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Re: [RC] How do I find a good horse personality/breed fit - Kathy MayedaI will only have Arabs myself. However, not all Arabs are alike, and the individual personalities can really make a difference. My two older Arabs are great, easy, willing horses to ride. They are smooth, fast and wanna go. My retired endurance horse, Beau, is my soul mate horse.
My younger Arab, Drako, is very quirky and is more like a warmblood. My instructor rode him in the arena and she says he kinda "sucks back" like a dressage horse and needs to be urged forward when he gets too vertical. He loves the arena and is not particularly happy all the time on the trail. I need to keep a full seat on him while riding, otherwise he gets kinda squirrelly, which is counter-intuitive to the way I used to ride my other two. He is so quirky and hard to control sometimes, I burst into tears at a clinic once just wanting to ride Beau in endurance forever, which is not a reality. Drako has some extreme excellent qualities that keeps me working on him, but as a 9 y.o. he still isn't ready to do an endurance ride with me. With someone who could ride crazy horses, yes, but not me.
I have to admit that if Drako had to be my only horse, I would have sold him a long time ago and gotten a more amiable mount. However, he is continually pushing my learning curve, and when I get totally pissed off at him, I just go for a good ride on Beau or Beamer and all is well.
K.
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