On Tue, Mar 27, 2007 at 08:44:22PM -0000, Judy Ryder wrote: > Sounds similar to the icelandic marketspeak :) Lots of the same > qualities are noted. > > Both breeds, Icelandics and Haflingers, were brought to the US around > the same period of time. Haflingers now have over 17,000 registered > in the US and Icelandics have 1800 registered. > > So why the big difference in numbers?
i can think of two reasons: one, the haflingers are a little bigger and (being all palomino, more or less) more recognizabale, and they don't have anything as strange about them as the tolt. germany and its customs are much closer to america than iceland's, and (at least here in the northeast) driving is far, far more popular than gaited horses. do you know what regions of the us represent the differences? i might note that i looked into the haflinger market a few years ago (before my experience with little miss buck) and found that it had gone the way of "backyard breeding" and "big sales out west". i went up to maine to visit one horse, who had already been sold but was part of a (very nice-seeming) backyard breeding operation. that fellow sent me down the street to see a guy with two more haffies, both i think 4 year olds, neither one yet cantering under saddle (if at all; with their carriage-horse backgrounds they don't all canter, i gather), and the guy seemed quite resigned when i said they weren't quite what i was looking for. he said five years earlier he'd have had $10k each. he was hoping to pick up some taller youngsters at "the sales". (notwithstanding that their lack of training, not lack of height, was my reason for not wanting those geldings...) just one person's anecdotes, --vicka ps. i thought of something else: no fear of sweet itch.
