20th June, 2007 Warm blood

On Monday I went out to see a Warmblood horse on the Isle of Wight. These horses are real conundrum to me - full of talent, energy and intelligence and yet they can be quite passive until they go bang. In this horse's case he was happy to repeat something a few times and then he'd just say "enough!". But then he is only 3 and at that critical point where you don't want to do too much with young bones but he is desperate for a job. I can quite see why Warmbloods on the Continent get started so early and are worked so intensively. So often this means that they don't go out for walks or just have fun hacking and I am contacted regularly by people whose horses just can't cope with going outside their comfort zone; it's a shame if they have to live their lives being contained mentally and physically. There is a lot of pressure to succeed on this kind of horse (and it is only a kind rather than a specific breed) because they are considered to be a posh performance horse. I have found treating them like a New Forest pony works quite well. I have to say I'd rather have a smaller horse if it means that I don't have to cope with an unexploded bomb towering over me and I certainly wouldn't want to go out on busy roads with one.