>>> I've seen some evaluations for some of the European Warmbloods that are >>> done at liberty, so no interference from handling! Granted, a lot of >>> gaited horses don't trot at liberty, but basic conformation can be >>> gleaned from that
The no-rider interference is key to me too, Susan. Thanks for bringing up that warmbloods also often have them. I guess I knew that many warmbloods have them - but until this morning I didn't know that the Fjords do. Let's think about it for a minute though. Most warmbloods are used for "sport horses" - jumpers or dressage. I believe the purpose of most of their "evaluations" is to show their suitablity as sport horses. I can't think of anyone who purposely went out and bought a warmblood to be a pleasure horse, and I don't think they are prime candidates for CTR or endurance, and I've never heard of a warmblood cutting horse class. :) In fact, I know people who are afraid to ride their warmbloods out on the trail! When you think about it, the variety of typical uses for warmbloods are pretty narrow. I don't believe that many warmblood breeds proclaim themselves to be "versatilty" horses or trail horses. That's fine, and it's certainly not meant as a criticism in any way at all. If I were going to aim for a high level of dressage, I'd probably look at buying a warm blood. But, I'm not. So, is it really easy or even feasible to try to have an all-emcompassing standard for pleasure/trail horses...? Maybe the warmblood-type evaluations are appropriate and meaningful for those horses - but would they be equally relevant for us? And I don't suppose there's any way to find any hard and fast statistics on this, but my observations lead me to believe that warmbloods have a very high incidence of some pretty odd and debilitating health problems and lamenesses. (Don't ask me to back this statement up, because I can't. Maybe I've just known an usually high percentage of lame/ill warmbloods.) I'm not interested in Olympic-level performance for the short-haul, only to have my dear buddy become lame or die in his prime. Karen Thomas, NC
