Looks like someone posted a link back to this blog on our facebook page. So I went, rather suddenly, from getting about a dozen hits a day to hundreds and hundreds. I had visitors from Argentina yesterday. Usually my most International audience is Canada. Not that Canada isn’t AWESOME (it totally is. I LOVE CANADIANS!!!) but getting hits from across the ocean, and from another continent is pretty ego-boosting. It’s gratifying, but now I feel some pressure. Like, I am DUTY BOUND to find you more pretty thoroughbreds who are awesome even though they might have been overlooked due to the realities of track photography. The problem is, we don’t really get a lot of updates about horses that have sold off our track listings. Finding them is often just sheer dumb luck, being on the right horse forum at the right time when someone asks for a pedigree review, or just happening to be at a local event and recognizing a name.
So while I troll the internetz to find more horses to bring you, I thought I’d go back to one I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before here (pretty sure – but now I can’t find the blog entry, which is alarming given my general competency at finding-things-online).
Here is the photo we took of a chestnut mare named Isabella G:
Here’s the thing. It is clear to me, and probably to a lot of people, that the above mare is actually very, very nice. Strong, smooth back and loin, long pelvis, beautiful build and harmony in her proportions. But if you only glance at this photo (especially the small thumbnail sized one that you see on our main listings page), the quality might easily escape your notice. She is standing on the dreaded drainage slope, so she looks downhill. We’re on the wrong side of the sun, making her backlit and making it hard to see details. She’s in the process of shifting her weight, and her right front is not fully weighted, making something look just a little funny about her knee and ankle. Her back legs are a little too beneath her, like she is about to back up. So it’s easy, when skimming, to miss details like that beautiful shoulder, so well suited for jumping.
Looking at track pictures is definitely a developed skill 🙂 You have to sort of tilt the earth, look at the parts individually, then put them back together in your head. But mostly, you just have to give it more than the nanosecond it takes to process whether the thumbnail looks nice or not.
Catherine, Isabella G’s new owner, posted some newer pictures on the bloodline brag since I last looked, and her quality is just a little more apparent here.
She’s definitely more mature, with different muscles than a racehorse, and a more substantial overall look, but the parts are the same 🙂
And clearly, the girl can perform!
Can’t jump at all, can she?
Just… OMG. *want*
Photos by Shawn McMillen Photography
CANTER Mid Atlantic's Calabria Rose 
These have been really fun to read. Thanks for your efforts.
She is stunning! Looks like she’s loving her new job!