This message is from: barry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I've been lurking for a week or so. My husband Barry and I have Village Farm in Southern California. We have 5 Fjords here, 4 are ours. We have Valbjorn our stallion, Halsten, his 2 yo son (gelding), and 2 bred mares, Bjuti and Misty. Bjuti's last foal was born on Easter morning and it looks like she may do it again. She's due any minute. We are standing for the 98 season another stallion, Fair Acres Nels owned by Jeff and Lisa Pedersen of Norco, CA (As well as Valbjorn).
We pleasure drive Valbjorn all over town, ride the mares and hope to have the young gelding started soon. We both work (I teach special ed, the disabled kids and Barry is a tech for Dow Jones) and while we can start our own horses we find it hard to get the early training lessons scheduled consistently. I tried a trainer who came to the farm but didn't care for her methods. I sent a mare out and while not unhappy with the methods, was unhappy with her progress. The trainer was coming off an injury and was a bit nervous and the horse picked up on that real quick. I was hesitant to use some of the very competent young girls around because of the liability. We are in racehorse country and had noticed that of the 3 or 4 riders galloping horses for my neighbor one was a standout. He always had the horse going beautifully and and sat so quietly--I never saw him treat the horses roughly. This rider has now started several horses for us and all have been happy, confident, and learned quickly. It is important for a rider on a green horse to be well balanced, fit, confident and have good timing. Few of us fit this discription. If at all possible I would suggest that the woman with the green horse search for someone like this rider if only for a few lessons--it took us awhile but the search was worth it. The Fjords are a picnic to handle compared to what he's used to and he loves to come work them. Once he's done 10-15 rides we've been able to continue the training ourselves with no problems even if they are not worked daily. Sorry I've gone on so long. Would like to hear some Easter name suggestions from anyone--I didn't think I'd have another Easter foal. Margaret Strachan Village Farm Nuevo, CA http://www.pe.net/~barry/
