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by Cathy Morris, Klamath Falls, Oregon --Golden Slippers Haflingers

When I first got some Haflingers, it was three yearlings. They were wonderful creatures and lots of fun, but I still had no concept of what a fully-grown already done its learn'n Haflinger was like until shortly afterwards, when I got the 12 year-old mare Molly.

She stepped off the trailer as calmly as if she had arrived here many times before. Immediately, she would completely concentrate every time Bill spoke. It was as if she knew he was the new owner, and she better get busy and bond. Of course, that was exactly what she was doing. From day one this horse was like a breath of fresh air. Nothing was hard. Everything was easy - and she
understood it all. She was a blast to ride, a cinch to catch, a dream to have around.

She like rules. The rule was that people had their jobs with their Haflingers, and Haflingers had their jobs with people. One didn't break the rules. Sometimes she would make it very clear that we were not sticking to our bargain. When she first arrived I kept her in a huge stall at night. She wasn't used to it, and didn't seem to enjoy it, but hey, she was cool. One night the weather was so mild,
that I decided to leave her out and took her hay to her in the pasture. For the next hour, ignoring the hay, she just stood alert, looking at me with disbelief. It was as if she was saying: "Ya, sure I'm used to this at the other place, but we do things differently here! Are you going to be consistent or not?" Since she spoke such plain English, I was forced to put her in a stall to avoid the feeling of condemnation.

She had a rule that Haflingers don't run from people, but come up to greet them. She never broke the rule. She had a rule that Haflingers stayed in their pasture. We used to leave the gate to her pasture open so her new foal could come out and visit. Molly never left the pasture. Since she had a rule that People could be trusted with her baby, she never worried, even if her foal (Windy) got out of sight - so long as he was with us. If he got out of sight and we weren't there, she had a rule to be very, very, upset. I had her tied once and Windy decided (at one month old) to just leave home. He started up the quarter mile drive towards the road, filled with obvious self confidence. Since I was with Molly and not Windy, she became very upset. I told her "Don't worry, I'll get him!" She calmed immediately and stayed calm - because she understood I was going to get him. That is not what horses are like. Horses don't have that level of understanding. They don't have that kind of complicated trust levels. They aren't that rational.

When we would go for walks through the neighborhood together, I didn't need a halter or line. That was because Molly decided the appropriate, acceptable distance between a free Haflinger and their person was 20 feet. Not my rule, hers. never broke it. Several times, heading out on those walks, I would remember hat I need to get coffee, and I would just allow her to stay free while I went
in to fetch the brew. She would be waiting at the back door for me when I returned. If we walked to a neighbors house and I got invited in for a minute, I could count on her to just stay there and wait for me. She did. Then I would come out, and we would start out on our travels again, together.

The understanding, cooperation, and intelligence level that we experience from this mare was beyond anything imaginable to be expected. This is what people who are experience with horses will find. You can think you know what a horse is like, what it is capable of ... until you meet your Haflinger, and your little world gets turned upside down. That's when you start telling stories
that your other horse friends can't quite believe - because they don't have a Haflinger. That's why we need this website: Because we believe each other.

My young horses grew up. They didn't disappoint, and proved their blood, each one in turn being his or her own little miracle. I've decided that everyone's favorite Haflinger - the one they will never sell, is often their first, because that's the horse they took the time to build this kind of bond with, to train and to learn the Haflinger language, while the Haflinger learns theirs.