This message is from: "Mike May, Registrar NFHR" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
At 10:16 AM 11/23/2006, you wrote:
This message is from: "Beaver Dam Farm" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
This paragraph goes on with a quote from NFHR Registrar, Mike May
who says . . . "they might gallop around in a pasture to play", Mike
says. "You have to really push them into the canter, but they are
natural three-gaited horses."
I didn't record what I said but I guess maybe I should have. And now
2 or probably 3 months later I am not real sure what words I did use
but I am pretty sure it would have been more like "You might have to
push them a bit to get them cantering the first time, but they are
natural three gaited horses." And this was in response to a direct
question & statement that she heard they didn't canter at all.
But, this is not all . . . . On the last page of the article, under
the section FJORD CHARACTERISTICS, Mike is quoted as "spokesman for
the Norwegian Fjord Horse Registry" as saying ---- "Although the
Fjord is considered a small draft-type horse, the breed has smooth
gaits, with movement similar to an American Quarter Horse, rather
than high knee action like many draft horses."
I think perhaps you might want to go back to the article again & pay
particular attention to where those little curly quotation marks
" " are placed around certain parts of the article and NOT around
other parts of it. Please note especially the lack of those curly
marks around any of the sentences near the Quarter Horse
statement. In fact the only thing I was quoted as saying in that
whole column is: "They are probably more closely related to the Tarpan"
But back to the Quarter Horse comment - As I thought about it a bit
more I am not sure I would have compared them to any other well know
bred either. I think they are probably most like the Haflinger but
then most people don't know what they are either so why compare them
to something they don't know.
What would you have compared them to Carol?
An Arabian?
A TB
A Paint?
An Appaloosa?
A Welsh cob?
A Shetland pony?
A Warmblood?
A Fresian?
Just what would you think they are most like in a well know breed?
Carol's comment: Whoa, wait a minute here! Who says the "Fjord is
considered a small draft-type horse"?
Not I. I guess the author did.
The Horse Illustrated article refers several times to Mike May as
"spokesman for the Norwegian Fjord Horse Registry". Is he? Has
Mike been appointed by the BOD as spokesman?
Nope. He hasn't. Again they were her words not mine. I never said
I was the spokesman for the Registry. I might have said I was the
Executive Director or the Registrar which I am.
-- Has he been given considered, strict, official information as to
what he should say in such interviews?
No if someone is going to tell me what to say they might better talk
to them then.
-- If he hasn't been given such information, he should have
been. -- He can't be answering questions about type and movement
off the cuff. -- If he is "spokesman for the NFHR, he should have
been provided carefully vetted printouts of what he can say about
the breed for publication.
When a feature article comes out in a prestigious, national magazine
about the Fjord breed, and it quotes Mike May, "spokesman for the
Norwegian Fjord Registry", his words carry a lot of
weight. -- Hopefully, someone from the Registry can give me an
answer regarding Mike as official "spokesman". --
Is he that?
No
If so, when did this happen? -
It hasn't.
-- Is the Fjord described as a "small draft type" anywhere in the
Evaluation book?
No & I neither did I describe it that way.
-- Does it say anywhere in the Evaluation book that Fjords have
Quarter Horse-like movement?
No & neither did I say they did.
But you just did say about that they move like a warmblood. I never
heard that comparison before either & I don't think it is any more
accurate that them being compared to a Quarter Horse.
Mike
=======================================================
Norwegian Fjord Horse Registry
Mike May, Executive Director & Registrar
PO Box 685
Webster, NY 14580-0685
Voice 585-872-4114
FAX 585-787-0497
http://www.nfhr.com
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The FjordHorse List archives can be found at:
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