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The horse that changed your opinion

4K views 22 replies 20 participants last post by  Cinder 
#1 · (Edited)
Hey just wanted to see those horses that changed your opinion on the breed.
Personally I have never like appaloosas, infact I used to always have appys excluded on my dreamhorse searches, even the crosses.
But then I got Fable! When the lady first emailed me her, I wasn't very excited, infact the only reason I went to see her is because there was some other horses nearby, so I was like why not?
Fable changed that, now Im still not big on the full appys (just not into stock type horses) she is registered Raz Bar Jaykime.
She is amazing, never shy from a trail, jump or anything! We can go into a full gallop across the field jump whatever is there and then I nice jog no issues, I have ridden her up to her withers in the ocean and through some abandoned farm buildings. She has definitly changed my opinion on the breed, who are the horses that changed yours?
:)
May I also had I think she is prob one of the most beautiful horses I have ever met o_~
 

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#3 ·
Fable is appy x qh? arab?

Mac is an appy and he is also extremely versatile, and a bit cunning, too.

Let's see . . .
I always thought draft horses would be heavy on the hand and clumsy of foot, b but Zulu is light on the hand (usually) and very nimble. He is also sensitive in ground work, very sensitive.

Horse Mammal Horse supplies Mare Rein
 
#4 ·
I always though the same thing about the draft crosses then I saw this full perch rocking the dressage ring on day!
There are some appy people at the trails and Fable is often refered to as a Colored Appendix lol
 
#5 ·
Beau is the horse that changed my mind about TBs, OTTBs to be exact.

When we decided to get a companion for our 9 yr. old Belgian mare, I had my mind set on finding a nice, calm, middle aged Paint.

What we ended up with was a young, sensitive off track Thoroughbred!!

I NEVER wanted an OTTB.....I'd heard too many horror stories about their wild and dangerous personalities..

And those I'd known from the TB farm we used to board our draft at lived up to the horror stories I'd heard. Example: one bit the BO's 12 yr. old daughter in the forehead, removing a hunk of skin and flesh (wasn't there but heard it was bloody and traumatic for the child) leaving her scarred, and ruining her emotionally so that she no longer wants anything to do with horses...other horses there were barely ridable, oftentimes they were biters, one bucked the rider off and she flew into the barn wall....

so of course I wanted nothing to do with those dreaded TBs I'd heard so much about.

Until we met this guy:









When we bought him he was a bit of a handful....bossy, rude and without any manners whatsoever.

But he was also intelligent, trainable and very sensitive.

Two years later, he is now the friendliest, most agreeable, human oriented horse I've ever met. He chooses to spend time nuzzling or licking or just standing with his human herd over his equine companion.

He IS still high energy and very mischevious....he needs mental stimulation and physcial activity.....but he is the most fantastic, well behaved horse ever, without a vicious or violent bone in his body! He is nothing like the horror stories I had heard....

What I love about him the most is shown in this video:


He is affectionate, more like a dog than a horse.....and very human oriented.
 
#6 ·
Beau, I was the opposite of you! (by the way, your Beau is GORGEOUS) I actually wanted a Thoroughbred because the lesson horse I rode was an OTTB and we got along really well. Before Shamrock, I came real close to getting a rescued TB from the upstate (which meant I'd have to drive 3 hours to look at him). I never really considered wanting a Quarter horse because they just always yelled western to me and I'm an English rider.

Then, along came Shamrock..

When I talked to his owner on the phone, I didn't have high hopes for him. He didn't seem to know much about him & he kept saying, "He's real big!" like he was trying to deter me from coming to look at him. I decided to go look at him (he was 30-45 minutes away rather than 3 hours) and fell in love. :) He was a tad lazy and dirty, but he loved attention. And was beautiful! For a "backyard" horse with no real job, I felt that he was very nicely built (my trainer & farriers think so too).
 

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#7 · (Edited)
I have never had anything against QHs. I did think that I would not be likely to ever get one that would be an excellent advanced eventing candidate. That was until I met Scotty. This little 15 hand guy was the smartest and most athletic horse I may have ever ridden.

I met him when a local trail rider was having trouble loading him in a trailer. I offered to help load him and there was just something about this horse that intrigued me. The owner asked me to work with him and the rest was history. This horse was smart in an almost scary human way. After he figured out that loading in a trailer meant he was going somewhere interesting, all I had to do is throw the lead over his neck, and tell him to load up. He would trot up to the trailer and jump in. Once, I was sitting in the truck when I did this. People were amazed when he trotted around and jumped in.

