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Posted on 01/02/2007 9:57:39 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
This is a horse chat thread where we share ideas, ask for input from other horsemen, and talk about our riding and horse-keeping. We have a lot of different kinds of riders and horses, and a lot to share. In the previous threads we have had a great time talking through lessons, training, horse lamenesses, illnesses and pregnancies... and always sharing pictures and stories.
I always have a link to this thread on my profile page, so if you have something to say and can't find the thread in latest posts… look for it there and wake the thread up!
I also have a ping list for horse threads that are of interest, and MissTargets will now be pinging everyone most mornings. Let MissTargets and/or me know if you would like to be on the ping list. As FreeRepublic is a political site, our politics and other issues will probably blend in…. There are many issues for horsemen that touch politics… land use, animal rights/abuse cases that make the news…. Legislation that might affect horse owners.
So... like the previous threads, this is intended as fun place to come and share stories, pictures, questions and chit-chat, unguided and unmoderated and that we come together here as friends. There are lots of ways of doing things and we all have our quirks, tricks and specialties that are neat to learn about.
Previous threads:
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - thread ONE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread TWO!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread THREE!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FOUR
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FIVE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SIX
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SEVEN
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread EIGHT
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread NINE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread TEN
New folk and occasional posters, jump right in and introduce yourselves, tell us about your horses, and post pictures if you've got them!
There aren't many Apps in English barns, certainly not in the east. Now that I think about it, I probably only rode 4 or 5 of them over the years. The first one that I rode as a kid was a nice horse, named Capital G. He was a big (at least to a little kid) gelding with a big head but a kind eye. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer but a good kid's horse, very reliable if a bit forward. The others were pretty uniformly bad and/or dumb, particularly poor Linus, who was a dark bay blanket App, pretty good looking, but just about as stupid as it was possible for a horse to be and still be breathing.
Maybe they just sell the reject Apps to the English stables in the east . . .
Is somebody trying to preserve the original type?
I used to ride a grey mare that had terrible problems with sarcoids. They didn’t usually occur in the girth or saddle area, though, so she stayed in work. She was still going strong when the stable that owned her moved (the landlord sold the land for a subdivision - that is a BIG problem around here!) I heard that she eventually died of heart failure, she must have been over 30 years old. So the sarcoids were an annoyance but not life-threatening.
Yup .. that's it! *wink*
Many are. I think Duchess might even put herself in that category.
You've managed to backpedal into a position that is merely snobbish, but your original post was insulting and rude, and given that many friends here love the breed, I'm surprised if you thought it would go over well.
Horrible, I tell you! /sarc
That looks like a Knabstrupper, not an App.
She’s very cool :~)
HHMMMMM....well, one I don’t think it’s really fair for you to be dragging Duchess into this. I think Duchesses horses are beautiful, but they don’t look anything like the old style apps. They have beautiful color, but body style, IMO, they look more quarter horse...LOL...that’s why I like them.
Personally, I don’t think AAM’s first post was all that wrong. She described the old style app. pretty much right on. I couldn’t figure out what you thought was harsh. How would you describe the old style apps?
Becky
My cousin’s son is the one with the boarding barn that I’ve shown y’all pictures of and this is one of the horses that he has. There’s also a girl out there who gives lessons and apparently all her little girl students like to ride Takara. Of course she has a bone-jarring trot, but they don’t care. I wouldn’t mind giving her a test-drive myself, just to see what it was like. I think she’s about 17 hands.
The looks of a horse are all a matter of opinion. What's not a matter of opinion is that the old type App does have a large head, large ears, a concave neck and scanty tail. The prominent sclera and the mottled skin are, I think, part of the standard.
It's not a matter of snobbishness, but of fitness for the purpose intended. I wouldn't enter my mare in a western conformation class, they would put her down at the very bottom because she is all wrong for that purpose. Nor would I put her to cutting cows, she would just look silly and not know what to do, and I would expect the cowboys to make game of us.
But I wouldn't be insulted if they did. Some folks don't like the racing type TBreds, and that's o.k. I don't happen to think that the old type App looks very good as a hunter, since the hunter type puts a premium on small head, arched neck, full tail and the solid colors . . . but the App wasn't originally intended for that purpose.
Great picture. I love her white socks:).
Becky
Not sure to which horse you are referring, but the black with the blanket is Mood Indigo .. 1995 16.2 REg App gelding, competition eventing horse in Lexington. The leopard is Pay N Go .. Pam Fowler's Grand Prix dressage horse. A reg app from the Prince Plaudit line.
I've known some of the old type Apps over the years, and like it or not, that's the way they look.
I went back and read my post, and I just don't think it's insulting. Slightly exaggerated, certainly, for purposes of effect -- because I was comparing that horse of Bob's to an old-style App, and he's exactly the opposite in every respect. He's an anti-App. It's amazing that he can be supposedly of the same breed.
Maybe it’s not fair... I am hoping Duchess weighs in.
Some of the cosmetic faults she mentions are fair... it’s true that sometimes foundation apps have some sparse tail and faces only a fancier could love. But I don’t think scrawny, ewe necked or platter feet is fair or even accurate, is all... That’s not my experience... Maybe they aren’t all pretty, but in my experience they are hardy and strong. As for the mottled skin... that’s a feature some may not like, but I don’t think we need to go out of our way to call it ugly. There was no need to insult a whole breed in order to compliment Bob’s new horse.
Yeah, with the bay coloring, those socks and feathering, she’d be a perfect Clyde (color-wise) if she wasn’t roan. I thought the roan was kinda cool though (as if I wouldn’t). ;o)
I used to ride a registered Quarter Horse that was 7/8 Thoroughbred.
There was a Clyde-TB cross at a barn I used to ride at, she was not only tall but WIDE. Biggest thing this side of the two Belgians in residence at my daughter's summer camp. The little kids' legs used to stick out straight sideways on those Belgians -- but they loved them.
I have no idea if it's the same gene or developed independently. Supposedly the Knabstrups were originally imported from Spain, so perhaps the spotted gene went to America via the Conquistadors and to Denmark with the High School riders . . .
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