RE: "Free to Choose None of the Above" - Day 350: 5 Minute Freewrite: Friday - Prompt: freedom
Cori, good to hear from you, and as always, your reply is leagues above most posts! Your cousin Tom sounds awsome (built like a workhorse himself). I'm not sure I know a Percheron from a Belgian, come to think of it, but Frisian is the breed that steals my heart - the Maine Coon of the horse world. Those furry fetlocks, those rippling manes, the size, the grace! Lipizzaners are awesome but I'm drawn more to size and power, it seems. (Off not to google Perch vs Belgian...) I don't know my breeds, don't know horses, just know that my dad, the one time he EVER came down to the annual Oktoberfest parade, laughed at my "Clydesdales" and said they were Perchersons, but hey, he could have been wrong.
-_- His life's mission is to contradict me and undermine me and pop my balloon, so ... yeah. Thanks for reading and commenting, and may your batteries recharge like Energizers!
Belgian--heavy draft horse descended from the Flemish “great horse,” the medieval battle horse native to the Low Countries. ... In 1866 the first Belgian was taken to the United States, where the breed was well accepted but was never as popular as the Percheron.
***Percherons are well muscled, and known for their intelligence and willingness to work... originally bred for use as war horses. ***(wikipedia)
I love all the breeds!
I love them as well. I went out a couple of times with a gentleman in Florida who had a couple of Belgians draught horses, and they were gorgeous, smart, well trained, and loved to be petted. Too bad I didn't think as highly of him as I did of his horses. ;-)
Our cousins Jimmy and Terry played polo, as did Tom, and their horses were smaller, some trail horses, and some polo ponies. For riding, I preferred the trail horses, as they were much more laid back, and not so highly strung.
No idea on the breeds of most of them, though I know that my favorite, named Surefoot because he was so habitually careful on mountain trails, was part Morgan, which is another favorite breed of mine. Like Tom's Percheron, on steep trails, he would watch each foot as he placed it down, and test his footing before moving forward. And he LOVED kids - somewhere there is a photo of me riding him solo, at around age two. He was an awesome horse.
But Tom spoiled me for draught horses. They've always been my favorites, partly because I just prefer huge horses, and partly because, like Newfoundlands, they just have the personalities I prefer. Smart, amenable and laid back, and not without their own brand of humor. ;-)
I love the Clydesdales as well, being of Scottish descent, and the Shire horses are an ancient breed as well. And I agree completely that the Frisians are amazing and gorgeous animals. Warmbloods are big around here, lots available, and there are a lot of crosses with Morgans and/or Tennessee walkers that are supposed to be great trail horses. And Haflingers and Percherons, and crosses, come available every so often.
I'm hoping in a few years to luck into a pair of draught horses trained to pull as a team, but also trained for saddle riding. I've seen them in the past, from farms that were downsizing, or farming out older working teams, which would be perfect for us, as Marek has never ridden, and it has been years since I have. If I find a couple of "kid safe" horses we should be good to go.
And I'm with you - I've loved horses since childhood, not the most practical pet living in suburban Los Angeles, and the bug has never left me. I still would love to have horses. Even a couple of minis as pasture pets. ;-)
And a full blooded Jersey milk cow, and milk goats, and emus, and capybaras, and . . .
;-)
saddling a draft horse....? How do you get the stirrups lowered enough to step up and swing yourself that high up into a saddle?
Big horse, big dogs, big cats - Maine Coon, lion, anything big - also on my favorites list!
Shardik, a novel by Richard Adams, about a giant bear - heartrending, horrible, but beautiful, with the most gruesome punishment of a human who tormented the giant bear...
You sound like me in so many ways. ooh, and you mention Haflingers! I'd forgotten that breed.
The story of Patton's WWII rescue of the Lipizzaners is extraordinary. Elizabeth Letts wrote about it... Disney made a 1960s movie about it, The Miracle of the White Stallion (?). And that reminds me of Snowflake, the $7 plow horse auctioned off for the glue factory, but he turned into the world's greatest jumper, beating out the purebreds....
Being a kid when I did most of my riding, I usuallymounted from a fence, and am in no way too proud to do so now.
If we do actually get horses, I'll probably build a mounting bench, but then I'd likely have to have something more portable for mounting away from home . . . I'm envisioning something along the lines of a narrow version of a diving ladder, that could attach to the saddle, and be rolled when not in use.
And yeah, I'm a sucker for stories like that of Snowflake and the Lippizaners, and always will be. ;-)
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All those Hollywood stunt people leap onto horses from a a rooftop and land in the saddle, or run up alongside the horse and jump right up... meh. I like your idea. :)
Although, the horse-mounting scene in The Three/Four Musketeers, where (I believe) D'Artagnan jumps onto the back of a horse from a balcony, is still pretty hilarious, but then most of the film is. ;-)
Of course, when he jumps onto the back of the horse that is engaged in pulling Athos (Oliver Reed) from the well, and unceremoniously cuts the the rope and rides off, without realizing he has just dumped his friend back into the drink, is even funnier.
LOVE those films!!! ;-)