Pookie is a beautiful grownup.

Lipps aren't "small" -- they're not terribly tall, but they're built like Charles Atlas. They're also scarily smart -- think of the smartest dog you ever met, then multiply the IQ by two.

Oh, I know 'em and love 'em -- and I should've said that I meant the "small" comment in the context of the dressage world, which has a raging height fetish. So you'll see people really looking down (figuratively, I mean, and not only literally) at anything under 17hh (5'8" at the shoulders, for those who are reading along), which is like the top 2% of the horse world. Kinda like saying that only NBA basketball players could possibly be tall enough people.

As an average-sized person with disproportionately short legs, I've always loved the not-so-tall but mightily solid beasties. Because I'm as vain as any of 'em, and aside from riding them badly, I look fucking dumb when my boots barely clear the bottom of the saddle flaps...

(Signed, spent happy years riding arabs in dressage)

(Raises an eyebrow at Dressage Arabs--though, which type? I could see Polish, as the Polish Arabs I rode had nicer strides.)

(Then again, learned dressage on an Appy, so not one to talk.)

Oh, I know 'em and love 'em -- and I should've said that I meant the "small" comment in the context of the dressage world, which has a raging height fetish.

Yeah. In that or in Grand Prix, you'll see a 16.2 solid-as-a-rock fellow called small.

Plei! On that eskimo site:

Favory II Gabriella II-1--.Bon Bon(!), his call name, has a great sense of humor and loves to play, but that, of course, may just be his young age! As with all the other "boys", he also loves attention and comes without delay when called.

Decidedly polish, Plei -- basically, anything you'd use for endurance, you can use for dressage, in that small-but-solid sense. The conformation types? Dumb and ding-y.

Bon bon was the one I was actually trying to link to and failed. Pretty pretty boy.

If you were off on a two-day trip, fleeing for safety, would you walk, then trot, then walk, then trot, or would you walk all the way, or what?

If you were off on a two-day trip, fleeing for safety, would you walk, then trot, then walk, then trot, or would you walk all the way, or what?

Trot most of the way, but walk for brief breaks when you need a rest. The trot is kinda like jogging for horses -- if they're in half-decent shape, they can go on doing it for miles and miles. If you watch documentaries of horses in the wild, it's what they do to cover serious ground (i.e., while migrating, but neither running from a threat nor stopping to graze/breed/birth/whatever).

If you normally ride for pleasure rather than for a living, are you going to be saddle-sore?

Yep.

Someone needs to get my mama in law in here. She actually has a stake in Judy's lippi stud. Pretty babies, they are, and the arab crossbreeds as well.