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Shagya Araber Kemir
Advertisement PHOTOWORKSHOPS WITH CHRISTIANE SLAWIK 2009 From the architectural masterpiece of art-genius Friedensreich Hundertwasser, the “Stanglwirt”, one of the best hotels in Austria, or the dream islands of the Seychelles combine wellness, luxurious short vacations or amazing enviroments with an equine-photography workshop. All in a relaxed atmosphere, so you can easily bring your partner, who might not be interested in horses or photography as much as you. We want you to have a great time with Christiane and her years of worldwide experience in equinephotography. Christiane explains the digital camera-technique in a very clear and easy way. You will understand ISO, AV, TV, aperture, shutter speed and manuall exposures. You will be surprised, what a true professional sees and uses, to get “the” perfect shot in any situation from every horse. 30.4.-4.5. LIPICANS at the Bio-Hotel STANGLWIRT, Going am Wilden Kaiser /Tirol Luxurious Photo-vacation with the legendary Lipicans (who are there frequently being visited by international celebritys), exquisite gourmet food and wellness in one of the best hotels of Austria in the Kitzbuehl area, surrounded by the breathtaking mountains of the “Wilder Kaiser”. INFO: marketing@stanglwirt.com , Carmen Sartori, www.stanglwirt.com 16.-17.5.2009 ICELAND-HORSES at the ISLANDPFERDEHOF GUT PÖLLNDORF An Austrian Iceland-horse stud with absolutely everything around these wonderfull little horses! 60 cute models with long manes and foals, racking through the spring blossoms. What a wonderfull sight... INFO: hannes.kirchmayr@tele2.at , Hannes Kirchmayr, www.islandpferde-online.at 30.-31.5. 2009 INDIAN RIDING WITHOUT EVERYTHING Waldshut-Tiengen Famous Horsemanship-Trainer Markus Eschbach and his wife Andrea show their horses including indian riding without saddle and bridle! The location is close to the swiss border. INFO: info@eschbach-horsemanship.com , Markus Eschbach www.eschbach-horsemanship.com 12.9.-19.9.2009 ARABIANS on the SEYCHELLES. A DREAM! One week in paradise. Double bedroom, halfboard, workshop, excursions, beaches, horses and riding inklusive for only 1499.- Euros! More at the start-site. INFO: info@slawik.com , Christiane Slawik, www.slawik.com 3.-4.10.2009 ANDALUSIANS at the LINDENHOF, Hausmannstätten, Austria Perfectly trained Andalusians and other breeds will dance for us. You will never forget your spectacular shot, laying UNDER a rearing stallion! INFO: lindenhof@chello.at , Lisl Stabinger, www.showpferde.at 5.-9.10.2009 HORSES, ART and PASSION at Rogner Bad Blumau, Austria This workshop combines the breathtaking architecture of Art-genius Friedensreich Hundertwasser in Blumau with horses and baroque riding in a very unique way. We life and work IN the spectacular, world-famous thermal village and will not only enjoy photography but also the healthy, hot thermal water! INFO: a.fahrig@blumau.com , Anja Fahrig, www.blumau.com http://www.slawik.com Horses For LIFE
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Special Announcement Follow-up on Philippe Karl
Several Issues Ago we spoke of the possiblity of Philippe Karl coming to North America for the very first time. Then unfortunately all plans fell through and we had to unhappily share for those of you looking forward to that possiblity that it was not to be. Now we are happy to follow-up iwth the announcement that Philippe Karl WILL be coming to North America for the very first time. Philippe Karl is coming to Ontario, Canada to conduct a 3 day clinic. The clinic will consist of one hour of riding each day and a two hour theoretical lecture at the end of each day. The dates for the clinic are 10th , 11th and 12th of July 2009 . If you are interested in finding further information please visit the website : www-canada.com as of the First Week of March 09 - to book your reservation or to find the details, how to apply for a riding position in this clinic. 12
This month through the art of Pluvinel to the art of Christiane Slawik we explore a new dimension in the relationhip with your horses. On behalf of all of us at Horses For LIFE may the gift of the horses be with you always.
