This message is from: "Beaver Dam Farm" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hello from Carol Rivoire at Beaver Dam Farm in Nova Scotia --
We just had a small blizzard yesterday. Not too much snow but a lot of
wind, and it's still wild out there. Nothing out of the ordinary for Nova
Scotia, but we've become used to the no snow mild winter we've had so far.
Regarding Pat's post about Norway, prior to 1990, not having a formal
definitiion of the breed. She's right that Norway didn't have it on paper.
The judges and breeders always said, "we have it in our minds and in our
hearts." -- And they did! There's no doubt that the Norwegians were
absolutely clear on how and what a Fjordhorse should be. In my book, THE
FJORDHORSE HANDBOOK, chapter 4, pg. 31, I quote Tor Nestas from Norway when
he says . . . .
the Fjordhose is "difficult to define . . . difficult to express in words .
. . more like a feeling" --- He also says . . . ."Quality cannot be judged
and measured in kilograms and centimeters."
Although the Norwegians didn't have a written standard, they most certainly
did have a standard for their breed. It sounds odd, I know, but these men
were immersed in this Norwegian horse. -- All of them knew in their hearts
and minds exactly what a Fjord should look like, and what characteristics
were not true Fjord.
However, it's not that the Norwegians didn't weigh and measure. One of my
earliest memories with Fjords was watching the Norwegian judges measuring
horses. We watched that in Norway and in Woodstock, VT when the Norwegian
and Dutch judges did the first ever American Keuring (Evaluation). There
was a lot of measuring going on. ---- And, of course, the Norwegians kept
careful records of the trotting tests, which was always an important part of
the stallions testings.
The Norwegians have a deep love and a lot of sentiment about the breed, but
that doesn't keep them from being hard-headed judges. -- I remember being
in Norway at the Evaluations that lead up to the Stallion Inspectiions in
Nordfjordeid. I remember seeing the meat trucks standing by for the
Fjords that didn't "measure up" -- The young horses were judged, and if
the horses didn't meet the standards the Norwegians had so firmly implanted
in their souls . . . . then many of those horses were sent to the butcher.
Perfectly sound horses, but the ones that didn't meet the Standard went for
meat. All of us foreigners felt horrible about that, and we all got really
teary, but the hard cold facts were, that at that time, Norway didn't have a
big recreational need for Fjords, so those not deemed good enough for
breeding went for meat. -- I believe nowadays there is more recreational
use of the Fjords, so probably decent enough horses are kept alive.
It was really hard seeing that, but you had to acknowledge that this
practice was effective in keeping the breed as strong as possible.
It would be wonderfully interesting someday if we could get one of the
Norwegian judges to write an article on why they did not have a written
stadard for judging Fjords. -- I mean, it had to have been a concious
decision not to write it down. -- Personally, I would guess that they
recognized that despite the fact that most Fjords are beige with a black
stripe, and seemingly all look alike, that actually they differ quite a lot
one from the other, because there's a real variety is size, shape, and
pe. -- I think the Norwegians did not want to 'write it down' because
they did not want to lose the variety in the breed by having an "Ideal
Fjord", one that could be measured. --
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, we know Norway didn't have a written Standard prior to 1990. I don't
know for sure that they had one had that time, but I'll go with what Pat
said.
The Norwegians may not have had a written Standard, but the Dutch certainly
did. Other Fjord breeding countries may also have had a written Standard.
I don't know, but they may well have had. -- Countries like - Denmark,
Sweden, France, Belgium. -- I do know that Holland had a written Standard.
Regarding the work thNFHR Standards Committee did to achieve written
Standards. . ., I don't want to take away from their effort, but fact is
they didn't have to go to so much effort because Fjord Breed Standards were
already on paper. -----I believe it was in 1984 at the Woodstock, Vermont
Fjord Show during the NFHR Annual meeting held Saturday night. - Bob van
Bon was there, and maybe some Norwegian judges. -- NFHR business was
being discussed and the president asked the person in charge of the
Standards Committee to give a report. - Jennifer stood and said there was
nothing yet to report. They were working on it. -- Van Bon stood and asked
. . . "Why do you need to work on breed Standards? It's all in my
ook." -- Nevertheless, the committee kept working on the Standards. It
took 15 years to come up with our own version of the Standards. I'm
talking about juding conformation and movement. Not performance! -- Just
conformation and movement. -- There really was no need to create new
Standards. Fjord Breed Standards were all written down in Van Bon's
ook. -- All that was needed was translation.
Best Regards, Carol Rivoire
Beaver Dam Farm Fjords II, Ltd.
Phone: 902-386-2304 Fax: 902-386-2149
URL: www.beaverdamfarm.com
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Raised by the Sea in Health and Tranquility"
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Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 17:27:59 -0600
From: "Pat Holland" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: looking at the whole picture
Prior to 1990 there was NO formal definition of the Fjord breed type. The
Norwegians said "it is something that we know in our minds, but not on
paper". Through the work of the original NFHR Evaluation Committee it was
established that the Fjord in the United States needed a breed standard.
Over 15 years of allot of work by many extremely qualified and dedicated
people - we now have a much better picture of what the Fjord Horse truly
is.
The original people credit Jon Hagdal and Bob Von Bon for their leadership
in the Fjord Horse industry and their shared knowledge and experience. But
it was here in the United States with Wayne Hipsley, Karen Cabic, Jim
Havelhurst, Joe Hempel, Lindsey Sweeney, Anne Appleby, Nancy Hotovy and
Tom
Hans - the tools were put in place where we had a method to evaluate
horses,
resulting with mathematical scores and written commentary bringing the
breeders in North America closer to their European counterparts.
.