He was showing prelim getting ready to move to intermediate when he sold. I was SO sorry to see him go.

Scotty gave me a renewed appreciation of the versatility of the QH.

 
#8 ·
Allison -

Hearing that story of Scotty gives me encouragement for Shamrock! I hope one day he'll be that willing to jump in. :) The only time I've seen him in the trailer is when I brought him home. Which reminds me, we should probably be practicing trailering. Haha.

I must say, though, I wish I knew if he is good at it or not. His previous owner told me that he had never loaded into a 2 horse before, so it'd be best to bring a stock trailer to get him. However, I don't own a trailer & the only one we could borrow was a 2 horse. The previous owner didn't even give Shamrock much of a chance to get on by himself before he was using what I felt like were unnecessary measures to get him in (like putting a rope behind his buttocks and using the pressure from it to get him moving). :/
 
#9 ·
I'm gonna have to say Percherons were the horse I least expected to fall in love with. I was the kid who grew up reading the Thoroughbred books and wanted to race the wind. I loved paints and colours. I loved blacks, and DESPISED greys...

So naturally when Bandit came along he was the exact opposite of everything I thought I loved. He was big, and a draft, and GREY (yes I was very superficial at the time:lol:).

I first met him on my first day working at my first farm. The barn manager told me to "go get the big black one" - he was a very dark grey at the time, so dark he was almost black. So I went out, lead rope in hand, grain in the other and proceeded to stalk the reluctant horse around the field. Eventually I got a lead on him, after three tries... and then he proceeded to turn tail and bolt, dragging me - who wasn't smart enough to let go at first:oops: - over a log and dumping me on my backside.

But I came to relate to the gelding on an emotional level. The troubled horse, who had been mistreated and never given a proper chance, taught me how to work with horses - especially flighty, kickers who bolted and were scared of everything.

He taught me a lot, and I came to love the look and feel of Percherons. Since Bandit, Percherons have been my favourite breed.





 
#10 ·
Minor example:

I've never liked Quarter Horses, looks wise. I've always thought they were just plain; common looking. Common... That was my resounding thought about them. Everything you saw in a roadside field was a QH. I also was never a fan of their conformation. Too short, down hill, too muscular...

I met a horse named Lacey a few days ago. Beautiful... Not common looking at all! She was tall, lean, well conformed, and buttermilk palomino. She is the only QH I'd ever met (and I've seem many!) that I would buy in a heart beat.
 
#11 ·
Well, Arabs may not be my favorite breed, but before I rode Dez I really tried to avoid riding Arabs. All those Arab stereotypes and some personal experiences with ones that fit stereotypes. Well, Dez and I may not have gotten along the greatest but she showed me that Arabs are pretty amazing horses, extremely smooth, fast, pretty level-headed and mellow. Extremely gentle too.

PhotoReflect - IN THE GAME action photography - MIHA Districts Ludington 09

 
#13 ·
Well when I was younger I didn't think Arabians could barrel race. (Mind you, I was only ten years old, and in my infinite and undying wisdom I had completely take on the opinion that arabians were hot, skittish, psychotic creatures who would break down their legs if they ever even thought about turning a barrel)

Well one day my trainer slapped me on this tiny little grey arab mare and said "Go play."

That was the end of THAT theory.
 
#14 ·
I have a couple of breeds that were on my "never in a million years" list. Arabs were top of the list, followed closely by TBs. I'd heard (and believed) all the typical arab and TB stereotypes, and I just didn't want to deal with that. I was in love with paints and QHs.

Well then, I got the opportunity to start working with this chick (who has become one of my good friends) who had two arabs and an arab/saddlebred cross (to begin with). At first, I wasn't sure what to think. All three of the horses were incredibly intelligent and, although the arab mare and the arab cross gelding were a little high strung, the arab gelding was the most laid back, lazy horse I'd ever met. After I got to know the horses well and worked with them, I fell in love with them, even though they were *le gasp* arabs. One of my other really close friends has an arab gelding who is the sweetest thing, and the trainer at our barn has an arab and, even though he's a weirdo, he is a sweetheart. Anyway, the arab cross gelding became my first horse and I still consider him my heart horse (Aires is too, but yeah).

Here's Kintari, the laziest arab in creation...he's also the prissiest gelding I have EVER met. He will park out as absolutely far as he can to avoid splashing himself when he pees (Aires will barely park out when he pees lol) and he enjoyed spa days a little too much. lol


And then there's Remi...she was a little crazy, but it wasn't her fault. She had an injury that caused neurological damage. The vet didn't expect her to live, much less be ridden again. She was started back under saddle last year.