All material copyright protected by Horses For LIFE Publications. Please contact us for information, suggestions, comments and submissions at equestriansquest@horsesforlife.com or 1-306-383-2588
Her grasp of horsemanship and art combines together in creating amazing photo’s such as our cover this month. The picture just as it came out of the camera. Christiane also provides material for about 40 international associations and companies, calendars, publishing houses and -magazines. Her own, richly illustrated books have been published with the Cadmos publishing house. http://www.slawik.com Horses For LIFE
Bent Branderup
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The Art of Pluvinel VOLUME 41 • Publications
Horses For LIFE
“
The Art is the melting together. To me, two spirits must want to do what two bodies can. And a lot of riders just think ‘I will develop my brain and the horse can just give its body’. If the horse only gives its body and does not understand what it’s doing, it’s not Art. It is only the Art of Riding if the horse understands what it does and it wants to do what it does.”
Horses For LIFE
Kladruber in the Snow by Christiane Slawik
“Light sparkling in a shimmering iridescent connection from snow to magic steeds Opaline Pearls dripping from flashing knees Silvery pearl shoulders cast their spell Luminous crystals, sparkling glass reflected in wispy manes Their ivory sheen dancing like snowflakes through the fresh crisp snow their hooves fell�
Breed Background: Kladruby stud was founded in 1579 by Rudolf II as an Imperial stud, at the Perlstein stables. Rare and beautiful - the magic of their movement in the traces of the harness working together in unity to pull the carriage behind has captured the imagination of many. Bred to be a galakarosier pulling the imperial coach. Decimated by war many lines have been lost but certain lines carry on in the proud tradition of the Lipizzaner through Maestoso (1773) and Favory (1779): born in Kladruby, who became two of the six founding Lipizzaner stallion lineages. 16
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Andalusian vs Lusitano
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Anja Beran: The difference between the Spanish and the Portuguese horse. In history they were the same horse. And the history is very old. For example, I have a book here talking about the Iberian horse which was known for more than 4,000 years. So it was before Jesus Christ, and the Iberian horse maybe more. And I think it was the same horse, the Spanish and the Portuguese. Then little by little, the countries separated, Portugal and Spain. And then something happened in Spain because the tradition of the bullfight also very, very old in both countries. And the bullfight always helped to develop the horse because it was a really tough test, and it was only for the best horses, the bullfight. And these horses were put to breeding. So then in Spain something happened in the 1700s - King Philip V. This king didn’t like bullfighting on horseback. So it was forbidden. And in Spain there was no bullfighting on horseback from the 1700s until 1923.
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Photo Credit Christiane Slawik
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MMMmmmm... MMMmm... MMmmm..
MMMmmmm... MMMmm... MMmmm.. If they could only hear what I am thinking!! Mind you then they would either run in fear or hang their heads in shame! MMmmm...mmmm... MMMMM!!! Oh Dagnabit!! Proud of yourself you human you. Just you wait. Think I won’t remember this. Think I won’t get back at you for this! 20
P
Purple Pony Promise MMmmm... uhMmmmmmm!
They still can’t hear me. I guess I don’t count as being allowed to have a voice. If this isn’t the strongest way to say Shut UP! I don’t know what is. SHUT UP! I get it!! You don’ want me to be able to say ANYTHING!!! So if they did this to a human I wonder what they would call it? Slavery, torture, or worse. Horses For LIFE
Shut up and take it. Who came up with that idea???!! Don’t they realize that when they tie up a horse’s mouth it is the same as taping your mouth shut AND tying your hands together. Our mouth is not only our voice, it is how we pick things up, our mouths are our voice and our hands! mmmmm... But I guess they really don’t care what we think, or for that matter what we feel. Who cares if it hurts? Who cares if I am sore, who cares if I don’t understand? I know I’m sounding pretty sorry for myself.
Why ride a horse if you don’t care if grab a motorbike instead.
