Gelderlander for dressage?

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I was competing on Sunday, and one of the horses in my class was a lovely chestnut gelderlander. I have not seen many of these around on the dressage circuit, but watching the movement it is definitely a breed I would consider buying.

Does anyone else have much experience of the breed?
 
There's been a few very good Gelderlanders in Dressage over the years.
I think they are bred more for carrige driving (I think one failed carriage horse did very very well in Dressage , really can't remeber the name and it's bugging me).

But you do have to be a bit careful when looking as not every Gelderlander will make a good dressage horse, apparently I think you want to look for the "finer" ones and the ones from the older bloodlines are best.

But I could be wrong that's just off the top of my head.
 
Mr President (Steph Croxford's horse) is a Gelderlander x Hackney
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My friend took her horse to PSG and when she retired him she bought a Gelderlander to do dressage. I don't know what happened after that, not seen her in a few years
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my older horse has a teeny bit of gelderlander in him, given that he is from the dutch courage/dutch gold line, not that it really counts !
 
I just really liked the one I saw yesterday... Ok, he didn't get as high a mark as Grace, but you could just see he was oozing potential and had all the makings of a really good dressage horse!

He was full gelderlander too
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Gelderlanders aer great horses although i dont like them beause they are too big and ugly!!! Most have amazing actions and seem to be quite sane for a horse of their build!
 
LOVE THEM
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Can be total nutters like the one I used to ride but loved him SO much - love of my life and taught me to ride; can be quite nervy which is part of their nature, constantly need attention and something to keep them occupied. Test your patience to the limit at times but when they go well, they go really really well!

Walk & trot can be to die for, especially when you ask for anything more than medium trot - wow is all I can say. Canter can be pretty unbalanced because of their build but again can go really really nicely. Naturally high head carriage so jumping is always fun, very much ears in mouth.

Pos was ideal for dressage, he had been doing elementary before the yard bought him.

I really really rate them as a breed, but have got to be in the right environment for them to shine. There were times that my lessons on him would extend to an hour and a half just because he was that infruiating and not interested in working correctly. Other times, he'd go like a dream from the moment you got on. Pos never settled in a busy RS, there was too much going on at any one time and trying to keep weight on him was a nightmare.

I rode him for nearly 4 years and taught me SO much about feel, contact and the correct way of movement etc for dressage. If you can tune into their way of thinking (I was one of very few RS clients that actually liked riding him, he could be that bad) but once you're in tune with them - it's like going up another gear.

The gorgeous beastie doing what he did best: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a380/stickyVix/Poseur/posmunch2.jpg

Will try and find a piccie of him actually doing some flatwork for you
 
The one that did well was called Dikkiloo and Kirsty Mepham rode him on our team at the Atlanta OLympics.
They are Dutch and they are called Tuigpaards as the are carriage horses. It is the Gelderlander x TB that= andF1 cross and was the original basis for the Dutch warmblood [ they are called Basispaards BP on KWPN papers]
They can be very hot and tight and have problems with the 'relaxation' part of the scales of training.
They have bags of characture and this is why people are drawn to watching them but they do find 'sitting' and work over the back without tightening the neck and back very difficult.
For me it was the flying changes that became an issue as my first dressage horse was a gelderlander and the canter was an issue again difficult to keep this tension out of the work.
He is now 22 and retired to pasture with me as he taught me SO MUCH. Patience being the first thing... oh and ask nicely!!
 
We had one at college (10 yrs ago now). Winston was a HUGE character!!! He jumped for fun - tremendous scope!! trotted up to 4ft and popped over it!! He had lovely paces and boy o boy could he BUCK!!!! WOW!!!!! I don't recall ANYONE not coming off him when he got one on him - me included
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I had a gelderlander for 4 years, he did everything, eventing, showjumping, hunting, XC, PC and RC, team chasing, ect ect, but i wasnt intrested in dressage to begin with as i was a crazy teen who liked to go really fast or really high! unfortunatly he suffered a tendon injury in the field and was not alloud to jump again, so we started on flat work and within a 3 lessons from a local trainer he was at his first competition with excellent percentages! he had naturraly expressive and very uphill paces, canter was his weakest gate but only because all the years spinning on a sixpence for SJ, the trot on this horse was AMAZING!! i would definatly recomend this breed to anybody for anything, yes they are quite sensitive to unusual people but when they trust you they will do anything for you! i mean anything! p.s all the comments say they are BIG horses, but mine was full bred and only 15.3. i hope you decide to get one it will be well worth the initial work!!!
 
hi everyone!
i have a six yo gelderlander x hackney who i brought in april and he had never seen a jump before.he has alot pof potential and he is such a sweetie and he has the nicest paces ever! i will upload some pictures for you to have a look and tell me what you think.
 
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