I saw a flier for $4K saddle: “just needs a clean up to be just like new!”
Similar to the palomino: how 'bout a good scrub, marketing geniuses?
[QUOTE=Hippolyta;7347121]
I saw a flier for $4K saddle: “just needs a clean up to be just like new!”
Similar to the palomino: how 'bout a good scrub, marketing geniuses?[/QUOTE]
They’d have to take off the blanket to do that! 
I find it very annoying that so many of the ads don’t give a full address/location. I know if you are shipping semen it’s not a big deal, but a location would be nice to see how nearby a stallion might be. Also, most jumping stallion have virtually no movement without the jumping – rarely much trot footage. I think alot of folks want to see the movement as well as the jumping. I know it’s difficult to put everything on a page, but the essentials should be there.
PennyG
[QUOTE=litehold;7341294]
Kerole - Oh yes, the tilt! Arrrrggggh. The problem is, that I keep seeing it in photos of the nicer stallions! I’m looking at stallions right now for the coming breeding season, and it is just so frustrating that I run across these issues so often. Several of the nicer stallions from prestigious farms do this. Don’t they realize that their potential customers are more savvy than that, and it just frustrates people no end?
Yes, it does make me suspicious too![/QUOTE]
Even with the stallions in Europe -and pics from high end Euro auctions - either the photos are tilted or the landscape is all on a hill! I’ve even seen the VIDEO tilted -they run the horse on a straight line and the video is tilted up. It isn’t just a North American thing.
Having said that, sometimes there is varying ground in the background, and sometimes the angle of the shot makes things look tilted when it isn’t. Photography can be tricky.
FHOTD made years of snark over bad photos!
Maybe we should just embrace it & pose everyone like this. This is how it is done with dairy cattle
http://www.twgltd.com/Pictures/203JE00452BullB.jpg
.
[QUOTE=Hippolyta;7348010]
Maybe we should just embrace it & pose everyone like this. This is how it is done with dairy cattle
http://www.twgltd.com/Pictures/203JE00452BullB.jpg
.[/QUOTE]
Oh,that is classic! Standing on a pile of POOP!
On horses who are standing uphill, just take straght edge (an envelope or something) and place it from the elbow to the stifle. Then take another straight edge and run it along the hill on which the horse is standing. If the 2 lines are parallel, then so is the horse. If the 2 lines get wider towards the head, the horse is uphill. and vice versa for downhill.
Admittedly this method is not 100% – but it is close enough to make/refute a judgment.
Try it on a horse with great conformation which is stood on level ground and you will see how accurate it is. (probably about 90%)
Another pet peeve:
A horses age:
A foal from birth to weaning = suckling
From Weanling to 12/31 = weanling
From Jan 1 to 12/31 of the next year = yeariling
From 1/ 1 - 12/31 of the next year = 2 year old and/or a colt/filly
From 1/1 - 12/31 = 3 year old and/or a colt/filly.
From 1/1 - 12/31 of the next year it is still proper to call the horse a 4 year old and/or a colt/filly, but in racing, 90% of people just call it a 4 year old
Over 4, a male horse becomes a stallion/gelding and a female horse is a mare.
Using correct terminology tells the speaker exactly how old the horse is.
Ha Ha! Those are my peeves as well!
I think the QH and paint industry takes the cake for photoshopping tho. I cannot stand it when the put they stallion in a mountainous range or waterfall background, and the hooves are either covered in grass, or they’ve done such a crappy job of ‘trimming’ the actual picture of the hooves, they look more tinier than they actually are, or are very mishapen.
Or the the photoshopping of the colour in the picture. I don’t recall ever seeing electric green grass anywhere!
Or actually photoshopping a big, thick lushious mane and tail on a yearling! There is/was a QH/Paint farm out there that shopped huge manes and tails on everything(even forelocks)! And the worst part was, was that it was so obvious. I actually thought it was a joke at first. Nope.
The poster above who mentioned the video of the photoshopped stallion is unreal!. I believe it was an arabian, and the creator wanted to show just how much you can manipulate a picture. The said stallion went from, decent to wow!
