This message is from: Starfire Farm <starfiref...@usa.net>
Hello Amy and the List members,
It appears to me that the "list" has been very quiet. So quiet that I
went to the archives to see if I had missed anything, but no. There was
some recent discussion about companion animals for horses on the Fjord
Issues list, but I don't seem to be able to post to that, for whatever
reason, therefore don't read it unless someone forwards me a subject.
Slomiet has returned to Starfire Farm, so if anyone out there felt like
they missed out on a great mare, she is available. The prospective
buyers were simply not willing to give her time to settle in to her new
home. She had only been there for three days when they made their
decision not to keep her. I picked her up after she had been there for 8
or 9 days and I could not detect ANY problems with her behavior. She was
quiet, polite for the halter, loaded up into the trailer by herself, no
problem, without making a sound. Settled quietly into the trailer, rode
home quietly by herself, etc., etc. I could have taken her on a trail
ride, or to a show, or whatever and she would have been easy to handle,
easy to ride or drive.
On a similar note, one of Slomiet's most recent offspring, 3 year old
Giotto (his father is Thordal) came to Starfire last week to be hitched
for the very first time. His owner has been ground driving him in a
surcingle, but she doesn't have a harness or cart, so needed to come
here for the hitching work. In a two hour period, we taught him to drag
poles, tolerate having his back legs touched by trace and pole, etc.,
etc. then, because he accepted everything so extremely well, hitched him
to a training cart and off he went. No problems, no jitters, no
spooking, nothing what-so-ever to question this horse was enjoying his
new job. Yesterday they returned and we fitted a nice leather harness to
him (did he ever look handsome), had him drag the poles again and then
hitched him to the training cart. He drove off like he'd been doing it
his whole life!
Both parents have great temperaments, so it is no surprise that Giotto
is taking so well to his harness training.
His owner, Sara, has been riding him lightly, so he knows a bit about
work, but he is SO willing...that type of temperament can only come from
a combination of two great parents.
Slomiet had to jump through a number of hoops to satisfy the questions
of the previous buyers, so there are quite a few videos up on YouTube
showing all of the things that she can do. Every time I took her out
with the prospective buyers she impressed me with how good she is on the
trail. How wise she was about new sights and sounds. How pleasant it was
to watch her take care of her strange rider. Her training will continue,
but she has already improved greatly from the initial
riding-in-the-arena video. She is definitely one of the better horses
that I have had to work with.
Beth
--
Beth Beymer and Sandy North
Starfire Farm, LLC
www.starfirefarm.com
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