>>>> You know, thinking about it, I have only worked with Icelandics that were born and originally trained in Iceland - I guess it gives me a scewed perspective.
Well, don't feel bad - with so few Icelandic's of any "genre" in the USA, I think we're all sorting through this, trying to separate cause from effect. That's what this list does. >>> Do we have cases of bolting Icies that are domestic born and trained? Loftur is one...but he had the worst case of bottled up pain that Dr. Daniel said he'd ever seen in ANY horse. He couldn't believe he was rideable at all, as he was when we first got him. But...Loftur WAS born in Iceland, where he was ignored until he was ready to be slaughtered for meat. Someone intervened, had him castrated in the field (he was essentially a mustang, breeding mares, so I was told...) and then he was put on a plane to the USA. All signs point to that rough, pasture castration as being the source of his injury. His actual saddle training wasn't begun until he came to the USA though. Loftur has been a different horse since we addressed the pain. (He has a castration scar, and the root source of his full-body pain was an old soft-tissue injury to his withers area....) He was a bolter, but had he not had that rough start in life, he would have been the ultimate "grandma's horse." He's as quiet and gentle as they come - and SLOW. So there's at least one bolter who's anything but goey. Karen Karen Thomas Wingate, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.15.31/1129 - Release Date: 11/13/2007 9:22 PM
