*Insert squeal of pure geeky delight.*

Saturday Chris and I went out to take a look at the stallion we're (he's) thinking of breeding Ruby to. His name is Hedzer and he is a Friesian. He has a lovely head, nice short back, and is generally well put-together. He was a lot shorter than we expected, they claimed 16.1 hh, but, yeah ... we discovered why when we asked where exactly they were measuring him from. Rather than the top of the whithers they measure from the middle of the hoof up until they reach whatever piece of flesh denotes the top of the horse, which, with the Friesian's naturally high neck-set, is some two inches above the top of his whithers. Generally when you say "that horse is 16hh+" I expect to not be able to see over the horses back.

But that's beside the point! We watched the dressage trainer work him a bit, he had very nice gaits, though it sounded like he kept striking himself, that metallic "click" of shoes stricking each other was a tip-off. We showed them a couple pictures of Ruby and talked about what we were looking for, learned a couple things about the Friesian registry and how strict it is and then Hope, the woman, turned to me and asked "do you want to ride him?"

It was a mild shock to my system, I must admit. I didn't expect it and would never have dreamed of asking. Chris started to say something about my still recovering from being sick, and I looked to him and he left it up to me. I barely knew what to do with myself and felt light and airly and inexplicably giddy. I borrowed a helmet (it was a little too large) and adjusted the stirrups (I misjudged and they were still a bit too long) and took him around.

He had a nice walk, not swinging like Ruby's, but he still had good carriage and moved out a little. He was a little lazy, but he moved off my leg nicely and picked up a trot when asked, even if it took a bit more effort to get more than a jog out of him. The fuller trot was an interesting experience. Not an up-and-down jar as some horses have but an up-and-out motion before dropping down, very cool to feel. He was pretty light on the bit and it was a different experience riding a horse who's neck comes out the top rather than more level. Kash has a higher neck carriage than Chewy or Ruby, but it's nothing like the perpendicular-to-the-whithers neckset of the Friesian.

Needless to say I've been on a bit of an equine-high the last couple days.

Oh, and you can see Hedzer here. And I need to download and put up a picture or two of me on him. Mwah.

First time riding a Friesian, first time riding a stallion.