The breeders say it is ‘close to perfection’. To me its face looks more like that of a seahorse or the victim of a severe beating with a metal pole. They shoot horses to put them out of their misery, but perhaps they should shoot the breeders.
http://orrionfarms.com/our-horses/el-rey-magnum-rcf - warning: linked page has auto-start video embedded.
My first impression is that somebody took a picture of a real horse and then photoshopped it to look like a seahorse.
WTF! :eek:
Whoa! Someone cross-bred a horse with a malnourished duck?
I’m reminded of Errol, the Swamp-Dragon, from Pratchett’s Guards,Guards. The excuse there is that the nose serves as a jet air intake. Maybe it’s the same for really speedy horses?
But yes, that is the ugliest horse I’ve ever seen, and a sign that inbreeding isn’t justbad for humans.
Great. Someone has now done for horses what idiot breeders have done for dogs - bred an intentionally deformed animal. I feel bad for the horse.
google “Damascus goat” or “Damascene goat.”
Have you ever heard the joke - why does a gorilla have big nostrils?
Answer: because a gorilla has big fingers.
That horse could pick his own nose.
He should have picked a better one.
They way the photos focus on those nostrils, it’s like we are all missing something that horse people may think is highly sought. To me it looks ridiculous, but perhaps a Doper horse person can explain.
I’ve seen them in person; they look just as strange in real life. But some of that could be because they are so unusual. I have an image in my brain of what a horse should look like from all the movies and television I’ve seen and like some of the Mongolian ponies and mini-horse breeds they just don’t fit that image.
I’m not a horse person at all, but to me that horse looks dangerously skinny. Is it a foal? I thought horses were meant to at least carry a rider if not perform even heavier duty work. This one looks like it would blow away in the wind, but its back might break if you tried to hold it down with a paperweight.
Is it supposed to be an indoor pet? A lap horse? Despite the huge nostrils, something about the way its nose turns up gives it a “cute” look, which I guess is what the breeders were going for? But still. Count me in as baffled. But I don’t understand pugs either.
Not much positivity coming from the horsey cementers on this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/arabhorse/photos/a.155914210224.144022.79084790224/10155520631290225/?type=3&theater
Indubitably!
Arabian horses - which is the designation claimed for this poor creature - have historically been light-boned (for a horse), a bit thin, and with a “dished” forehead as opposed to a “Roman nose” sort of skull.
This horse has those features exaggerated to the point of being a caricature of an Arabian horse.
Basically, like some dog breeds have had their key feature exaggerated to the point of crippling the animal, in this case the horse has had the same done. Problem is, at a certain point it becomes useless for most reasons horses have been bred, and it’s a bit big to be a “lap horse” or pet like some of the miniature horses.
Also, with that skull shape I have to wonder if the poor thing has eating or breathing difficulties.
Looks like it has down syndrome.
Brings to mind a moment from Bone Tomahawk, a great but overlooked western/horror movie with Kurt Russell. Russell and his companions are about to mount up, when he looks at the ride of one of his companions, and says, in a tone that only Kurt Russell has, “That is not a handsome horse.”
I believe it is a foal, which adds to the odd look. Some lines do breed for ridiculously dished faces (like this one). Somewhere, unfortunately, someone will pay a lot of money for it.
It is f’in hideous, as I wrote on the FB page. I’m a horse person who has never cared for Arabs. I don’t care for their looks or their magikal manes and tails. This poor foal is truly hideous. I pity the Arab horse if this becomes the new breed standard.
Yeah, it looks like a foal, so I’m wondering if the breeders are projecting what it’s going to look like fully grown. Hopefully different, because that’s not a good looking horse IMO. It’s not hideous, but just doesn’t look “right”.
And I fully agree with Broomstick, above, about how some dogs breeds should be considered animal cruelty.
