The are the most beautiful, annoying, endearing, smart, stubborn, lovable big people in small bodies that you can get:lol:
I have, does a quick count, 1 Stallion, 3 mares, two yearlings I pure bred colt foal, one haffy x draft/Qh foal and am waiting (impatiently) for the birth of a Haffy x Arab baby, which I'm very excited about.
They often test you when they change homes, I think of them as the adopted child who will suddenly go through all sorts of tantrums and bad behavior just to make sure that you do love them, be firm and consistent and you will win through.
Often they will keep going along with things that you are training them to do but they aren't actually learning, just doing and then when you try and take the next step they will have a mini melt down because they don't understand. So try and take things slowly, even when they seem to be getting things.
You may want to invest in some extra locks or chains around your doors and gates, in their ever eternal quest for more food they can become quite the escape artists.
That's all for now, I have to go play with some Hafflies, but you can read all about Haflingers and their people on this site
Congrats on your new haflinger! I currently have one - he is 10 and has been in my life since he was a yearling. His name is Toby (registered Motley RR) and stands a bit over 13.3 hands. I had another one but he went to a new home last year.
I find them mischievous and fun loving, but will give their all for you as well. They are super smart which means they can learn quickly - both the good and the bad so make sure you are only training them what you want them to learn and not inadvertently teaching them a bad habit.
Toby used to be a bigger handful when he was younger, but seemed to reach a more mental mature stage when he was around 8 years of age and now he is a good solid trail partner. They tend to be easy keepers and keeping the weight off of them is the challenge. A sniff of oats is enough to put pounds on their hips. But Toby will practically do cartwheels for a peppermint.
They tend to have good strong hooves and many can go barefoot even on rocky trails.
There is a haflinger gathering scheduled in Lexington KY in October if you are anywhere near there.
I have a student that has one. He is fabulous. He fox hunts, trail rides, does dressage and jumps. Now, her young daughter practises her vaulting on him.
I am a newer Haflinger owner. I have only had mine for going on eight months.
As GH points out, it is a good thing they are so cute. MFM (my Haflinger) is not afraid of anything which tends to get her in real trouble. She opens gates, she opens doors, etc. She has 'that is not latched only closed' radar, so when doing chores I can not just close a gate I have to make sure it is totally latched if I have to run and get something.
When she gets in trouble she looks at me with those adorable big brown eyes and all is forgiven....sigh.
We have one that is used in out thereaputic riding program! her name is Cindy. she's good with the kids. but has her moments sometimes (not a big fan of hats being passed to or held by her rider. so that eliminated one fun game for the kids lol). But as soon as she knows she has an able bodied person working with her she starts testing you. be on the ground or in the saddle. but she's such a sweet girl, <3
I agree with Golden. They are my favorite breed so far. I love their personality. But they tend to be pushy and break things. Think they can get away with it because they are short and cute. I have a Haflinger, whom I love so much I got her face tattooed on me, a Haflinger X Gypsy Vanner and a 3/4 Belgian 1/4 Haflinger. Out of the five horses here those three are my favorites. ; )
I have one too she's 7 now and just starting to act (almost!!) sane at times. She isn't an escape artist like many but only because she's afraid of the fence (and her own shadow most of the time!!) As soon as we fix one problem another one usually develops, life is certainly never boring with a haffy around, but that said i wouldn't change her, she's worth all the effort (& blood, sweat and tears!!) she has excellent stamina and is brill at the pleasure rides (just can't stop her once we set off!!) A few pics of my beautiful girl....
This is my baby girl, I hope she still counts. She's half Arab but the Haffie in her is a little more dominant, especially in her brain lol.
Her name is Merry and she is 9 years old and currently in retraining after some confusing first years of riding.
She is such a joy to work with! She just goes and goes, and she's very stubborn but once you get her on your side she is so willing to work for you, I feel like she's going to excel at anything and everything I point her pretty little nose to.
I am not generally all that big of an Arab fan, but I'm definitely falling in love with Haffies as I learn more about them and work with her.