And then there's my Dakota-man. He is a bit high-strung, but such a sweetheart and so willing to please, once you gain his trust. He also LOVES kids.
This is when we first started working together:



And this is his "Really? You're taking pics while I'm standing here on the hot walker? You suck, lady!"


And then there's TBs. I thought that, like arabs, they were all insane. I couldn't have been more wrong. My friend with the arabs bought Compton, an 8yo OTTB, from a horse dealer who was leasing the barn she is leasing now before she was for $500. He was severely underweight and very aloof. Several months, several pounds and a lot of love later, he is an amazingly sweet horse that I just love. If he had been available when I was horse hunting, I would have snatched him up in a heartbeat.
Skater boy Compton says "Hey, dude. What's up?"

 
#15 · (Edited)
I was always a Thoroughbred and Arabian person, though we also had ponies and Warmbloods. I guess the breed I didn't want anything to do with was Quarter Horses as the ones I saw in the sixties and seventies in Australia were short little muscle factories that may have been great for cutting in the pen, but for long days of mustering or endurance rides or dressage or jumping or polocrosse, which we all did, they just weren't the right build and didn't have the stamina required. Then I saw the more modern, taller QHs coming in and realised that these horses probably could do dressage and hacking and jumping and looked comfortable for long days in the saddle... and I bought a QH colt that couldn't even be registered as a QH at the time because he was a Perlino and they wouldn't register them, named him Days Of Gold and he has now won thirty national champions/titles and has quite a few Quarter Horse national champions and reserve national champions in hacking and dressage (as well as halter). He was the first Perlino or Cremello stallion to get registered with AQHA (AustraliaQHA, not AmQHA) He went on to change the minds of many, many people who didn't think a Quarter Horse was suited to anything outside western disciplines, and his offspring now win at eventing, jumping, dressage and hacking all over the country.

Here's a video of him over the years from 2004-11. The opening 'hack' class was this year at the World Show Down Under and the 16.2hh Palomino behind him is one of his sons, a horse that is beating Warmbloods, Thoroughbreds and Anglos in open dressage. Most of his riding scenes have my daughter Kate on his back (she's 5'11" so she makes him look short but he's just a tad under 16 hands), any scenes with a tubby lady in the saddle are of me (I won a couple of national champions at the Australian Quarter Horse National Championshps with him before Kate was old enough to ride him at QH shows) and then our very tall male friend, an international level rider, is on him in other scenes making him look like a pony. A lot of his major wins have been against all breeds under non-western judges, and I know he changed a lot of their minds about Quarter Horses as well and a few of the judges actually bred to him to get QH cross horses to compete with in their favourite disciplines.

So, he changed my mind, and he's changed the minds of thousands of other people who thought Quarter Horses were mainly for western disciplines.

 
#16 ·
When I started riding, I was put on an Anglo-Arab named Rave On. What an amazing babysitter of a horse. When I got a little older, I stuck primarily with stock horses and became very fond of them. They were safe, steady and calm... unlike those 'crazy' racehorses.

Then I started working at the track, on the harness racing side. At first, I was really nervous about working with these horses. I'd heard a lot of stories about how high strung racehorses could be and I was scared. Then I met my first Standardbred and I was smitten. He was a giant (to me, anyway) gelding named Blue Star Legacy. He looked like an overgrown Arabian and he was the kindest horse I'd ever met. He never put a foot wrong and I got the distinct feeling that he was looking out for me. As I worked my way down the shed row, I found that most of the Standardbreds were just as kind and willing. I was hooked. Now I own my very own Standardbred (my heart horse that I spent 12 years searching for!) and I recommend the breed to everyone. I honestly believe that any future horses I own will be off the track Standardbreds, because I love the breed that much.
 
#17 ·
I grew up reading about the Black Stallion and fell in love with the idea of having a flashy, spirited Arabian or TB. I just thought I had to have the kind of horse that danced through life on tip toe and stole the show by entering a room. Goodness, was I a naive youngster! In all the breed books you pick up, QH's are just the plod along, dependable, quiet, and most of all PLAIN ranch horse. Great for getting a job done, but not much to look at. Well, when I was about 16 I started cleaning stalls for a QH breeder just to try to get some exposure to horses since my parents could not afford lessons and I needed a first job anyway.

