Bee and the Horse
The Academic Art of Riding Blog from Poland
Meet My New Horse!
This is Langdyssegaards Minor, or Minor for short, 4 years old pure bred Frederiksborg horse. I found him in Denmark this spring while I was a working student for Bent Branderup. His breeder is Lene Dursben, one of the best and biggest breeders of Frederiksborg horses in Denmark.
I was searching for a young horse for a while now and it was not as easy as I thought, because I wanted a totally green, uneducated horse that had spent at least three or four years just being a horse, and that was physically able to learn high school dressage movements (so we can learn together). I checked out horses of various breeds and to my dismay found that most breeding nowadays aims towards a Warmbloood type horse with big, exaggerated movements, which are often due to hypermobility. Furthermore, horses are being started much to early, in my opinion. While a four years old, 1,70m PRE that can already do piaffe might sound appealing to some, it was exactly what I didn’t want.
So how did I find Minor? Just as a sort of side note, I asked Kathrin Branderup-Tannous, if she knew of a nice young horse for sale. And she did! Lene sent me some videos and I immediately liked the horse. He seemed playful and yet mature, and he had a kind eye. Once in Denmark, Kathrin and I visited together, and although Minor was a bit exited that day (Lene said he had a bad experience with the electric fence the day before), I immediately trusted him and knew he was “my” horse. I went for a visit a second time a few weeks later and took some photos.
At the end of June, Minor finally travelled to Poland. It was his first transport, so I had hired a professional transport company. Minor arrived safe and sound and wasn’t even that tired. We spent the next days getting to know each other and practicing leading (Minor’s idea about that was a bit different than mine 😉 ).
Of course I had to think about if I want to keep him a stallion or not. On the one hand, the Frederiksborg horse is an endangered breed, and Minor has a great exterior and super character. On the other hand I don’t have facilities to keep a stallion, as I now have a little place of my own. There would be no guarantee that Minor integrates with the herd (three geldings), too. Even if it worked, problems could always appear later, for example when he gets stronger and grows up more. I have been around stallions enough to know that they are normal horses, too; yet some things do have to be taken under consideration. One of them being that I plan to travel with Minor to clinics and that I will soon open my place for week students, who would then come with their own horses, also mares.
So about three weeks ago, Minor was castrated. My vet came with a team of four and did the procedure at our place. It was done quickly and with full anaesthesia, there were no complications. We were lucky that there was exactly a two weeks break in the summer heat, which was good for the healing process. I decided to do it at home because I didn’t want to put him through the stress of another transport and yet another unfamiliar environment again so shortly after arrival. It made matters more complicated for me, though, because I had to follow the instructions of the vet (medication, injections, instructions for movement) to make sure everything heals ok.
After just a week, one could already see a difference in his behaviour, and after two weeks, he already showed more interest in his hay than the horses that rode by his paddock (there are three other horse riding schools nearby).
So soon Minor can join the others, and then they make a herd of four. While I kept the others at a distance of about 50m from Minor for the first weeks, they now can go nose to nose over the fence, and it looks promising. This picture still shows him in Denmark:
I’m already totally in love with this little fellow and I’m very excited to share our journey together. I’m also using this as a great occasion to write more on this blog again. Facebook is really doing a good job in conditioning us to post there, with all the likes and shares that you can get relatively easily. Readers are more likely to like a post on Facebook and leave a comment there than on a regular blog. On the other hand, things disappear so quickly on Facebook and nobody reads a post from just a few weeks ago, not speaking of years. So I’m looking forward to sharing more about my young blondie here with you 🙂
Bee and the Horse 
Hi Bee, He is beautiful! Congratulations and thanks for sharing your story.I enjoy your blog
Kristin, Victoria BC Canada
Thanks, and thanks for taking the time to read 🙂
Wow, I’m looking at all the photos of this horse and thinking how much his conformation is like that of my mare. She’s a throwback Hanoverian to the old German all-purpose horses, not at all like the tall leggy modern Hanoverians. She’s very strong (and of course opinionated) so it didn’t surprise me too much one day when she objected to halting straight next to a partner horse by going directly into a levade! No training for it, she just did it. If Minor really is built like my mare you should have a great time with the high school movements!
Haha, that’s what I’m hoping for 🙂 He’s already jumping around the paddock and showing school jumps on his own, now just a few years of training so I can willingly produce it 😛 Thanks for your comment, interesting that your mare has a similar conformation 🙂
Thanks😊.
I have only found you recently and I am enjoying your blog.
I prefer blogs to Facebook so yes please keep writing.
Looking forward to delving into your writing deeper and following your adventures.
Cheers from Tasmania 😊
Thanks😊.
I have only found you recently and I am enjoying your blog.
I prefer blogs to Facebook so yes please keep writing.
Looking forward to delving into your writing deeper and following your adventures.
Cheers from Tasmania 😊
Thank you Sam, greetings 🙂