This message is from: "Linda Lehnert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I'M IN LOVE WITH A BEAUTIFUL NORWEGIAN - no, Jean, this isn't XXX. Rikka is a beautiful 5 year old mare with an attitude. She looked at me with her big, kind, brown eyes and said, "I am your friend and I will take care of you and do what you ask of me. If you teach me, I will learn and will work hard for you." She is very well-balanced and put-together and has beautiful gaits with a long stride. She is particularly suited for western as her gaits are very easy. She has well-defined withers and her back is not too broad and my saddle fits her too. She was bred at 3, had a foal last year and has only 4 months of training, so she is very green. However, she has been started in the classical European method of starting young horses for dressage, so the training she has had is excellent. She's very intelligent and willing and quickly picked up my cues, which, being a western rider, are quite different than what she is accustomed to. I can also learn from her to use my legs better (I've always ridden the Morgans with spurs as they were trained to be ridden with them) and develop my seat and weight shifts, so riding Rikka will also improve my riding. I have started many young Morgans from the ground up, so I can continue her training myself until she needs to be finished and then I will invest in training in order to make a great horse a super horse. She's incredibly calm - Herr Eitenmuller's neighbor was cutting logs with a chain saw and she just glanced over a few times as if to say, "that's kind of noisy," but didn't freak or even break stride. Since I haven't ridden in 2 1/2 years, I was initially apprehensive, but with Rikka's calmness, I felt very comfortable after only 10 minutes. (I had a bad injury riding a half-trained 4 yo Arab some years ago - you can readily identify the problem and have to ride a new horse for a while to get use to the horse and get my confidence back.) With Rikka's disposition and attitude in 2 weeks I will be a completely different rider. She's very well-bred. Her sire is Herr Eitenmüller's old stallion, Jon Halsnaes, a former national champion he imported from Denmark as a young horse. Jon Halsnaes is now on lease to a farm in Scotland and you can see his picture on the FHR of Scotland website. Jon Halsnaes is by Rei Halsnaes D, who is also the sire of Rei Romanow, the current national champion and the super impressive Fjord in the stall beside the IGF booth at Euro Cheval, so Rikka's related to him some. She is out of a good mare, now old and retired to a farm 6 km down the road from me. I know this is long, but I wanted to share the good news. I'm so glad I decided that the Fjord is the best choice for me, the more I see them, the better I like them. And Rikka is the perfect Fjord. I could not have found a more suitable horse if I had looked all over the world and spent 100 X as much. Got to run to the tack shop - I need lots of stuff! Linda in Reichelsheim
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