Hi Kim >>>I can imagine that, I knew older people like that when I was young, older cowboy types, who didn't believe in harsh bits, who stopped people from yanking on horse's mouths, who believed in giving the horse a chance.
There have always been those people in the horse world, haven't there. That is one reason I found Monty Roberts tirade that horse training had always been so harsh until he came along. There have always been some people who are excessively rough and those who were not - comes down to what they knew and how they wanted to treat horses. The old Xenophen saying - "When knowledge ends, violence begins" >>>I think there is a market for trail horses here though. No question about that and not just in N.A. - it is true in every country that the majority of people buy horses to have pleasure horses. That has always been our focus even though we did some showing. Mostly so we could show people that you could still show and not be so hard on horses. I have never bought a saddle from Iceland although I did buy some German saddles for Icelandic but chose their xwide which were better at the time but still not wide enough IMO. Nice to have a horse like Dari that is such a good ambassador for the breed. He's from Judy Pittman isn't he? We have gotten some nice young horses from her that have been easy to train with easy gaits. >>>In my mind, the Iceland that we are connected to here is very competition oriented, they are the ones in the spotlight, that can make a big difference, the horse's welfare gets pushed aside, winning and selling horses I think that is definitely true. One of the challenges is that it is those horses that bring a bigger price and in some cases keep breeders afloat. So many people think the horses are too expensive but when you take into account the cost of raising a horse - most breeders don't make money. If you are part of the horse industry - selling goods and services - you can make money but certainly not in breeding and selling horses. Robyn Icelandic Horse Farm Robyn Hood & Phil Pretty Vernon BC Canada www.icefarm.com
