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All about horses in northern B.C. Issue # 114: February 19, 2002 Published each Tuesday by Kristi McCrindle, editor, Southbank, BC Elly and I have been working a bit on marketing this past couple of months, and together we make a pretty good team. ST Training Stables sells warmbloods - jumpers and dressage horses - while I specialize in western horses, but marketing skills are important no matter which market you aim for! We have rediscovered the importance of video footage, and we are working on developing more readily available footage to be used for prospective buyers. Having a tape ready when a buyer calls or emails is far better business than telling them you might be able to dig something up! Both of us agree that using a picture is worth a thousand words - and if it is a bad picture, it is worth a thousand bad words! Better to tell the prospective buyer that you have no pictures at all than send them bad ones - on the other hand, you SHOULD have some good pictures to show them! Would you travel several provinces or states away to purchase a horse, sight unseen? Or would you rather look at pictures, then request a video, and then make your travel arrangements? The most important marketing tool we have discovered is to put yourself in the other person's shoes. What I mean is this - ask yourself the questions from the other person's point of view, in regards to that particular horse. If you are selling, ask yourself if you would be interested in paying the price you have set for your horse. Be honest! You may think your horse is the best in the world and set a price of $5000, but in reality, comparably trained and similar horses are selling for $3000 - chances are you won't sell at that price. Same goes for any sort of dealings, especially in regards to monetary transactions. If you ask for a deposit on the horse, or for the buyer to pay for the vet check, or anything else like that, ask yourself if it is a fair thing to ask - and how you would react if you were in the buyer's shoes. photo courtesy Chris Hassell If you are buying and expect certain things to be done for you (for instance, export papers, Coggins test, video footage, etc) ask yourself if the seller really ought to have to cover all those costs - when he is at the risk of losing the sale at any time if you back out. Suddenly a deposit seems much more fair! With so much buying and selling being done these days, you will want to include some written contracts with anything that changes hands. Just some rambling thoughts this week to get you thinking before you advertise your horse for sale this spring... Till next week, ~ Kristi :) email to editor: kristi@hiway16.com Meet Kelly MacCauley on the Photo page Photo Show for horse photos Horse articles (word search: horse) Check our Horse Trailer Sharing Page or... add your listing if you wish to share your horse trailer ride Join us for a discussion about everything to do with horses on Horse Talk Your opportunity to meet horse enthusiasts across northern B.C

	Past articles are all available in the
End of the Line - Poem		Colour genetics 101 Part 9 - Pinto genes - intro and tobiano
Don't Cry for the Horses - by Brenda Riley-Seymore Don't cry for the horses That life has set free A million white horses Forever to be Don't cry for the horses Now in God's hands As they dance and they prance To a heavenly band They were ours as a gift But never to keep As they close their eyes Forever to sleep Their spirits unbound On silver wings they fly A million white horses Against the blue sky Don't cry for the horses They will be back someday When our time has come They will show us the way On silver wings they will lift us To the warmth of the sun When our life is over And eternity has begun We will jump the sun And dance over the moon A Ballet of horses and riders on the winds to a heavenly tune Do you hear that soft nicker Close to your hear? Don't cry for the horses Love the ones that are here Don't cry for the horses Lift up your sad eyes Can't you see them As they fly by? Look up into heaven You'll see them above The horses we lost The horses we loved Manes and tails flowing They Gallop through time They were never yours They were never mine They Gallop through time They were never yours They were never mine Don't cry for the horses They will be back someday When our time has come They will show us the way On silver wings they will lift us To the warmth of the sun When our life is over And eternity has begun We will jump the sun And dance over the moon A Ballet of horses and riders on the winds to a heavenly tune Do you hear that soft nicker Close to your hear? Don't cry for the horses Love the ones that are here Don't cry for the horses Lift up your sad eyes Can't you see them As they fly by? A million white horses Free from hunger and pain Their spirits set free Until we ride again	Northern B.C. Horse is brought to you courtesy of our advertisers including: Burns Lake Building Supplies Griffin Enterprises Hoskins Ford Northern Horse Supply Ridennoure Paint Horses The Tack Store Thanks to our advertisers for making this all possible... ...for information about advertising, email jim@hiway16.com If you are new to Northern B.C. Horse, check out all the previous issues on the Archive page. Kristi is building a great knowledge base about horses, with the emphasis on our area of the world. Western, English, Penning or Trail riding, all equine sports have a voice on Northern B.C. Horse	Wow! The world of pintos - and what a colourful world it can be! You may have heard many different terms in association with pinto patterns, and over the next couple of weeks, I'd like to cover them in some detail for you. Do you remember, as a child, reading horse and pony books? Do you remember reading that a piebald was a pinto that was black and white, and that a skewbald was any other colour and white? Well, those are true, but they were the old English terms for pinto horses, and are not used today much, if at all. In modern times, you will hear words like tobiano, overo, and tovero (or tobovero). You will also come across labels such as frame overo, splash white, and sabino. These all relate to pinto patterns as we know them today. So, let's start at the top. A pinto is a horse that has patches of white and patches of coloured hair (any colour; base coat could be palomino, sorrel, black, grulla, etc). It is the manner of how those patches lay that determines the name of the pattern. The tobiano is the pinto that most of you will recognize from your childhood - the Indian pony on the Lone Ranger show or Bonanza series; the book cover picture on your favourite childhood horse book - those were most likely both tobianos. There are many markings that are typical of a tobiano, though not all tobianos will have them, it is most likely. These include: - a solid coloured head, often with facial markings (much like a solid horse would have) - manes and/or tails with both colours in them - even, smooth looking edges on their patches - white extending over the backbone - four white legs, or at least markings up to the knees/hocks Tobianos can range in pattern from almost solid with just four white legs and a few white hairs in the mane and/or tail to almost white with just a solid-colored face where the colour ends at the throatlatch. This quote comes from the International Registry of Coloured Horses website, found on the internet at http://www.coloredhorses.com /PPnew.html This site is a super source for anyone interested in more information on pinto patterns. Overo, however, is a bit tougher to explain because of the three different overo genes. We'll start on them March 5 after explaining the difference between Paints and pintos next week.
	If you have tips or questions you'd like to share with other local equestrians, please mail them to kristi@hiway16.com

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