b'1dr Fjords Throws Open Their Gates1dr Fjords 2023 Fjord Open House House,sovisitorshadtheopportunitytopetbrandnew By Cherrie Nolden foals that had no prior human handling to tame them down On July 8th we hosted our annual Fjord Open House at ouror acclimate them to the ways of humans. Attendees could farm in Dodgeville, WI. We receive multiple requests weeklyexperience how new mothers in our herd are accepting of from people who want to see our herd in person, to learnhumans petting their babies and no restraint is needed.about our pasture management approach, and to experienceOf our 5 stallions, 1dr Ragnvald was living with the mare our forty plus registered Fjords living as a herd. Since weherd at the time of the Fjord Open House, so attendees also are a working farm without the boarding, lessons, training,were able to observe the natural behavior of a stallion in breeding, or other services of many horse operations, wea herd of mares. One of the mares was in heat during the dont have the time to entertain so many individual requests.event, and Ragnvald bred her twice while attendees watched. So, in order to accommodate peoples desire to see the herd,This is normal behavior for our mares, stallions, and foals we offer the Fjord Open House as a free opportunity forand they dont behave any differently when there are people those who just want to come, experience, learn, see, pet, askaround. Herd-breeding stallions choose to breed when the questions, etc. maresarewillingandreceptive,sodangerousbehavior We had 44 Fjords on the farm at the Fjord Open Housecommonly seen when in-hand breeding is practiced is really this year, with 15 foals to pet, and we will have 48 registeredrare on our farm.Fjordswhenourmaresfinishfoalingthissummer.OurTohelpattendeescomparetheverydifferentsizes, typical Fjord Open House turnout is around 30-40 people,structures and relationships of the Fjords in our herd, I made but this years event drew around 100 attendees! We thinka handout that listed all of the Fjords, their age, parents, this increase in interest is due to publicizing the event on myand the parents of the foals. We used Velcro cow leg bands Won Der Fjords Facebook profile, and with a picture postcardwith the horses name to identify each Fjord. Only 2 of the at the Fjord display at the Midwest Horse Fair, which wasmares succeeded in removing the name bands from their professionally coordinated by the Midwest Fjord Horse Club.legs, which I consider a success. None of our foals had ever Additionally, about a month prior to the event, I had beenhad anything on their legs prior to this, and they didnt fuss interviewed by Alicia Harlov, of The Humble Hoof Podcast,getting the bands placed, nor removed after the event. We about managing horses on pasture. intended for the event to be unstructured free time with the Manyoftheattendeeslistenedtothateducationalherds, so folks could come and go anytime between 10 am podcast and came to learn how we keep a large herd ofand 4 pm that day.easy-keeperequinesonpasture24/7withoutobesity,I love educating people about how we manage our horses founder, colic, or other health problems, in a manner that isand land, and to share our herd and the Fjord breed with sustainable for the forage stand and the environment. Someanyone with interest. Many people new to the Fjord breed attendees owned a Fjord or two already, and came to seelearned a lot that day and I would not be surprised if some of the big herd. But many of the attendees did not have Fjords,them eventually buy Fjords based on what they saw.so this was their first exposure to the Fjord breed.Many also had little experience with pasture breeding, rotational horse management, forage quality testing, natural parasite management, multi-species grazing, forage ID, dung beetles, Fjord color genetics, or Fjord form and function, so we were happy to share our experience and knowledge. Attendees expressedtheirsurpriseathowfriendlyallofourfoals, broodmares, and herd stallions are to strangers, especially in such a big human crowd, and considering that our horses do not leave our farm for other events. Ive spent over 3 decades selecting for that temperament, and we feel the calm and friendly aspect of our herd reflects that selection. We even had 2 foals born the morning of the Fjord Open Public meets the herd PC Cherrie Nolden16 Fjord Herald Issue #148Fall 2023'