"Karen Thomas" [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >>> ... blood testing... many years ago... seemed to nicely explain her >>> results, so I did not then search for supportive studies.
> I assume that you didn't find any studies at all? correct, i didn't find any real studies on Iceys; in fact there were postings from a couple of years ago noting the lack of such. however, there were several reports from individual people telling of their icey's blood work, and their numbers supported your observations that normal Icey blood protein is not out of the normal range for big horses. thanks so much for your interest and information. it is nice when an incorrect rumor can start getting de-bunked. > I've heard some people say we need to find vets with "Icelandic experience" what do those folks do? railer their horse to Kentucky or New York or BC?? > ... what I've found to be a good rule of thumb: Icelandic's are horses first - on management, training, nutrition, healthcare, whatever. while i fully agree on the nutrition and healthcare part, don't you feel that iceys are on the VERY EASY end of "horse" in management and especially in training? while i would never dream of starting an untrained "big horse" (or riding many a trained one, for that matter), starting Icey youngsters is fun. the young "big" horses of some of my friends (who are much better riders than i) take quite long times and lots of directed work to become dependable trail mounts, but the two Icey youngsters i have started have both basically begged to be taught and then progress amazingly quickly, and safely. don't you find that also? our neighbor argues that my Iceys are not really horses but a cross between a Yak and a Steiff stuffed animal (which i take as a big complement!) happy riding this weekend! -barbara
