Anyone familiar with KWPN driving bred horses? Sire Sandokan, Dam sire Igor. Wondering how it would make as a saddle horse. Currently 4yrs 17hh.
The Dutch Harness horses that I have seen advertised seem to have very long backs, long flat croups, and travel with trailing hocks. Some of them do not have good walks either. Now that is not to say all are like this and they are not trainable. Just that you may be dealing with a very long horse that does not step under with his hind leg. I think Laura Graves made a liar out of me but she did not have a easy journey. And I think she is a very talented rider.
I do think the DHH are really cool being driven though. Since there are probably not many dressage horses with this breeding out there you would do best to look at the horse in front of you. It may not be the norm at all and its temperament may be so wonderful that you don’t look so hard at the other traits. A good brain trumps a lot of shortcomings.
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I’m not familiar with the two sires mentioned above, but I had a 1/2 DHH gelding (by Lucky Light, out of a DHH mare) that I took as a YR/AA from 2nd level to GP. Stereotypical DHH conformation paired with a bottomless try-hard brain (once I got over the young horse spazz phase) meant that once he learned how to sit and carry as well as push, he was actually easy to put together. Had a great canter, possibly from his sire, and good enough (7-8) walk.
Always was a bit ridiculous on the ground-- seemed like it didn’t take much to turn him into a kite instead of a pleasantly leading horse-- but was super under saddle. Also, even when he was comfortably showing GP with his hapless amateur (me) scoring healthily in the 60s, he still moved like a hocks-out driving horse out on his own, so free-schooling may not be a great indicator of future success.
Agree with SusanO. Lots of DHH out there nowadays with varying quality for riding. You’d do best to evaluate the horse in front of you.
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