Recently there have been a couple of interesting discussions around declaring color when photo showing models. In one case a judge claimed that a shower couldn’t declare a color on an OF plastic model other than what Breyer had declared; in another the judge insisted that a Fjord color designation had to use the Fjord registry specific terms (and curiously, the English translation of those terms, not the original Norwegian).
So here are my questions for discussion:
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Should we require color next to breed and gender at all? And if so, how specific should that color be? (IE: “chestnut” or “flaxen chestnut sabino rabicano”?)
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Does it matter to you if a shower chooses a different label for a model’s color than the manufacturer or original artist did?
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Does it matter to you if the color matches the label that the registry would apply/require? (Chestnut vs sorrel, grulla vs grey dun or grå)
I really dislike having to declare a color because as we’ve seen some judges get persnickety about color designations. It gets really hairy with mules because those patterns get WEIRD and I once almost got DQed for misnaming a donkey spotting pattern. I don’t think it really adds anything to require color designations, though I’m aware of a couple shows that do it. If it’s a rare/unusual color then provide some documentation that it exists in the breed.