07/31/2024
How many of you ask me about the stallion found on many of your Haflinger papers named Abdul?! A lot!
Okay..well, Abdul was a Haflinger stallion that Grandpa (aka Walt Mosher) owned for years. Static, which many of you haven't heard of or seen on papers, was also a stallion but was gelded and used back at this time. Abdul, or Stormy as we all called him, was one of the fan favorites of ours as kids. Christina Ponzi and I, are the kids I'm talking about. Static was known to us as Colonel, whom Betty named as she claimed him for her own and loved him all his and hers life. We rode him too and drove them both also!
The last picture (which I'm sorry is so blurry) is Christina and I on Stormy aka Abdul.
Walt and Betty got into Haflingers in the 70's basically. They partnered with Robert McArthur to buy the original herd from Temple Smith Farm with the understanding they would keep the horses, do the work, breed, raise, train and sell them and after so many years they would split the herd.
This happened just as it is told. What isn't told, is that although Walt and Robert dissolved the partnership on paper, they remained lifelong friends and Walt managed his herd along with his own for decades to follow. So just because on paper it was dissolved, nothing really changed a whole lot. Robert did keep part of the horses and he built a beautiful facility over the years and this is where many of the yearlings would go! I remember that as a kid. They switched mares and studs and you never knew who had who sometimes. Robert also had large beautiful meadows that many mares and foals stayed on for summer pasture.
Anyway..I could go on and on but the point is...the history of the Haflinger horse in the United States that so often is misled or not mentioned. There is some amazing history in all of this that so many of you do not know.
The mare Errin GJF is from grandpa's farm. The last of her legacy. The first stallion I (myself) owned was Alto, a stallion that Robert McArthur owned. One of our mares today, Oh La La, is sired by Alto.
As kids, Christina and I rode and drove, learned and relearned skills we cannot begin to explain. We trained horses, we learned fo shoe horses, we were given the responsibility for feeding the whole herd at times, keeping up with whatever was asked, harnessing and unharnessing, teaching young stock to lead, getting horses ready to show and on out off time, well, we rode Stormy and Colonel for fun! Later years we rode Amarquis and Lark! 😆 And got in trouble for racing the stallions as soon as we were out of sight! By this time Grandpa was showing Draft Hitch Style and cantering was a forbidden gait! (Although Grandpa knew darn well what we'd do out on that old log road!)
We were each given our own Haflingers to break, train, and show prep and then we were hauled all over to shows. Some of those ribbons hang on my wall today.
Betty Mosher passed from cancer long before Walt.
Walt kept going and still bred and raised some Haflingers and still helped Robert do the same for another decade or more now.
It seems like just yesterday for Christina and I and yet it seems like a lifetime ago too.
And so when I hear how the Haflinger has changed so much and how the 'old style' was, I can assure you, it wasn't exactly how some try to portray it. There has been a push for the Haflingers to be what they are today even in the 70's, 80's, 90's and so on. And I can show you pictures of Haflingers back in the 80's and 90's that are as modern as the ones today! Yup, I rode mares and stallions in the 80's that were 14.2 Hands or more and could do everything from go to work in the woods to out jump the deer to out trot the standardbreds to out dance the dressage warmbloods and then go hitch up and out prance the big hitch horses.
I'm so sick of hearing what people 'think' those horses were and actually know what they were. Sure. Overall we've gained some height! I agree with that!
What I don't agree with is that those horses in that time frame were something less desirable than what we want today. In fact, that is not true. What people like Grandpa, McArthur, Dean Woodward, the Ayers, and so many more were trying to produce is exactly what we still try to produce in this country today! A horse that can move off all four corners with exceptional movement, a horse that we can do anything with, a horse that is healthy and sane and fun for the whole family rather you want to go for a trail ride, hitch up for a drive, take to the lake for a swim, or let the neighbors kids ride. Something that'll clean up and win if you spend some time and train them up, and something that simply won't quit on ya half way through a days work.
And here is some proof to what I'm tell you.
I'll try to find some pictures of Amarquis and some of the other horses to show you next as well as some of the pictures of my mom and dad's Haflingers over the years growing up.