I have feelings,
You know the older horses tell me about a time when there was this thing they called the two finger rule. Where everyone, and I mean everyone made sure that they could easily slip two fingers beneath the cavesson. What happened? Did somebody forget to write it down. I know you humans have a flawed memory not like us horses. Not sure what this incredible memory is for, if I keep letting you climb back on my back. My buddies have been sending me videos and pictures of the kind of thing they have been going through. Ugh! It is so ugly. Ugly as in unbeautiful, ugly as in how mean and wrong? Here is a trick question What famous German Warmblood stallion was found to have a broken nose after he died? Not only broken but literally shattered. Crushed. I guess that is why they call it a crank noseband. The dang crank noseband literally cranking so strong that they broke it!! Bet they kept doing it and didn’t even know. I wonder how many other horses 22
this has happened to and nobody knows. MMMmmmm... MMMmmm.. .MMMM!!!!! Arghhh!!! They simply can’t hear me!!! Have you ever seen how the blood vessels go over the nose and through the poll area!! This is what you are cranking on. All of us horses have decided to stand together and demand our rights!!! We demand the FEI put down in writing the two finger rule. And for those who scream and yell and fight our demands that they cannot ride without tying our mouth’s shut, we suggest you try training us instead. Either that or you see how you like being treated like this.
We ask all of our horse friends to send us their pictures, and their video of mouths tied shut and I the Purple Pony Promise I will keep yelling and showing your pictures until someone listens. Can you help us?
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/SavingTheHorses/ Horses For LIFE
Riding By Torchlight: Two Finger Rule
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Riding By Torchlight Two fingers and a noseband I’m waiting for spring. Looking out my window, dillydallying at my keyboard waiting for the words to come, I realize those words hold more meaning and reach out in a broader sense than I first thought. I’m not just waiting for the new grass to cast a green sheen over my dull brown pastures, and the leaves to unfurl on black barren branches. I am daydreaming of the tulips and crocus, hyacinths and daffodils pushing through the slowly warming earth of my mother’s garden, a garden that lives on in my heart. And I am daydreaming of a new day for our dressage world, a day where the mere premise of such horrors as Rollkur is met with disdain and instant demise, a day where our sport is devoid of abuse, a world in which dressage fulfils the promise of the therapeutic sport that would be, that could be, art.
“If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the cracks in the pavement must be filled with assumptions.” The craft of Kings once more. If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the cracks in the pavement must be filled with assumptions. I think it’s safe to say that we tend to assume that other people feel more or less as we do, behave as we would, and see the world as we do. And interpret basic concepts as we do. I am at times surprised at my own naiveté. Not to mention embarrassed by the assumptions I have made. Oh, the many, many assumptions that have led to my own personal versions of hell! One such assumption sat me down and spun my head around the other day. No, I did not require an exorcism, just a wake-up call. It was regarding one of the most basic rules of thumb that was drilled into me since the first day I was allowed to bridle a horse myself. It is so basic, so oft repeated, that I assumed it was more than a rule of thumb. That it was written in the great rule books of competitive dressage itself. The rule that a noseband, any noseband of any kind, should never be tighter than it could easily allow two fingers to slide under it, thus allowing the horse to chew and swallow his spit. Amongst other - rather important - things…
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Horses For LIFE
Exploring the Fourth Dimension
with Sherry L. Ackerman Ph. D.
HFL: Sherry:
I’m so looking forward to talking to you. Likewise. I love your magazine.
HFL: Thank you, you’re so sweet. Sherry:
Beautiful. It’s very aesthetic. It’s very tasteful.
HFL: I just feel very blessed with the kind of people who are contributing to the magazine, and the people who are enjoying it. It has been a wonderful experience. It really has. But, I have to say I really enjoyed your book, too.
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Sherry: HFL:
Excellent. I’m so happy to hear that. I understand that this is its second publishing.
Sherry: It is. I published it in 1997 and my feeling in retrospect is that there were probably people ready, at that time, to hear the message, but we weren’t in the same place, culturally, as we are now. And probably it was way ahead of its time. HFL:
I think that’s very true. We’re in a very different place now, aren’t we?
