Re: fjord reputation

[Quycksylvr]

This message is from: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

In a message dated 12/30/2002 2:12:05 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

 I was
 told they were stubborn, hard mouthed, and were bad with
 their feet.

Well, my Tom is harder in the mouth than my last horse.  He is a little 
stubborn, and does invade my personal space unless corrected pretty 
regularly.  He is also totally oblivious to things that hurt or freaked out 
my last horse.  Of course, none of this bothers me at all.  Actually, since I 
had an appy before the last horse with all of those traits, I specifically 
choose the Fjord for those traits.  As odd as it might sound, I was actually 
looking for an easy going, lazy, stubborn horse...  It's the type of horse I 
work best with.  I suppose it also depends on you, weather the Fjord 
personality is annoying, or perfect, I guess.  Personally, I love it, but 
I've been trained to it by a non-Fjord.

Re: fjord reputation

[Jean Gayle]

This message is from: Jean Gayle [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Janet, re peoples impressions of fjords.  When I first got Gunnar the truck
man who delivered him was cussing all the way up my long road as Gunnar
tried to eat grass, rip off his pockets and generally bully him.  Can just
hear his impression of muley fjords.  Then when the Vet came (have a
different one now) who was an impatient man Gunnar did a beautiful airs
above the ground trying to kill him. Gunnar did not think anyone should
fool with his private parts even though it was an attempt to clean him. And
he had been sedated.  So that Vet would certainly have bad things to say
about Fjords.

Now Gunnar is mannerly, it was there all along but had not been required for
awhile before I got him.  So I think we all have our thoughts about other
breeds based on first impressions or the odd horse.  I hate the way quarter
horses have their heads hanging to the ground.  Friesians scare me with
their height and fast ways.  Arabs are beautiful but not enough bone for me
etc.  Hopefully no one really accepts those snap judgments.  Jean






Jean Walters Gayle
Aberdeen, WA
Author:The Colonel's Daughter
$20 PO Box 104
Montesano, WA 98563

fjord reputation

[Janet McNally]

This message is from: Janet McNally [EMAIL PROTECTED]

someone wrote:

He responded that he found them to be stubborn,
  unpredictable and prone to being run-aways. This opinion
he
  admitted, had been developed from his experience with
Finn's crosses
  rather than real Fjords.

Before I bought my fjords, I had 3 different farriers, and
two other people try to talk me out of the idea.   I was
told they were stubborn, hard mouthed, and were bad with
their feet.  They also all agreed that Fjords were
wonderfully people oriented horses, just a pain to handle.
One local trainer turned down the prospects of training a
Fjord for us.  I heard about the team that ran away at the
annual draft horse event... a pair of fjords.  With over 75
other breed teams in attendance, that  sure does not help
that the only Fjord team ran off, especially when the story
endures from one year to the next.These people were
speaking of purebred Fjords, not crossbreds.  I have yet to
know about a crossbred actually, other than what I've read
about on this list.

Now that I've been Fjord shopping, I found that a lot of
fjords have been trained once upon a time, then turned out
to pasture for years.   While the generous nature of a fjord
will let an experienced person get away with this, the
novice horse owner might be decieved about the training
needs of those big quiet Fjords.

I have also found though, that the Fjord -is- different with
its personal space (i.e. will crawl into your lap for a
hug), and  require different methods than my light horses
did.   They also do not seem to feel pain like other breeds,
and rightly so, as you would not want a farm work horse to
be sensitive about things banging or dangling around them.
That is how you avoid a wreck when they step over the
traces, or something comes undone.   What would have sent my
TWH's into orbit is scarcely noted by my Fjords, and I find
myself changing how I work around them.  Primarily, I
constantly remind them to stay out of my space.  Something I
never had to think about with a TWH.  I'm still learning.

I've concluded that the reason those 5 people had a negative
experience was because they were working with scarcely or un
trained Fjords and did not recognize how green they were,
perhaps because they were so uncommonly quiet and freindly.

Janet W McNally