>>> We just can NOT support this type of thing either by word or money.
And that gets to be a really delicate balance, because I know personally that some great horses have been bred at the farm where the mare lives. I have several: even Cary's perfect pony Skjoni, as well as his favorite mare, Maja, one of my two favorite mares-Bjola- as well as the ravishing-redhead, Runa. We bought Maja, Bjola, and Runa via the trustees of a bankruptcy, and they were all basically untouched, and unhandled. We bought Skjoni from the Icelandic Horse Farm when they had him on consignment for his prior owners. I think it's important to distinguish that horses can be wonderful horses, no matter where they come from, but heavens, yes, I agree: I certainly don't want to support people who train and ride like that. What is really amazing to me is that all of the horses we have that were born on that farm (and granted, four may not be a significant sample) are wonderfully and naturally gaited - so why on earth would they choose to ride in a forced frame? It's like it's just a bad habit... I know two horses trained at that farm - again, certainly not a significant sample - and both seemed to need significant re-training when they went to their current homes. Both are lovely horses (one is Skjoni - Cary's Perfect Pony, and actually Christine had already done some retraining of him before we got him - he's always been great for us), but my personal opinion is that these two horses are probably great DESPITE their early training, NOT AT ALL BECAUSE of it. Maja and Bjola were both fairly wary of people when I first met them, both unhandled, but they got over it - mostly. (You can still see a slight core of distrust in them when a stranger approaches, but each of their fillies born here are wonderfully brave and friendly. That makes me believe that their wariness is related to either early treatment, or early neglect, and that it's not genetic. ) I'd give anything for Maja and Bjola to have that slight edge of distrust removed, and my suspicion is that handling them just a little more as babies would have done the trick...but who knows. I just know that neither of their babies are wary in the slightest - Ima and Kola are probably the two friendliest and most trusting girls on our farm. To be blunt, personally, if I were looking for a horse for sale, and I saw one bred at that farm, I wouldn't hesitate one minute to check the horse out...but if the horse were trained there, I would NOT consider that a plus at all. I see two horrors in the "traditional" training/handling of young Icelandic's. One is obviously starting horses under saddle in forced frames. But the more horses I'm exposed to, horses raised in different environments, by different people, the more horrified I become by the old "leave 'em alone until they are four" mentality. Both are horrible things to do to young horses, and both take time to undo. Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.17.1/1182 - Release Date: 12/12/2007 11:29 AM