Sherry: I think Linda, in the Forward, said it really well when she said “When the book came out, at that time, anybody that made that kind of claim was looked at as though they were quite eccentric.” And that it was quite an unusual idea. Whereas, now people take that idea and they resonant with it. HFL: And it seems to be an almost worldwide movement right now, isn’t it? Sherry: Little things, like you go in the bookstore and ten years ago on the New Age shelf or Eastern Philosophy shelf, there were very, very few books. But now it’s exploding. HFL: And it’s very mainstream. You look at Eckhart Tolle’s book, New Earth, being shown on Oprah, it is as if we’re almost being raised to a new consciousness level as a group. Sherry: If you look at all the mystical traditions, they all say this. They all say that whether it’s the yogas from Vedanta Hinduism or the Mayans, whatever map we use to look at the territory, they all say that we move through these cycles of time and that we’re in a bit of an iron age or dark age, but that bifurcates out into a Golden Age, into an age of light and I think we’re right there on that portal. I think it’s an exciting time to be alive. One of the things for me that’s so interesting is as a small child, very small, like 3 or 4 years old, I saw this very clearly in a vision. I saw, but I didn’t know the words then. Now, I know that what I saw was consciousness shifting. I just knew that the world-view of my parents (I was born in 1950), was an Ozzie & Harriet world view. That world-view was going to end on something much more inclusive. I remember my parents, particularly one parent, being, for example, a racist ,and I remember as a child thinking that that wasn’t what we would call now, that was not a sustainable viewpoint. I knew that would go away and it would be replaced with a consciousness of inclusion. I didn’t know all those words when I was a kid. But that’s what I saw in that vision. And I also knew as a kid that I would live it. It’s pretty wonderful. The first time I published Dressage in the Fourth Dimension, it definitely had a very strong response. People (I was living in Vermont) contacted me and they were excited and they said “Oh my God, you just told my life story.” It’s the hero’s journey, it’s the story we all need to live. That was definitely the response. But then there were also people who just said “I just don’t get it, Sherry, what are you talking about? This doesn’t make any sense.” HFL: Absolutely. Just as an introduction to the interview, because I think we’re already into some of the things that I do want to talk about with you, but for those people who haven’t read your book and don’t have a clue what we’re talking about right now, Sherry, could you do a bit of an introduction just talking about what the book is about? Sherry: Certainly. To me what the book is about, I think it’s a very existential book. I think that from what I hear from readers, different people take away different things. So different people interface with it differently. Horses For LIFE
Carolyn Resnick Non-Reactive Leadership
[CAROLYN Resnick]: So it’s the nature of the horse to understand that if you’re not going to take the leadership role, the horse will lead. That’s the basic nature of the horse and I think that’s when people get into the alpha talk. The thing for us to understand is that because we don’t keep horses in communities with one another, they really are in a state of limbo. And they are in a state of not maturing properly. And I believe it is our job to go in there and develop the social skills in the horse, and the coping skills and the character that it takes to be a horse - fair, just, moral, and effective in himself. It is our job to do that instead of thinking that we need to take control. That’s not what we need to do. What we need is to build enrichment in that horse’s life and be able to bring him up and be the character he needs to be, since horses, when they grow up in a community of horses, shape each other’s character. And that’s what makes them great. When a horse has to have his character shaped, it develops coping skills for him, and people who just take horses and say “oh, we don’t want to be abusive and we need to do this, this, and this”, they get the horse to the point that it can’t cope with anything at all, because he says “oh, I can’t do this and I can’t do that”, “oh, this is too much for me and that’s too much for me”. What happens to that poor horse is that he can’t accept anything because he’s not been asked to cope. [HFL]: How important it is to keep horses in some form of community with other horses? There are many horses that are being kept by themselves. [CAROLYN Resnick]: Those are the horses that need my waterhole rituals. They’re 28
Horses For LIFE
