This message is from: Vivian Creigh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Finn Casperson is the CEO of the Beneficial Corporation also the man responsible for hosting the World's Pair Championship at Gladstone and was the man who was going to host the singles Championship until it was cancelled due to the threat of West Nile. Basically the "driving" force behind Gladstone Equestrian Association
Finn is of Norwegian heritage and Bill Long who worked for Finn actually drove Fjords for Finn many years ago pre WB and Royal Windsor days. Finn crossed his Fjords with Arabs because I believe he thought the Arabs would lighten up the Fjords and give them a bit more suspension. He didn't do this cross breeding in secret and I doubt whether any of these horses went on to be used as breeding stock, but as the Fjord is a very prepotent and distinctive breed of horse the resulting ponies were all very Fjord like, but unfortunately the ones I saw were neither lighter nor better movers. They were however very functional ponies and one was still being competed in CDES as recently as 4 or 5 years ago in Florida. By the way they had really unattractive heads, not at all arab like. Rather heavy and coarse. Finn is usually in the awards ring at Gladstone and has always been very happy and complimentary of my Fjords when I win there. Milton Long said that he grew up with a whole mess of Fjords in Finn's barn. Whether they were mostly pure or crosses I wouldn't know and Milton was probably too young to care as this was 20 years ago. Anyway I wouldn't worry too much about these Fjords tainting the North American gene pool. The one thing that probably came as a result of Finn's crosses is that people who saw them realized that they weren't a huge improvement on either breed. Vivian Creigh
