pay someone to take a few photos of it doing so.
This horse, from the knees down was perfectly perpendicular (both legs equally) to the ground. It was as if the horse forgot to fold up the landing gear.
I’d post the photo, but that would be most embarrassing to the seller.
I’m curious too, because while perhaps the choice of using that particular picture wasn’t so great, the particular jump itself may have been in that 5% of times the horse doesn’t feel the need to really exert himself.
I pulled these off of Google:
This while not being the most attractive jump, isn’t awful. Jump is low, horse’s forearms are vertical, he’s getting it done. Not snappy and tight by any means, but getting it done.
This is not something I’d want to go over a fence with…
This is pretty sketchy, too…and this horse is obviously being competed at a decently high level…
My point is that without seeing the horse in person, hard to say if the pic is a fluke or a good indicator of the horse’s jump on a regular basis.
Yikes, the second picture is very scary! The last one isn’t that bad. The knees are even and while not snapping up they aren’t hanging. I always wonder about any sales picture that doesn’t present the horse to the best advantage.
First link isn’t working 
The second picture looks like the horse got really deep to the oxer and is making the best of it.
The third picture is at Rolex (Can’t think who that rider is, but I recognize her) and again it looks like he got too close to the vertical. I’ll excuse a horse for not being super sharp to every fence at the end of a 4* weekend 
The third horse is equipped with a bit burr, which would make me wonder about the horse’s ability to steer…lol. Actually, I didn’t think they were legal for eventing at all.
[QUOTE=Beverley;7623531]
I believe in this case the problem was the action shot itself, which revealed a horse one might not want to be sitting on over a fence.[/QUOTE]
My mistake. I mistakenly thought it was a genuine comment on the general state of photos of hunt horses for sale.
If I’d know in advance that it was a bunch of middle aged women reliving their days as middle schoolers by tearing apart a specific person’s sale ad I’d have stayed out of it.
[QUOTE=tangledweb;7626353]
If I’d know in advance that it was a bunch of middle aged women reliving their days as middle schoolers by tearing apart a specific person’s sale ad I’d have stayed out of it.[/QUOTE]
Wowsers. What it was was, just like the title of the thread stated, a rant. Personally, I wasn’t tearing apart an individual’s ad (since you’ll notice it wasn’t posted) so much as thinking PSA for newer foxhunters looking to purchase a safe horse. I observed as did others that I’m not that fussy about show ring form in the hunt field, but as the OP noted, when you see front legs in that position, in an ad which one would assume is intended to show the horse at its best, then I personally would question whether the seller even knows safe jumping from not. And if I were in the market for a horse, I’d be viewing the money invested in the horse as money not needed for hospital bills when riding said horse.
I’ve seen some fox hunting pictures where the horse’s are in pretty bad form -and with some riders in hunts if a horse jumped too well it could very well jump the rider out of the tack… though I have to agree, if you’re going to put a photo in an ad use a photo that presents the horse at its best; not mediocre.
Oh, no question, as the saying goes if you go watch foxhunting you might not want to try it! Mostly in my experience though, the ugly jumps are either the horse saving the rider, or a fence so small that the horse doesn’t know whether to jump it or just canter over. I agree about too much action, I’ve never liked to hunt one that really snaps back and knees for precisely the reason you state.
[QUOTE=jawa;7623770]
If you are going to ask $15,000 for said beast, his knees better snap 95% of the time and I would hope you’d pay someone to take a few photos of it doing so.
This horse, from the knees down was perfectly perpendicular (both legs equally) to the ground. It was as if the horse forgot to fold up the landing gear.
I’d post the photo, but that would be most embarrassing to the seller.[/QUOTE]
I had a horse like that - that’s why I stopped jumping her and we just did trail. My trainer said shed make a nice childrens hunter but it worried me too much to pursue that angle. That and she was a hot hot Arab.
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