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Relationship First “Hey, can you watch this video on YouTube and tell me what you think?� The request asked, I went and looked, expecting some good work. After all, this was an instructor and trainer of some fame and the few pictures of his work that I had seen in the past of this particular trainer were quite good. It took maybe sixty seconds for me to shake my head silently, eyes sad as I watched. I tried to find a kind, nonjudgemental way to share what I was seeing. I did not want to seem too critical to someone who obviously idolized this trainer. But there was no way to escape the fact that this particular piece of work failed in a very fundamental way. The trainer thinking he was showing off with his horse on the lunge line, instead showing how completely unconnected he was to the horse, and vice versa, how completely unconnected the horse was to him! There was no relationship between his body language and what the horse was doing. His own body language and positioning were often contrary to what it seemed he wanted the horse to do. But it was disturbing to realize that not only did the trainer not recognize this lack of connection, but that neither did the viewer, not realizing at first that this was happening. As I learn more and more, it is funny that the first thing I notice today is not how well a horse is tracking up, or if he is on the forehand, or
Relationship First 30
even how pretty he looks. Today, one of the first things I notice when I see horse and human working together is whether they have a connection. Sadly, this is true that in their interaction and training methods, so few have any kind of connection with their horses. The horse, either dull and apathetic, often deemed a well behaved horse, or a horse for an advanced rider as it powers across the arena with oohs and aahs at the explosive power of the horse, who is just looking to get away. For all the oohs and aahs the horse shows no connection, no feeling of being bonded or interested in the human either working him from the ground or working him from his back. They seem to have lost the realization, if they ever had it, that they are working with sentient beings. We can argue over how intelligent they are, whether animals have a soul, or how alike or different their feelings and emotions are from ours, but we cannot doubt that they are sentient. They are aware - aware at a level that we cannot even begin to comprehend. A level we are just beginning to understand. We are just beginning to understand how intelligent they are and many are beginning to see the horse as a shimmering film, a window that is the merging point between what we see on the physical plane and the connection on another plane that we have Horses For LIFE
My Eternal Quest The Perfect Horse 32
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Edi with
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itorial: Saving the Horse h Two Fingers or
rule that was never written wn.
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Editorial: Saving the Horse with Two Fingers Subtitle: The Rule that was never written down.
F
Funny how sometimes similar things or concepts can come at you all at the same time. Over the past few months the concept of two fingers has been brought to my attention in very different ways. I heard of a very interesting presentation given to Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, Klaus Balkenhol and Col. Carde. Visiting with Klaus before the dinner, Kit Wisdom showed him something so fascinating he had to drag her over to Dr. Heuschmann and Col. Carde and demanded that she show them what she had just shown him. Keeping her first two fingers straight as a representation of the horse’s jaw with the first shorter finger representing the horse’s jaw and her second finger the top of the head she then asked for them each in turn to put as small a pressure as possible at the end of the fingers there was no way any of them could open their own two fingers, no matter how hard they tried!! Not only that she asked them how far down their arm they could feel the strain of muscles trying to pull to try to open these pretend jaws of the horse. Klaus had her try it on him three times he was so fascinated. Colonel Carde had to try it twice themselves before going to get Dr. Heuschmann insisting he try it out as well. Kit, as an instructor, is keen on finding unique ways for people to learn for themselves concepts that will help them with their riding. This simple demonstration shows that no matter how long the bones of the horse’s jaws are, that it takes very little pressure or strength to tie his jaws shut so that he is unable to open them. Two fingers. A couple of weeks ago I received a very impassioned letter from a dressage judge. A judge frustrated and dismayed by what she was seeing in the dressage arena. She wrote asking if we would consider doing an article on the crank noseband. While we had done one in the past, we were of course more than willing to revisit the subject. “How do I con you into an article about this bloody crank noseband? How do I get the FEI to register about the damage and pain being done to horses’ mouths and minds from the pain? The German bridles, and now other countries, are making their bridles with not only the noseband padded but the head piece over the poll now has
