My Shackleford Holland is in shape. He is rock hard. He is gaited and moves out in his gait with considerable speed and ease. Joey, our new Choctaw, has not been ridden for a while and is not rock hard. Last Sunday we took Joey out for his first woods ride.
Christina rode Joey and I set out on Holland. The gaitedness of the Shackleford is not nearly as pronounced as is Joey's. I set out on Holland and held him back a bit so Joey could keep up. After a while Joey tired of the second position and took the lead.
I do not know if Joey was gaiting at top speed. I do know that Holland was....and I know that Holland and I were loosing ground fast. It never entered my mind that Joey would gait with such speed. I even wondered if Holland was holding back for some reason.
He was not. He gaited as fast as he could without cantering and Joey was pulling away from us.
I cannot imagine what Joey will be able to accomplish after reaching peak condition.
Every strain of Colonial Spanish Horse is endangered--some more than others. The unfortunate and obvious fact is that these horses are only allowed to go extinct by those who have never ridden them, or even seen them.
A horse person who had never ridden one of these horses sniffed to me,"You seem to think that these are some kind of super horses."
Yep. That is what happens when you spend a bit of time with these horses. You learn that they are not just 'ok'. You learn that these are super horses.
When skeptics ride Colonial Spanish horses they often find themselves feeling like I did as I was watching Joey leave Holland--confused and even a bit humbled.
(Joey is the pinto. His half brother, Twister is the bay.)
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