Half-Pint was a spunky, dark bay appendix colt who was out of a TB mare. He was a gateway horse for me, helping me see past the breed label and actually LOOK at the horses on that farm. He did not change my opinion of the QH, because somehow, to this day he was more TB in my eyes. After him, though, I got interested in Jack.

Jack was a 3yo stallion at the time and already had his first foal crop on the ground (this was an oopsie, but it turned out nice). He was not broke to ride yet, though he had a ton of ground work and perfect manners. I had only been riding for about 8 months when I was the one to start Jack under saddle without much trouble at all. It was his temperament that swayed me.

From then on, I was hooked on that intelligent, trainable mind. I also learned that there were some truly gorgeous and flashy looking horses among the QH's, too. I now own two of Jack,s daughters, both of whom are very smart, refined and flashy young ladies.
 
#18 ·
I've always been a WB girl (know nothing of pedigree, just love riding them!) but leased a few Arabs. They were the stereotypical "crazy Arab" that took off for no reason, or flipped over backwards because something simple frightened her. Wasn't until a friend convinced me to come ride a horse he had for sale that I changed my mind about all Arabs being crazy. Loved it so much I wanted a full or half Arab horse, which is when Izzie came into the picture :) She is a horse that is changing a lot of people's opinions on Arabs :)
 
#19 ·
I was totally against the Thoroughbred breed and all for stocky short quarter horses/paints ( Hence the name ) . I dont know why i was against them but something about the body build just didnt do it and they were too hot for me.. Till the day i found my beast and his mom. :) I LOVE thoroughbreds and i have NEVER had a problem with them. I love how sensitive they are and i love the energy. My boy proved to be one of the smartest horses i have ever met and honestly i dont think i could have ever found a better horse.
And yes he shakes hands. ;)
 

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#21 ·
Funny you should be posting this, I was just talking to my hubby about it the other day.

I was NEVER a fan of Paints, I just wasnt. I thought they were pretty, but thats as far as it went, didnt want one, didnt want to work with one, ect, ect.

I always looked for horses such as TB's, QH's, and solid colored breeds. Loved bays, and greys....never Paints.

Soooo, what did I end up with? A Paint, ****....next horse I get, if I can ever afford one, will no doubt be a Paint :D
 
#22 ·
Anglo-Arabs... I never thought I would EVER get along with an arab or part-arab. Indeed I was offered the ride on a very highly educated Anglo but turned it down on the grounds that it had Arab blood so was obviously not going to work.

WELL.

Along came Monty. He was the right price, with the right education, even had the right amount of white on him and he was the PERFECT colour. I was told he's SOOOOO quiet and reliable, and I was told that he would make me ride properly instead of sitting around being a passenger.

I still wasn't sure. He was, after all, part-Arab, and the non-Arab blood was the other breed I swore I wouldn't get - Thoroughbred!! So the owner offered me a two-month trial and him on payment plan with as long as I want to pay him off, $1000 less than the asking price, WITH all his gear. She was determined to find him a good home and having been to my place just a couple of months before, she knew that I would provide a great home.

So I went away, talked to Mum, and decided, ok, we'll take him on trial and go from there. The day he got off the truck he was TERRIFIED but I just thought, yep, this is my horse. He'd gone down in the truck and twisted his knee so the first whole week of the trial I couldn't ride him, and the first time I got on him was bareback in his halter and we went OUT. Well - I couldn't have asked for a better horse.

Sure, we've had our ups and our downs, he has bucked me off, bolted with me several times... but he is AMAZING. When I get it right everything just clicks. He can be a little bit hot and he does get oh SO excited but now that I've learned to manage it without grabbing at his mouth, I've had no real troubles. I've also changed bits since then but the only difference is that the one we're in now has a flat link in the middle instead of an oval/lozenge.

Monty is so fantastic that I went out and bought myself another part-Arab in my gorgeous filly Satin. She is just a dream, so easy to handle and she goes to sleep at shows, no fuss or anything, even with screaming kids, sideshow alley nearby, cows and (god forbid!!) goats, horses going mental close by... just the quietest little thing and my god she is SO smart! Totally people-oriented, really affectionate and smoochy. Yeah she gets a bit pushy but that suits me perfect because I tend to be a bit overbearingly dominant and so I would frighten a timid foal and might ruin a middle-of-the-road type. But there's no ruining my bub, she is just amazing and so forgiving. So very like every Welsh I ever met, and yet she's not supposed to have any Welsh blood in her.
 
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