Yesterday, while Holland was gaiting down a woods trail at a speed that kept Comet and Sampson cantering to keep up, a buzzard flushed about 12 steps in front of us. It flew at head level with a wing span of nearly four feet. In addition, it carried with it the pungent oder of its snack. Holland did not spook. Comet did not spook. Sampson did not spook. All of these horses have gone through the through the despooking program that we illustrate in our training DVD. It is ironic that after such occurences I have to sternly remind my little riders that they cannot count on other people's horses to react as well as our wild horses do when confronted with a terrifying sight and that they must always expect the worst if riding horses that we did not train.
This shot is when I first met Holland in 2007. It was taken in February and Holland was a bit beefy. No picture better illustrates that a Spanish mustang stops looking like a Spanish mustang when he becomes over weight. A fat mustang looks like an English cob. However, fat does not change all of the other key indicators of the breed. Go to the Horse of the Americas web site and click on the report of the Corolla and Shackleford inspection and you will find a tremendously enlightening discussion of those Spanish indicators.
Holland is a touch over 13 hands. I probably average riding him about 15 miles a week. On several occasions I have completed 50 mile in a day rides on him. I cannot recall ever asking him to go anywhere that he did not take me. I rarely allow anyone else to ride him.
He will be offered for sale the Tuesday after Hell freezes over.
Uhm, I don't think Holland is the only one looking a little beefy in that photo. ;) I'll bet he is glad he wasn't the only one to have slimmed down before the 50 mile ride.
ReplyDeleteOh come now, we all know that the camera adds fifty pounds! Seriously this was in the winter and I have several layers of sweat shirts on under that vest
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