This message is from: "Julie Will" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Darryl and I had a wonderful visit to Norway, and had the opportunity to visit a couple of farms. Farms are usually passed from father to son, for many generations. Both the farms we visited still had the original farmhouse standing, built in the 1700's, out of logs, with random HUGE slabs of slate roofing. The barns usually have a ramp up to the hay loft where loose hay is kept.
We felt there was a pretty good variation in type in the stallions, although none that were extremely drafty. Definitely some variation in bone size, back length, movement and other conformation points. The winning 5 year old stood 13-2 1/2, but with good bone and very free movement. He had very high test scores of 242 points, with the next closest stallion being at 208 points. We like the look of this stallion (Rannar) when we saw him last year as a 4 year old, and he had matured a lot by this year. We were very pleased to see him placed on top, and it proved to us that the judges are not just looking at the leggy type of horse. In Class one, which are the 8 year old stallions, the winner was Viljar Brim, (ulsblakk) standing 14-1 with a girth of 72 inches. Almost to a horse, the stallions were fit, not fat. I think it is very important to consider the fitness of the animal, as a fat horse may look very drafty, but when properly fitted to show, he will look entirely different. Cannon bone measurement tells alot, and most of the Norwegian stallions that I have looked up measurements on are between 7 3/4 and 8 1/2 inches. We had the opportunity to look at photos of some of the stallions of old, and they were shown in an extremely FAT condition, and looked very different from Norway's stallions of today, but its hard to know without measurements how much of that was fat, and how much was bigger bone and frame. We are hoping to import some fillies, with bloodlines not already in this country. We saw a few nice ones! We were pleased to note that Fløtren's offspring are doing well in the shows, and we saw two suckling foals of his that were rodblakk. Hope all you moms out there had a happy day! I'm getting a foal for Mother's Day....hopefully before midnight. Gussie (Heimann X Yvonda by Oswin), bred to Felix, is in early labor! Julie
