This message is from: "Michael Bickman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
This message is from: Mike Bickman [EMAIL PROTECTED] I'd like to introduce myself to the list. I've read, enjoyed and learned from the posts here for the past few months. I'm a new fjordhorse owner. Cindy, my wife, has owned two to three horses for the last 20 years, and keeps them in a rental stable. She competes in lower level dressage. We live in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm 56, Cindy is 48. I never expected to be a horse person. If you had told me a couple of years ago I would soon own horses and live on a farm, I would have called the men in white coats for you. In the summer of 1999, Cindy, who teaches gymnastics and ballet, was taking a group of gymnasts to perform for a week at the World Gymstrada in Gothenberg, Sweden and then to tour Norway for a week. I joined the group at the end of the Gymstrada and then it was off to Norway and its beautiful fjords. We spent a lot of time in the countryside, and even stayed overnight in a small town where one of the gymnast's grandmother lived. Everybody noticed the pretty light brown horses in the farmers' fields and back yards. Eventually, early one morning, we went to one of the Norwegian equivalents of our National Parks. It was a glacier park and we planned to hike to the tip of the glacier. On the way to the park our bus passed some carts being pulled by these horses, and the horses eventually showed up at the park to give rides to visitors who preferred to ride vs. hike to the glacier. While our group was milling around in the gift shop before beginning the hike, I walked up to the horses to get a better look at them. It was the first time in my life I did not feel uncomfortable around horses. (This may be traceable to my having been chased by a calf when I was a child, and to not having any real farm experience.) They were calm, yet obviously quite alert. I found out more about these amazing horses during the remainder of the trip and then started researching them on the Internet after we came home. This past summer we took the introductory driving course offered by Carol and Arthur Rivoire at Beaver Dam Farm in Nova Scotia. It was a great week and gave us a chance to spend more time with these horses. We stayed at the Rivoire's rental cottage on the farm and spent much of our "off" hours just hanging around the barn and rest of the farm. I had hoped to tour at least part of the famous Cabot Trail on nearby Cape Bretton, but once at the farm we didn't want to spend much time away from it. Maybe some other time. At the end of the week, one of Carol's assistants asked what I thought about horses now. I told her "I'm still not sure about horses, but I love fjords." Anyway, we purchased a 2 year old mare (Tanja) from Carol before we even got there, a 3 year old mare (Silaika) while we were there and a 4 year old gelding (Kastar) a few months later. All three arrived early in December and are now in the same rental stable as Cindy's two other horses, where they patiently wait for us to complete construction of a horse farm near Canton, Georgia. We hope to move in around the beginning of March. Silaika was started on driving at Beaver Dam Farm and Kastar on riding. We've found a couple of excellent driving instructors not too far away and look forward to taking lessons after we move in. I've already had a couple of basic lessons with Kastar (nothing beyond walking), but for now its mostly grooming. The postings on this list have been very helpful to us; there's a lot of experience available here and we're appreciative so many of you have been willing to share it. Mike Mike and Cindy Bickman Stepping Stone Farm Canton, Georgia
