This message is from: "Bossmare" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Well, I think I've been enlightened. Recent remarks here about a certain professional's opinion of Fjords as "stubborn" and "runaways" (later thought to be directed at bad Fjord-X's) have clarified a puzzling situation I've run into.
I recently purchased an extremely sweet and well-behaved mare with no attitude problems whatsoever. She had been in driving training and I had videotape footage of her performance including in a group at a driving clinic. I approached a local person who advertises teaching driving and training driving horses. She has years of experience and is primarily a Morgan person but trains all breeds. I emailed and spoke to her on the phone and described my student (me) and the pony who knew more than I did. She was very agreeable and interested in working with me and my pony. I sent her the video. I never heard from her again and phone calls and emails went unanswered. I know she is still offering driving lessons but apparently not to me. I then got information on another trainer of driving horses. I left message describing myself and my pony. No return call. Meanwhile another local person with a Fjord told me of certain trainers (but not the ones I'd contacted) that will not take Fjords. She knew of one sent to Pennsylvania because no one in New Jersey was interested. She too mentioned that there had been a breeder in NJ who produced "bad ones".????? Enlightening is what the remarks of one highly placed professional in the tight knit world of driving in New Jersey can apparently do to the reputation of a breed. And if an ill-mannered Fjord X looks like a purebred most people will assume it is a Fjord. The fact that the breed is rare and as best as I can discern even rarer in NJ means there are not enough numbers out there performing well to dispel the rumors. Certainly no one wants a stubborn runaway, particularly in a driving horse. As a newcomer to the breed had I heard that from my Morgan friends I certainly would have reconsidered. Actually it was Carol Rivoire's ads in our local papers showing novices having a blast with Fjords that first piqued my interest. That's the effect good press can have. And if someone would take me and my pony as students they would find this pony to be a stellar example of what the breed can be. Lois Berenyi in New Jersey where the state animal is the horse.
