Re: Dutch Warmblood

["Maryanne Stroud Gabbani" <gabbani@starnet.com.eg>]

> After reading all the reactions to Bette's request for a Dutch Warmblood
> mare for lease I feel I have to "defend" the Dutch Warmblood horse.
Somebody
> even asked if we ever rode "such a thing". I do not know if this person
> realizes that there are more disciplines than endurance and also other
horse
> breeds than arabians. Dutch Warmbloods are the top performers world wide
in
> Dressage and show jumping and that certainly proves their quality.

I have to admit that I only know one Dutch warmblood, but if Oscar is
representative of the breed....Wow! He is a monster in size, an easy 17+,
with a brain that could probably handle postgraduate physics. That, in fact,
is his major drawback. He's one of the smartest horses I've ever seen and
therefore not all that easy to handle. Before Dory broke her sesamoid he was
a common partner for desert rambles and could move like nothing I've ever
seen. He's usually used for jumping and dressage, but would go out for a 30
odd km trot (the rest of us had to canter a lot to keep up even when he kept
the power low) and come back fresh as a daisy. I've told his owner a zillion
times that this is a distance horse if I ever saw one and her response was
that she thought he'd drive her crazy if he was any more fit. Other than the
problems of heat dissipation that I understand the big guys have, you could
do a whole lot worse. For myself, here in the land of Arabians, I have
trouble seeing what the pedigree problem is. I have 5 part breds and
wouldn't trade them for all the pure in Egypt. The only one I'd really like
is the father of Dory's colt...and I have his son with the mother's
temperament....best of both worlds.

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
gabbani@starnet.com.eg