Tapp's Travels: Cape Premier Yearling Sale

re: Tapp's Travels: Cape Premier Yearling Sale

Ian Tapp — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 13:43:31 GMT

Thanks, sceptre. This was by no means a tour-de-force in equine photography. The Var filly is a bad photo. I had the camera (my iPhone) too high and it makes her look like she has a huge head and neck. She does have a nice long neck, but she looks more balanced in real life.

The Tapit had some quality about him for sure, but he was quite short and had a rough walk. I think a lot of it was immaturity, so he's one that could improve a lot.

I agree about the Silvano- a beautiful colt. He didn't have quite the presence or athleticism of the Western Winter but was impressive nonetheless.

Next time I'll try to take short walking videos to give a better representation of the yearlings.

re: Tapp's Travels: Cape Premier Yearling Sale

sceptre — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 22:58:17 GMT

Hi Ian,

It's been a while, but how nice for you that trip to S. Africa. Your report was interesting, and the photos appreciated. Speaking about those photos, allow a few comments:

Pictures (of horses) are often quite deceptive-the "in person" view/take can be quite different from the impression one gets from a photo alone. That said, I've often found it instructive to view several photos a day or so after seeing the horse in person. Re- your photos; it's pretty difficult to get an accurate feel of their looks. This is not meant as criticism, since you're at the mercy of the handlers, and no doubt the shots must be taken quickly. You say your favorite was the VAR filly, and I'm sure she looked far better than what is portrayed in her photo. The photo has her quite long/big-headed relative to her neck, etc. Even though her fore and hind limbs are in the same (photo) plane, I'm quite sure that we're seeing distortion-probably due to your position when taking the shot. But, because her front and hind legs appear to be in the same plane, one could easily (but mistakenly) assume that we're seeing an accurate likeness. -Some of your other photos are totally out of plane, which interestingly may allow us to form a more accurate/true take on the horse...The Tapit (from your photo) actually appears rather good to me. Here again he's fairly close to plane (legs-wise) albeit a bit closer in his hind end. He went rather inexpensively, so my guess is that your photo does him MORE than justice. To my eye, the Silvano looks best of all- and it's a fairly decent shot. I say all this to be instructive to others. Photos are often very deceiving. That's why Tony Leonard received such high praise-he generally gave you a photo that accurately depicted the true horse. It's worth looking back at his conformation shots to inform on how the horse should be positioned--for accuracy.

re: Tapp's Travels: Cape Premier Yearling Sale

Fred and Joan — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 16:12:27 GMT

We enjoyed viewing these sale horses from a completely different area of the world. The descriptions of the horses were informative and we enjoyed seeing the conformation differences. It is too bad we could not see them move at the walk and trot as one can learn a lot about a horses potential through its movement.