> I am not saying you are prejudiced. I am sure you are > not. No apology needed. I just think it is important > to look at people as individuals.
i think thats important too.... and as for brio, i have ridden with pasos that worried me, like you said, just going and going and going like the energizer bunny when they are so sweaty and breathing hard. You're right, they just will go til they drop! What I am talking about tho, by macho, etc, maybe a poor choice of words, what i was thinking of is how they train a horse for sale, especially, to explode from the stall, often leading them with a man on each side with a lead rope while they act magnificent and yes, hot hot hot. I know some are born with it and it is beautiful. My cousin owns a direct son of El Chino. If you google his name you can see videos of him dancing on a loose lead, and he is so gorgeous, just seems to be enjoying himself so much!! And the man who owns him, riding him bareback on a loose rein, and him a stallion! My gosh now that is what I would call true brio. But too often I have seen rehabs that were taught to behave explosively, a whip popped across their hocks to make them leap forward and rear on the end of a lead. I have seen this personally. Its very upsetting to me. And honestly, I have never seen a woman do it. I have seen men, with a macho mentality, deliberately provoking "hotness" in paso finos and I have personally rescued a paso fino from a large south fla farm that was actually the most neurotic psycho horse i have ever seen and thank goodness I found him a good loving home where he is understood because with him, I learned i don't have what it takes for some horses, that some horses are so neurotic and have been so tormented its really way wayyyyy beyond anything I can do for them. This horse had scars all over his flanks where he would stand and bite himself for hours until he was bleeding and would throw himself down if asked to go thru a gate, any gate, a horse trailer, a washrack, a stall door. He was of Hilaches/sinpar lines and he was not shabby, one of the more physically gorgeous horses I have ever seen. he was very sad. Just being around a lot of pasos around here, I have seen so many sad cases. When people talk about abuse and training I know it happens in all breeds and I have seen it in many but i think in every breed the ones treated worse are the show horses where people just want to win no matter what! But as I said before, I have seen magnificent horses with brio that was spectacular, and it was scarey to me. brio to the extreme is not something I would want in a horse, not even on the ground. But it is spectacular. Breathtaking. This is long, i swear I am rambling now, but I went with a friend to look at a paso for sale once, and she didnt want to ride him but wanted to see him ridden. The ladys husband didnt ride. I dont know what possessed me, But i volunteered to ride him. He was a wonderful horse but had been trained to be so responsive to the least cue. I cued him with my left foot and he turned so sharply it scared me so I garbbed the saddle and when i did, dropped a rein. And squeezed my legs to hang on. He took off fast and when I tried to steer him he wouldnt respond, because he was only trained to direct rein. I scared him, he scared me, he took off for the barn, and thank goodness I'm short and he was short or he woulda took my head off at the barn door! He took me all the way to his stall and stood there :) My friend didnt buy him, but he was a good horse. I was a bad rider! Janice yipie tie yie yo
