This message is from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Arthur Rivoire)
Hi Everybody from Carol Rivoire at Beaver Dam Farm in Nova Scotia - Well, we sure generated a lot of interesting comment regarding The Challenge. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered, and I'm hoping some of the people going to Norway will ask those questions and get the answers. #1 - How old are the majority of stallions doing the trotting test? I know that Gjest was four years. #2 - Is the test begun at a trot or a standstill? I would imagine it would have to be from the trot, but let's get that from the Norwegians. #3 - Why don't they record the stallion's fastest time in their Studbook? Gjest's time is recorded at 2.40, not 2.12. #4 - Do they ever do this trotting test with mares or geldings? #5 - Do the four year olds outperform the three year olds? Or vice versa? To reiterate Arthur and my reasons for promototing the GJEST CHALLENGE, they are: 1. To promote and perpetuate the Fjord's heritage as an excellent trotting breed. 2. To determine just how fast, and how well Fjords trot compared to other breeds of their approximate size. 3. To give Fjord owners a challenge, and to provide good-spirited competition in the old-time tradition of village harness racing, although, of course, what we have in mind at the moment, is not "harness racing" in the sense of a group of horses racing against each other, but a single horse racing against the clock. Members of the list have asked a couple of times if the Gjest Challenge was open only to stallions and we've replied, NO! It's open to all genders. I think it will be fun to see just what gender has the most speed, if in fact, it can be gender related at all. And it will be particularly interesting to see what the geldings do, as geldings normally are not raced . . . as far as I know. In any case, it's going to be interesting. Perhaps Gjest's reputed 2.12 time will be beaten early on. That's just a figure. As I've said previously, I don't know if that's really fast or not. All I know is that it's a record for young stallions in Norway. Perhaps seven year old stallions can do better. Hopefully, we'll find out. Years ago, it may have been 1988, I initiated a class at the Woodstock, VT Fjord Show which was something like the Gjest Challenge. It was based on the Trotting Test they do in Norway. Woodstock has a very nice, very big, oval ring. We figured out that four times around the ring was roughly a kilometer. So, each horse entering the class trotted at speed four times around the ring, hopefully, not cutting too many corners, and the time was taken. I forget exactly how we determined the divisions. I think there were older stallions and younger ones, and same for the mares. I don't remember if there were geldings competing. I drove Gjest, and it was one of the thrills of my life. Also, one of the scariest times as I thought for sure we'd tip over as we blazed around in our heavy Meadowbrook cart. Gjest won the class, by a good margin, as I remember. Arthur was standing at ringside, and he still chuckles recalling almost everyone saying, "That horse is going to break." "He'll break for sure." He's got to break." And Gjest's former trainer, Charlie Ballou, was standing there saying, "He won't break. He never breaks!" And he didn't break. And later, I talked with another man who'd been at ringside, a Standardbred owner and trainer. This man was fascinated with Gjest's shoulder action. He said, "That's exactly the shoulder action we try our darndest to breed into Standardbreds." Later that day, I drove our mare, Uloza, in the same class, but in the Mare's Division. Uloza was eleven years old at the time, and had birthed at least eight foals. I've forgotten exactly how many. That didn't slow her down at all. She won her class, but the exciting thing was her time was only a few seconds slower than the five year old stallion, Karibu, at that time owned by Phil Prichard. -- That mare would probably have left Karibu in the dust if it had been a "level playing field", so to speak. I mean if they were the same age, and if she hadn't had eight foals. I don't know why this class wasn't continued at the Woodstock Show. It certainly generated a lot of interest amongst owners and spectators. Everybody likes a speed class. Best Regards, Carol Rivoire Carol and Arthur Rivoire Beaver Dam Farm Fjords II R.R. 7 Pomquet Antigonish County Nova Scotia B2G 2L4 902 386 2304 http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/beaverdf
