Horse Of A Different Colour At Crescent Beach

TINY HOOFLESS HORSES with curly tails are sometimes known as Horse Caterpillars when translating the word Hippocampus from Latin as it relates to small fish. I remember seeing seahorses live at the Vancouver Aquarium years ago. Someone posted a video of this unique sea creature HERE.

Petite seahorses spark our imaginations and are often replicated for decoration. They are so cute they sometimes look cartoonish to humans who are their number one threat. Pollution and catching them by the millions yearly, particularly in Asia where their dried bodies are considered cures for various ailments, cuts their numbers down drastically.

The seahorses I see during my walks at Crescent Beach are usually far bigger than the real thing, which ranges from under an inch to just over a foot long. The statuesque stone seahorse (above) is on a pillar at a gate.

This seahorse with a greenish eye lends playfulness to the rust coloured gate.

This large version (above) is one of several similarly painted carvings located by the swimming pool at Crescent Beach. Two tiny ones are on the sign below.

The Seahorse Grill has a seahorse in the widow. Here is a closer look below.

A black painted seahorse (below) hangs over a pot of geraniums.

Most often seahorses are painted bluish-green like the three inch one tacked to the fence below. I am not certain of the true colours of the sea creature as they tend to match their surroundings and can look yellow to vibrant red.

The seahorse below is also pictured at the top of this post. On a different day from a different perspective the colour changed from white to pale gray.

I like the metal gray one (below) welded to the reeds.

There are three small woodcarvings of seahorses to find amid the fish below.

Someone even injected seahorses into Crescent Beach scenes and then tacked the printed pictures onto poles ... perhaps for a treasure hunt.

Live seahorses are a treasure, indeed, but the hunt for them is not a game. Uniquely designed so that the male gives birth to future generations from its mini frontal pouch, these "horses of a different colour" deserve to survive.

The fact that they barely seem real adds to their wide appeal. There is something otherworldly, waiflike and magical about seahorses. Their adorable snouts, miniature horse-like heads and flowing flexible tails seem more suited to a mermaid's tale than a nonfictional world.

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