It reminds me of all the photshopping done on models in magazines. You end up with someone who looks very different from the original photo.
eta: I just tried searching for the video but could not find it…anyone want to take a stab at it? It’s totally worth it.
Something to the effect of: How to change conformation in under three minutes. I believe it was a chestnut arab.
Oh and just remembered!!! Arghh! this is the worst for me…SLOW MOTION! I don’t mind a little bit in the video, or over a jump(for ONE jump) but when the whole bloody vid is of your horse trotting in slo mo it drives me bonkers!! Your horse does not trot in slo mo in real life all the time, so please don’t give me a four minute video of it! Gah!:lol:
Couldn’t agree more re slow motion video. I cannot judge the way the horse goes in slo mo. It’s frustrating to see how often people stick slo mo bits in their promo vids.
Along the lines of correct terminology - if you stand a stallion or breed – LEARN IT!~ It’s “confOrmation” not “confIrmation” and it’s “BY” a stallion NOT “out of” - that’s the mare’s work. It’s surprising how many people who have been in the business forever, have it wrong on their websites or otherwise. Drives me nuts!!
PennyG
[QUOTE=MysticOakRanch;7350446]
Oh,that is classic! Standing on a pile of POOP![/QUOTE]
It’s a pile of dirt covered with hay or grass clippings
http://www.accelgen.com/bull-photo/014/medium/014ho06033p-slo%20train-massive-3373.jpg
[QUOTE=Lord Helpus;7350563]
Another pet peeve:
A horses age:
A foal from birth to weaning = suckling
From Weanling to 12/31 = weanling
From Jan 1 to 12/31 of the next year = yeariling
From 1/ 1 - 12/31 of the next year = 2 year old and/or a colt/filly
From 1/1 - 12/31 = 3 year old and/or a colt/filly.
From 1/1 - 12/31 of the next year it is still proper to call the horse a 4 year old and/or a colt/filly, but in racing, 90% of people just call it a 4 year old
Over 4, a male horse becomes a stallion/gelding and a female horse is a mare.
Using correct terminology tells the speaker exactly how old the horse is.[/QUOTE]
At least with TBs they are fillies or colts until they turn five, not four. They are geldings as soon as the nuts come off regardless of their age.
Boots/bandages are another thing that annoys the bejeezus out of me. Confo shots with things on the legs. Don’t mind so much if it’s a shot or footage of the horse working, although some of these really bulky bell boots makes it hard to see how the hoof looks in flight.
My pet peeve when looking at videos of dressage young-stock - they only show trot and the horse stood up. No walk or canter - which is far more important than the trot!
Here is the video of photoshopping a horse in less than 3 minutes:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151596398696355&set=vb.463312903704754&type=2&theater
Since I posted that link above, I thought I’d show you another example of how easy this is. I went online and found the worst photo of a horse I could find. I then opened Photoshop and in less than 2 minutes I completely changed the horse. I recorded the entire thing so you can see how it was done.
The only thing I did before I started recording (just to save time) was to find a photo of a horse with a black tail and I selected that tail and saved it as a mask. So, in the video you will see me go to another photo and drag that tail to the other horse.
Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKwkpdbyc5I
Now if I could do this much in 2 minutes to THAT horse, just imagine what a professional Photoshopper or a dedicated amateur could do to ANY horse with a little care? Note that I didn’t bother cleaning up the tell-tale signs of photoshopping like uneven barn lines, etc, but that would have only added a couple more minutes to the whole thing.
Holy crap.
Was there a way to make the horse less sickle-hocked (and fix the “standing under himself” thing? ;), maybe raise the base of his neck? Of course the second someone saw this horse in person, they would immediately say: “WTF?!?!” Not that anyone would actually go to see this poor animal in person, poor swaybacked thing.
Still…even subtle changes can wind up being a HUGE misrepresentation! Yikes.
Thought I’d find a photo of a warmblood type that had some topline and neck issues and a long body - and see what I could do in less than 2 minutes. Didn’t make a video, but here is the before/after photos
