[haflingerfriends] Modern versus classic...kind of....

I've been dipping in and out of reading about the modern versus classic Haflinger. I'm going on three years as a Haflinger owner and have always found this discussion somewhat confusing. I own one of the modern 'lighter-boned' Haflingers. When she was three years old and her muscles undeveloped, she resembled the photos people usually direct me to when describing a lighter Haflinger---which is usually a horse in its gangly stage, not particularly fit in the gymnastic sense. However....my mare, two years under saddle, now resembles the photos many here share as an example of the classic kind! Her body has rounded up and she's fit as a fiddle and very athletic. Some who haven't seen her in awhile think I have a different horse.

I just wonder if this discussion even matters! If you own a Haflinger to be a serious sport pony, then you don't want to start out with a rotund, flat-withered horse with the shorter legs....I know someone who has the 'classic' kind of Haflinger, bought as a eventing pony, and now that he's developing his topline, he's struggling with dressage and higher jumping due to his ever-growing curves. A 'modern' Haflinger, lighter boned, when gymnasticized the same way will develop curves but not to the extent that it impedes its performance.

What's interesting is that the 'classic' Haflingers I know who are ridden sporadically, who are fit but not extreme athletes.........look very much like 'modern' Haflingers who are athletes and who have developed their musculature.

By the way, there is an old movie that has...I think Gregory Peck?....filmed in Europe in the 1950's. There are Haflingers shown extensively in this film in the background both in a sort of alpine environment and under saddle. They resemble the 'lighter' Haflinger we see these days, rather than the shorter, thick-set kind. If anyone can remember the title of this movie (I can't) it would be interesting to see again as an example of what the breed looked like back then. I'm sure they're Haflingers, as there were scores of chesnut/flaxen-maned ponies and lots of German accents being spoken by the actors.

Viktoria

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