She has been lightly started in both reining and more lightly, dressage, both of which I intend to at least somewhat pursue with her if I can. One thing I find awesome about her is that she has a solid jog, trot, lope, and canter. Her jog and lope are smooth as butter and easy to ride down a trail for days, and her trot and canter are very big and full of action and movement. It's an awesome find for a multi-discipline rider like me who has struggled to do different disciplines on horses who were very surely predominantly just English or just Western style horses, but Merry is very much good at both ways of working and going.
I'll be interested to hear about it, too! I don't see many others of that cross around.
Nope, it's actually just a smooth sweet iron snaffle. Supposedly she used to be ridden in exclusively a twisted wire one, which shocked me some for sure. She's unbelievably soft and responsive to this bit! Some people...
Alwaysbehind, I sure wish! I'm still hoping and praying somehow it will get sorted. It would really help me along as I eventually pursue showing her...her current/former/something-or-other owner will be letting the previous owners know about her full transfer over to me (finally!) next month, so maybe if anything is going to put the pressure on them to come across them that will be it. Or maybe they were never really there. God and Jesus know. I might contact the Half-Arab registry with the information I have and what was given to me as her registered name, because I would assume they could help me out at least for a fee, I think? I hope, lol...
I sure am curious to know what gave them the impression she was registered Haflinger, though...I'm hoping they will still get in contact, but if they don't when she contacts them I guess I will assume I will not be getting anything from them.
I'm so glad that I guessed the right way around, you have done a great job and she does look fantastic at the lighter weight. It's a constant battle trying to keep weight off of mine, I think I'll have to break them all to harness then get them going a a 4 up or a 6 hitch so I can exercise more at once:lol:
She's suprisingly not difficult to keep the weight off, once we got there which was of course quite a long slow battle initially with SO much weight to get off but now we're there she maintains her weight quite easily, she's turned out 24/7 at the moment on a paddock just under 2 acres with a small pony for company and she has a handful of hay twice a day, the grass isn't great quality and she does just fine on that!! But i did find out when she was away she was turned out on 14 acres :shock: with 1 other horse so its really no wonder she looked like she did (there last horse had died of a heart attck.....i wonder why!!!)
Thats a great idea, driving 4/6 of them together would certainly make exercising them all much easier
Hi am also a new owner of a beautiful 17 year old Haflinger gelding. His name is Dover. I live in Tennessee near the Ky state line and I was wanting to find out about the Haflinger Gathering. Does the horse have to be registered or anything like that. My horse was a school horse and he's broke to harness and saddle but I don't know anything about how to drive one but want so much to learn. Can anyone that might be going give me any information. Of course this will be my first event also is anyone going that is from Tennessee?
Two of the horses at the barn I board at are Haflingers, one a mare and the other a gelding. It's always amusing to see how they reason through a new situation. The last time I showed up in their pen, both came up to me but stopped about 5 feet away. As soon as I moved, they stepped back. If I ignored them, the gelding would creep forward. Within a few minutes, he was licking my hands while the mare hung back. He twitched his ears slightly and she came right forward to begin licking my shirt. Once the gelding decided he'd had enough of tasting me, he flicked his ears again, the mare moved away and then he followed her. Very interesting to watch the dynamic.
They're the cutest 'midget drafts' I've ever seen.
No - your haflinger does not have to be registered. In fact its combined with the national drive (Homepage) this year and so there will be a lot of non-haflingers there as well - though our haflinger group will probably be doing dinner and a few other things separate. We will be bringing a haflinger and a draft cross. Even though its in combination with the national drive group we have been assured those who like to ride are more than welcome as well with the haflinger group.
If you want to do the whole week its $80 but if you want to do just the weekend (fri - sun) its $60. There is additional cost for stalls if you bring a horse ($35 per night). Registration must be completed by Sept 5th and all the forms are found on the national drive website I posted above.
There is also a 2011Haflingergathering webgroup on yahoo that can provide more information. Hope this helps!
This is Sunny D, a Haflinger I showed in jumper classes last year! She was awesome! Very queit and well behaved on the ground with good manners. She is quick, could jump and turn on a dime. If they are all like her, the breed is super fun!
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