I knew Night of Roses, Clarke Vesty is a friend. He is the person who piqued my interest in DHHs, and he handled all the details of the importation of our mare, Ugone. My first DHH cross was by Meijesteit. Someone once asked how complicated it was to import a horse from Europe. I replied, “ Nothing to it . Tell Clarke Vesty you bought a horse in Europe, go sit down and wait for horse to magically appear
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Thats so cool! My guy is by Famous V the stallion Clarke Vesty used to own!
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You must live in a different universe than do I. With rare exception over the last twenty years the DHHs and DHHcrosses I’ve worked with have been very tractable and the same for Saddlebreds over the past almost sixty years.
Unfortunately one of the rare exceptions is one we own now !!! Our Flexible daughter out of our Dutch mare is ONE HOT MAMA ! Fortunately, her daughter by Cornet Obolensky , now three, is a very stately calm filly. And considering at age three she is 16.3 and just shy of 1400 lbs whew, what a relief ! Just getting her started under saddle now
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Yes, I think this also goes along with my “depends on the level”. My mare gets especially difficult when you ask her to do things. She is kind of easy to ride if you just are happy lallygagging around. If you want a rideable canter and to put the pieces together over a 1.10+ course, it requires a lot more leg than I ever thought before I owned “that type”.
I think the other problem is, to get this type rideable for the average amateur requires a pro willing to put the time in. Another foreseeable problem with Kate’s potential buyer pool (as has been already discussed on this thread).
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Stunning! But you have to give the Standardbred some credit too, they cane be right handy over fences too.
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Yes I worked at both a Morgan (at the time the president of AMHA’s barn since fallen far out of favor and perhaps no longer with us??) and SB barn in the late 90s (early 00s) and of barn full, I could tell you there was one horse at each barn that was actually a real fruitloop. And honestly looking back at it now, they probably had horrible ulcers poor guys. Which honestly until I went to the barn that I’m at now where they’re super picky about the horses coming in, there’s always been a fruitloop or 4 at every barn, no matter the breed.
I am now a nervous nelly amateur, and I 100% would get on a spicy park horse, because they’re not going to be truly dumb, you just gotta let 'em do what they do and stay in the center. it’s all good from there.
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Oh yeah, the only horse to win three olympic gold medals was a Standardbred mare, Halla!
This is our friend on her standardbred, High Barbaree in 1968
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I noticed that photo is from the old Indio horse show. Many years ago, I showed and jumped in that same arena. I recognize the name High Barbaree. Can you share who the rider is?
A few names from that era come to mind, but I’m not sure.
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woman
Halla was a French Trotter x Standardbred, so not really what I’d say is a Standardbred, though she sure had the head of one. 
https://sporthorse-data.com/articles/halla-another-showjumping-star-past-olympic-world-championships
Bionic Woman was a Standardbred.
ETA regardless I love seeing the pictures of your horses of all breeds! You have a wonderful program.
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I’ve found the vast majority of ASBs to be delightful to work around, fun to ride, quite trainable, and with great personalities.
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Her name now is Melissa Mahalevich. At the time it was Melissa Cardenas, then Melissa Johnson
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Oh – I well remember Bionic Woman! I spent hours in the stands at “Del Mar International” – sometimes Open Jumpers was preceded by Roadster Ponies (to tie this back around to the harness horses).
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https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/tbt-bionic-woman-no-canter-big-jump/
The Roadster Ponies are a blast, but I prefer the horses myself.
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Hats off to Susie – I wouldn’t have wanted to ride that horse! She did make things exciting!!
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Well, hair…and black color.
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I’ve read this entire thread and probably missed this, but: has anybody seen the papers of the KWPN foals Kate is selling or looked them up in the breed registry? KWPN are specified by type. Or does the breeder select that when they register the foal and it means nothing?
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Both my boys have a lot of Selle Francais, and the older one is a heavy type–Quick Star/Galoubet and Voulez Vous/I Love You on top, with KWPN- Nimmerdor and Belgian WB- Askan de Lauzelle on bottom and he is BUILT. Getting him over his back is labor-intensive, but once I get him there he can jump a house. He can dork around all day long without using his back at 1.10m or lower, nose poked out, happy as a fat tube, but when the jumps go up I have to put a TON of leg on to get him up and balanced so we meet them properly.
My younger one is built so much lighter (Milano de Flore/Carthago Z on top, Quitender/Quidam’s Rubin on bottom), I can get him over his back with my seat.
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Apparently they are all recorded as jumper type foals because the sires are jumpers.
Also, most of the foals from her Hakuna Matata mare (the big black mare she has used repeatedly for ICSI) are recorded as Register A, as the mare is actually Register B.
I think it’s important to step back and evaluate your pool of subjects. It’s completely fair to note your real life experience with the breed. However, your very first line admits the horses you’ve met are sub-standard, unknown breeding, unwanted-by-the-Amish animals. Not someone’s high-value, well-bred, quality representatives of the breed. I mean, if the Amish don’t want them, and they’re cheap, they probably DO have a screw loose (mentally or physically). Then you go on to say the Saddlebreds you’ve known were not show quality either.
So you have a poor opinion of DHH and SBs-- but you are judging them based on admittedly poor quality animals. It’s like someone who has only dealt with broken down, leftover WV-bred rejects from Mountaineer or Charles Town…if that’s your only experience with OTTBs, it’s fair that you believe all TBs are crippled, scrawny, built downhill, terrible movers with bad feet, no brains, and minimal athleticism. But take a tour of the big farms in Kentucky; visit Keeneland or Saratoga or Del Mar; see what the ideal TB looks like, moves like, with class and character… and you realize it was completely improper to judge a whole breed by its worst parts. (This isn’t meant to shame WV-breds… just a note that cheaper state-bred programs may not offer the quality you will find among 7-figure, G1-winning mares and stallions).
I personally know the bare minimum about harness types and Saddlebreds. It’s foreign to me. But I can appreciate what they are good at, and recognize that a quality horse with athleticism and mind can succeed in a variety of disciplines. I think everyone can admire the ability of Tom Neese’s horses, and acknowledge that such types certainly ARE out there and desired by the best DHH breeders. (and I think we all agree that the other certain crosses discussed all over this thread are no where in that category)
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These exist but I know a lot of adult ammies who ride horses that are a good match, even if they don’t compete. Actually perhaps the term adult ammie implies that people compete because that’s the show classification. Perhaps that does mean more people trying to walk the line between suitable and over horses for chasing ribbons. Actually I see more low level pros in this bind! But for the entire population of nonpro adult riders, most are not over horsed and most of them figure out how to restart or school their horses even if it’s outside a competition framework.
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