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)
The manufacturers certainly make questionable choices around color (especially in the bad old days) and real talk - we know that there are many horses that phenotypically appear similar despite different genotypical recipes to get there. We know there are chestnuts that pass for palomino and silvers that pass for chestnut and chestnuts that pass for silver and horses that are “obviously” sabino that don’t carry that gene. The only way to be sure for many real horses is to test, and we can’t test the models. If it’s plausible, I’m fine with it, and if it’s questionable, a reference is a good plan.
In addition, factory models often have individual variation that may make the difference in whether their original color designation fits the particular model in question.