RE: [IceHorses] Who is this? / Feldmann
Isn't it amazing that he would be brought in by the USIHC to teach here? I mean, use plain old common sense in watching his horses and riders ride, and anyone can see the unnaturalness of it. And isn't it just amazing that people think that you have to have special trainers to train Icelandic horses? That's just nutty...but I have noticed that almost everyone who says that has no prior experience with gaited horses. I love my Icelandic's and I've never had such complete breed loyalty to a breed. But, my goodness, gaits are gaits, no matter what the breed. You evaluate the gaits of the horse in front of you at the moment, and ride THAT one horse. Good Icelandic's have so many special qualities, and I get totally mushy about this breed...but the gaits are gaits, and it's certainly not their gaits that set them apart from other breeds! I've ridden a lot of three-gaited horses in my life, and have owned several for a many years. Gee, no two three-gaited horses trot exactly the same. Thunder, an Arab, has what most people would consider warmblood type gaits - lots of suspension, and very clean gaits. I remember a few years ago, my trainer-friend, Shirley, rode a huge Warmblood mare for a lady, and she commented on how comfortable that mare's trot was to ride - not warmblood-ish at all, but almost joggy. You can't even make breed gait generalities among three-gaited horses - many of the Appendix QH's have big trots, while some QH's have butter-soft jogs. A good trainer will ride the horse-of-the-moment, and will make adjustments as needed...without worrying what the breed is. No, when someone says they have to have a special trainer for an Icelandic pony, I immediately wonder how much REAL horse experience that person has...it's usually not much. Isn't it sad that some people are swayed by foreign accents, and the need to feel different, so will fall for harsh training methods. Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.18/1254 - Release Date: 1/31/2008 8:30 PM
Re: [IceHorses] Who is this? / Feldmann
On Fri, Feb 01, 2008 at 07:04:36AM -0500, Karen Thomas wrote: No, when someone says they have to have a special trainer for an Icelandic pony, I immediately wonder how much REAL horse experience that person has...it's usually not much. Isn't it sad that some people are swayed by foreign accents, and the need to feel different, so will fall for harsh training methods. i think this is a fairly sad overgeneralization. when i first had stjarni, we worked with a trainer who had icelandic experience; she had trained half a dozen icelandics before. but most of her work was with three-gaited horses (eventing and racetrack), and apparently all of the icelandics she had known had tended to be the trotty sort. when i told her i thought stjarni's tolt was getting pacier and pacier, she had no idea what i meant, and we went round and round on it without the problem getting any better :/ i emailed this list a photo of us at the time and everyone immediately went stepping pace, a phrase that meant nothing to my instructor. i then turned to a friend of mine with a whole lot more icelandic experience (she owned one, she had trained many both in the us and in iceland) and in one hour's lesson she did more to help me understand stjarni's movement and what i was doing to affect it than my other instructor had in two months. her training methods included a lot of circling and changes of direction, and me riding in half-seat. how harsh is that? i now have a trainer who's ethnically icelandic, and her training methods have included bareback riding, trotting poles, hill work (and not stupid stuff like cantering downhill, but trotting up and walking down), figure 8's and similar patterns, voice commands, give and take rather than any steady rein pressure, laterals, and making sure stjarni stays mentally engaged and interested in what we do. how harsh is any of that? does her accent somehow make it worse? more to the point: should i have stuck with my whitebread american original instructor for the sake of political correctness, while my pony became more and more stiff-sided and i became more and more frustrated? not hardly. stjarni's not three-gaited, he's pacy if not properly conditioned to be flexible through his sides, and he gets bored and i get disinformed with training that doesn't help. just because someone is icelandic doesn't make them harsh, and just because someone's american and a good overall horse person doesn't mean they know jack about the soft gaits or the pace. --vicka
Re: [IceHorses] Who is this? / Feldmann
A good trainer will ride the horse-of-the-moment, and will make adjustments as needed...without worrying what the breed is. Well said, Karen, well said! For the record. the second best trotting horse I ever owned was a 16 h off-track appendix quarter horse. The best ever was a 15.3 h Thoroughbred mare. The girl I sold her took her to an evaluation in California and was told she had the best conformation for a dressage horse of any horse they'd looked at that day. She sold her then and there. Nancy
Re: [IceHorses] Who is this? / Feldmann
rather than polite, used to have the reputation for some rather dodgy shoeing practices on competition horses, developed his own horse breed sells lots of horses, makes training videos, writes books, gives lots of courses etc etc etc. Not thought well of generally on this list due to his teaching, training and riding methods. Isn't it amazing that he would be brought in by the USIHC to teach here? I mean, use plain old common sense in watching his horses and riders ride, and anyone can see the unnaturalness of it. BTW, from the comments, you can see that people outside of the breed can easily see how rough he is. So... the USIHC supports manufactured gaits? This is supposed to be (and promoted as) a natural horse. Judy http://iceryder.net http://clickryder.com
Re: [IceHorses] Who is this? / Feldmann
Walter Jr is the trainer coming to teach the trainers course in the US which is why his name has come up on this list recently. He is extremely demanding of horses and IMO quite hard on them, horses that had to be trained via strong-armed tactics This is really sad for the breed. My gosh, compare Nanna's natural gait video to the videos of these professional or certified trainers. So, how did we get to the point of having trainers strong-arm the Icelandic Horses into gaits? Judy http://iceryder.net http://clickryder.com
RE: [IceHorses] Who is this? / Feldmann
So, how did we get to the point of having trainers strong-arm the Icelandic Horses into gaits? Machismo? After all, the Icelandic show world is still dominated by men. I guess real men (said with much sarcasm) don't like to admit that they are riding sweet, gentle, easy-going, easy-to-train ponies... :) Oh N! These are fiery steeds that must be conquered by MEN! (Gag me.) Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.17/1252 - Release Date: 1/30/2008 8:51 PM