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Yes, some horses chatter more than others and need a noseband, but nowadays it now gives the rider that much confidence that the horse cannot under any circumstances open his mouth (you can still hear the poor horse who is in so much pain grinding his teeth without opening his mouth,) but the rider can push the “horse forward” into a really good competition trot and “collection” Knowing it doesn’t matter how hard/strong the contact is, he/the horse CANNOT open his mouth and lose you marks . We can hear the anguish in the written voice of this judge. The same anguish that is turning people away from watching the dressage competition. The FEI may be wondering why the numbers are down on watching the dressage Olympics. For many riders and trainers and horse lovers today, what we see at the highest levels is no longer about good riding, but about force and taking away the horse’s voice. Kit, with her simple demonstration of two fingers, created great excitement in these three distinguished trainers. The dressage judge that wrote to us trusting that we would address this problem, with so much anguish in her voice, also brought up the idea of two fingers. But in a very different way. Others that I approached asked whatever happened -- it’s not so long ago that we all had to be able to put two fingers under the noseband after we had done it up. Others were truly surprised that this was not a rule that had been written down long ago. The words of this FEI level judge inspired me. I hope they inspire you too. Inspire you to ask, wonder, and do something about the rule that was never written down. A history where it was a very common thing, the accepted thing, from beginners to advanced, everyone knew about the necessity of making sure that there was a two-finger width between the horse’s face and the cavesson. So what did happen? How did we get from there to here? I mentioned that I had found inspiration in these words. For many years we have talked about the detrimental effect of rollkur, of working the horse behind the vertical, of not allowing the horse a voice, the damage done by crank nosebands, and the list goes on. It seems every time we turn around, we are trying to raise awareness about one more issue. Horses For LIFE
Photo Credit of the Blood Vessels in the Horses Head Anders Persson Reprinted with Permission
to be seriously padded . Why ???? Because the bone structure of the horse’s head forces the noseband down to relieve the pressure on the face and so places enough pressure on the poll to be wearing the hair out/off the poll, soooooo they now have to pad the crown piece of the bridle.
Editorial: Saving the Horse with two fingers As we discuss each new subject, as we look at it from another angle, as arguments are put forth first on one side and then the other, somehow along the way nothing gets done. Maybe perhaps in some small part because of the confusion along the way.
“Many of us want to see a change.” So let’s simplify things. Many of us want to see a change. Perhaps not all of us can agree on the change that we want. But one thing we can all agree on is that something does need to change. We do not have time to wait for political change, nor can our horses wait for years for research to show us what we already know. Rather than trying to fight against or for many different things, what would happen if all of us would raise our voice for one thing? For one simple thing. Not for a new thing that we will need to prove, but for an old thing that had been established for many generations as beneficial for the horse.
“One simple rule change” We invite all of you to join us with your name and e-mail address to an ongoing petition to the FEI asking for one simple rule change. That any noseband or cavesson used on any horse in a dressage competition be required to have a minimum two-finger width between the horse’s face and the noseband whenever in the warm-up or dressage arena, or anywhere on the show grounds, from beginner to advanced. Sometimes the simplest things are the most elegant. Sometimes the simplest things are the simplest to enforce. Sometimes the simplest things are the simplest to understand. We invite you to join us not only with your virtual signature, but to send to us any photos or video or any other material showing how the lack of this rule is currently damaging our horses. Let us all challenge the FEI to give the horse back his voice. To stand behind their own first requirement that the Horse’s Welfare is Paramount. Perhaps together with something very simple, with just two fingers, we can change the equestrian world. As the judge shared her final thoughts, “Whatever happened to the FEI’s first requirement that the THE HORSE’S WELFARE IS PARAMOUNT”?
Please share this petition and the link with all those that you know. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/SavingTheHorses/
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Milagro Update: Learning A Soft Presentation. Six months have brought about many changes: we see a stallion that is not only slowly filling out, showing us glimpses of the mature stallion he will be one day. The changes in personality, in his emotional maturity, are even more remarkable. He still has a long way to go, but you can see the stallion he is going to be - one day. Vigilant, very bright, kind - there is no meanness in this stallion, although there is no doubt that he is a stallion. Some observing him might think he has ADD, he is so all over the place. He is never still, always getting into something, one moment grabbing the lunge whip and gleefully chasing his owner with it, the next, trying to get ready to literally climb up the bleachers just to be with her and maybe to see if he can, next grabbing someone’s jacket and mouth40
dalusian Stallion in Training
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