The feisty Norwegian Fjord is our September Breed of the Month on YourDressage! Did you know that dressage riders who choose a registered Fjord as their dressage mount are eligible for special awards through the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards program? The Norwegian Fjord Horse Registry and the Norwegian Fjord Horse Alliance Inc. are participating organizations!
By Beth Beymer
My name is Beth Beymer, and I am honored to have been invited to write about my amazing Fjord stallion, BDF Obelisk. I am co-owner and trainer at Starfire Farm LLC in Berthoud, Colorado.
Our journey with Fjord horses began with a yearling mare named Maerta. When she was old enough, we decided to her to a Fjord stallion from Carol Rivoire’s Beaver Dam Farm in Nova Scotia, Canada. Unfortunately for us, that breeding, using frozen semen, was not successful.
We had also purchased a gelding from Carol. Ask any Fjord owner and they will tell you – Fjords are like potato chips, you can’t have just one! After joining us at an annual international Fjord horse show in Libby, Montana, and seeing how I handled and showed our two Fjords, Carol offered BDF Obelisk to us. He was a yearling, and had been slated to replace their foundation stallion, Gjest. Gjest was still going strong though, so Carol had decided to sell Obelisk to someone interested in using him as a breeding stallion.
My training foundation is in “natural” horsemanship, however I had fallen in love with the development of horses through dressage. I had been looking for a Fjord with the conformation and gaits to make a decent dressage horse.
Before making a decision on whether to purchase Obelisk I needed to see him in person. I needed to assess his gaits, conformation, and most importantly, temperament. Owning a breeding stallion can be tricky, and I needed to make sure he was one I would be comfortable taking to shows and exhibitions. I also wanted to see his parents, so I booked a ticket and flew to Nova Scotia.
Obelisk’s father, Gjest, was a horse with strong hocks and good movement at the trot. He had a good walk, an adequate canter, and he was reasonably supple at nineteen-years-old. When I first saw his mother, she was out in the middle of a stand of pines in a pasture. My heart stopped. She was gorgeous!
When they brought Obelisk out for me to see, his walk was like that of a panther; smooth, supple, swinging, and with a good over-stride. He had a decent, somewhat-uphill canter, and lovely suspension at the trot. These were qualities I had not previously seen in a Fjord! I can definitely work with this, I thought to myself.
We took a chance, and he was shipped to us in Colorado, still as a yearling. Since then, I have done all of his training. He has proven to be the epitome of a versatile Fjord horse (which is their legacy). He was a good trail horse, competed in carriage driving, and completed a draft test (a recognition offered by the Norwegian Fjord Horse Registry) to earn a Gold Medallion Level 3.
During these years we also competed in local dressage shows. This was at a time when many judges looked askance at “other-than-dressage-breeds” in the ring. We did fairly well, earning scores in the high 50s to high 60s from Training Level through Second Level. Lower scores were usually due to pilot error – not Obelisk’s fault! We had our ups and downs and, being a breeding stallion, sometimes there was extra tension to deal with.
We eventually competed at Third Level, earning scores as high as 67%. I was very proud of him,and he always had a fan club when he showed up.
Now 29 years old, Obie has seventeen recorded offspring. A few of his progeny were athletic enough to do fairly well in dressage with their amateur owners, and a couple could even perform piaffe and passage. They are scattered across the United States, from Florida to Hawaii. He was our foundation stallion. Though we have had a number of different Fjord stallions, both owned by us as well as clients’ stallions, none have been equal to Obie.
Obie stood out among Fjords. After performing a Pas de Deux with Lauren Chumley (yes, the Lauren Chumley) at the 25th Anniversary of the Norwegian Fjord Horse Registry in 2006, all of the international Fjord judges came over to Obie and I asking, “Who is this horse?”
We participated in local dressage clinics, and I remember Janet Foy pointing out the very good quality of his walk.
My greatest passion was performing in equine exhibitions. In Colorado we are fortunate to have the National Western Stock Show, an annual three-week celebration of livestock in the West. People come from all over the country to this event. We had the privilege of performing in the Evening of Dancing Horses for a number of years. I choreographed and coached quadrille performances which consisted solely of Fjord horses, sometimes with four horse-and-rider pairs, and sometimes up to twelve horse-and-rider pairs. Over the years, we performed with Michael Martin Murphey and his Rio Grande Band, the Pueblo Symphony, and the Denver Brass. The stage for the orchestra was set up right on the arena floor!
Sometimes we included carriages in our quadrille. One year we had a carriage pulling a jump (a Fjord hitched to the carriage of course) that the ridden Fjords jumped as it was re-positioned in different places in the arena.
Another year, three of us rode while we longlined a horse in front of us in tandem style. Obie had his brother, BDF John Arthur, in front of him. BDF Magnum was in front of Obie’s son, Blake. If there was something fun, crazy and entertaining that I could think of, we did it! Those performances secured invitations for our Fjords to perform in Equestfest in Burbank, California twice, and to be in the Pasadena Rose Parade twice.
Obelisk and I were usually the anchor of our routines. He had learned to piaffe and passage, and could perform a spectacular Spanish Walk while the other horses rode past or around him. We truly had fun during these exhibitions.
After enjoying 28 years together, Obelisk is now retired, and I have retired from training outside horses. He is turning grey, his back is lower, and his stallion jowls have sunken. Though still sound, he no longer displays the strength he did in his prime. But, sometimes, when he charges through the gate, piaffing and passaging, and showing off for the mares, I watch him float across the paddock and still see glimpses of his younger, indomitable self. In those moments I’m reminded of the potential I saw in a yearling stallion all those years ago, and I smile.
They say that once a stallion has given you his heart he will do anything for you, and it is truly a special relationship. This is true for us. Obie is my guy, and there has been no equal. I have so many incredible memories with him, from Colorado to Montana, and Minnesota to Tennessee. It’s impossible to choose just one. Without a solid foundation in dressage, none of this would have been possible.
