Sable

The marks

• Top: in the top third of the sire horns on record for this species.
• Strong: the middle third.
• Good: the lower third, or no tape to place it.
• Gray horn: pedigreed, but too few sire horns on record to split the species into tiers.

What places it

• A female: her sire's horn, else the bull she is bred to.
• A male by his age: young, his sire; still growing, his projected horn blended with his sire's; grown, his own horn, plus a little for a longer sire.
• Tap the tier for the numbers.

Young animals

• Horns keep growing for years, to about: 4 blackbuck, gazelles, impala · 5 nyala · 6 buffalo · 7 sheep and goats. Deer antlers grow until about 5½ (red stag 8).
• Sable, roan and oryx grow fast to about 4, then keep adding about 1″ every 18 months for life, so every bull is compared at 6: a younger bull is projected up to 6, an older one (age written with the tape) down to 6.
• Kudu, bongo and eland grow fast to about 6, then keep adding about 1″ every 4 months until 8, so a bull under 8 is projected up to 8; from 8 his tape is final.
• If the notes give his age, we work out his full length: measured length ÷ how much he has grown so far.
• It never goes past the longest horn sold for that species, and the steps are shown so you can check them.
• A young animal is priced by the longer of that and his sire's horn.

Price estimate

• We find the animals most like this one that sold at auction: same species and sex, similar horn or sire, age, and bred or not.
• The estimate is the middle of what they brought.
• Recent sales count most: a sale a year old counts half.
• For an auction lot we only use sales made before it.
• Prices vary a lot: 8 in 10 animals sell inside the range shown, and more than half within 25% of the estimate.
• Premium catalog sales often bring more; charity lots include a donation.
• Tap "See the sales used" to check them.