This message is from: Diana Calder [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Well, I've been lurking on the list since way back around June 2000,
so I guess now's as good a time as any to finally introduce myself. My
name's Diana Calder, I'm from southwestern Ontario, I'm 31, and I have
one Fjord gelding, Donnie. I bought Steinacker's Donnie from the
Bosomworth's at Deere Country Fjords as a yearling in May of 2000,
after spending a LOT of time researching several breeds and even more
time saving up money (one doesn't tend to have much to spare when
repaying student loans :P ).
It had been (quite) a few years since I last had a horse, and neither
of the two I'd had were trained to drive. The Shetland pony that I'd
had before those was, however, and I'd had more fun with her than with
either of the two horses. I considered getting a Shetland again, but
Shetlands like the one I had (sturdy, stubborn, clever, but sweet when
they want to be) are very hard to find. Most Shetlands now seem to be
of the fine-boned, high-strung variety. I'd loved the Morgan that I
had as well, but again he was the quiet, calm type and any that I
looked at were much more high-strung. Well, that is, he was calm and
quiet after we'd had him for a year or so - the 14-year-old horse that
got loose and took 8 people, including his former owner, nearly two
hours to catch on the day that he was delivered (if I hadn't already
handed over the cheque, he probably would have gone straight back in
the trailer when we DID finally catch him!) ended up a big sook who,
if you dropped the reins on his neck, would walk up the sidewalk to
bang on the door with his nose till my mom would bring him a cookie.
He had definitely had some less-than-gentle handling in the past, but
once he figured out that he could trust us, he was a great horse (but
unfortunately one with a number of health problems, also unknown when
we purchased him). The 16-year-old 3/4 Arab mare that I had after him
cured me of any romantic teenage notions about an Arab being the
perfect horse for me (she'd work up a sweat before you even got in the
saddle, and she didn't have a walk, only a bone-jarring jog that led
straight into an even more bone-jarring trot).
I've never been a better than mediocre rider, and as the only rider in
the family, riding alone wasn't much fun, so I was more interested in
a driving horse/pony this time around, though one that would be large
enough for me to ride as well would be kind of nice. I didn't want
anything too tall - 15 hands was the absolute limit for height (this
ruled out one other breed I'd considered, Canadians, since in spite of
what the breed standard says (14 - 16 hands), I couldn't seem to find
any under 15.2 or 16 hands, and many were over 16 hands!), since I
didn't want to need a step-stool to mount. Kind, gentle, good-natured
- all these were traits that appealed to me. I had also had enough of
older horses - I didn't want to inherit someone else's problems,
either health- or behaviour-related, this time around. So I researched
three breeds that I'd heard good things about (Bashkirs, Icelandics,
and Fjords). All three were quite expensive compared to other horse
prices in my area, particularly since most of them seemed to be priced
in U.S. funds, and it quickly became obvious that I wasn't just
looking for a younger animal, I would be looking at a weanling or
yearling, or else saving up for three or four more years. I narrowed
my choices down to Icelandic or Fjord, then finally - and mostly based
on geography (I couldn't find ANY Icelandics listed in Ontario) and
price - just Fjord. Some of the breeders on the list may even recall
me e-mailing them early in 2000 to inquire about horses available and
pricing. Just as an aside, a couple of things that I observed while
Fjord-shopping: first, everyone would be much better served by listing
at least ballpark prices on their sites when they list stock for sale,
as it quickly became obvious to me that my definition of reasonable
prices and the definition that others used were vastly different - I
could have a TEAM of registered, fully-trained Haflingers, or Welshes,
or a mixed-breed team plus harness locally for less than the price of
a single Fjord - I don't want to open up a can of worms over what a
reasonable price is or isn't, just state that I would have been far
more prepared for the prices if people had indicated them up front,
and certainly it would have saved some time for everyone involved if
I'd known how far out of the range of possibility most of these horses
were for me; second, that it looks like, as is the case with some
other breeds such as the Canadian horse, the Fjords are being bred
increasingly taller (it would be interesting to see the average height
over the years, but I was originally looking for a Fjord on the low
end of the breed average and couldn't find ANY less than 14 or 14.2
hands, and I've only seen two or three listed for sale since then,
while there've been plenty of 14 to 15+
