Next are you going to tell me it's not Clyde's Dale?


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

Brian, that would even make more sense , since the Clydesdale came from the dale ( valley) of the River Clyde in Scotland. By the way, the German word for valley as you very well know is "Tal".


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

I think it would be more important start calling them ponies and not horse, which they are. Also convince people to stop breeding them to get taller ones which is, in my opinion, ruining the breed and what they were originally intended to be.
I personally don't really care how folks spell it. Everyone knows what folks ar etalking about


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

I don't care how you spell it, everyone knows what your talking about. wish they would quit breeding to make them bigger.


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

Remember my grand dad worked horses and mules I could not find a collar bigger than a 22" collar my Halflinger's take a 22 and bigger. I had to buy collars to get one to fit them some will shrink down to a 21 or 22 when in working shape. Most people Ride horses and mules bigger than my grandad plowed and mowed hay with. they came from Oklahoma with a team of Indian pony mules about 750-850 lbs. they used what they had or could get cheep.


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

Vince, I agree that trying to get them taller through breeding does not improve them for draft purposes, but since Haflingers are - especially in Europe- used more for riding than for driving that is where the marketing chances are. Since the desired height goes up to 14hh 5 in, the Haflinger is within the size of a horse. The breeders in Austria, Italy and Bavaria would protest fiercely if one called their horse a pony!


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

K.C., I hope you'll forgive me, but I cannot shake off my past of having been in education for almost 30 years, up to the point that I trained teachers for many years. Correct spelling always was considered an obligation.
Of curose, we cluod froegt aubot it,and still udnretsnad, I sppusoe.


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

I think that halflings are more commonly known by the J.R.R. Tolkien's novels as hobbits. I miss my two haflingers, Birdie and Bell. They and their previous owner, George, taught me how to drive a team, which is something I thought I'd never do in my lifetime.


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

My pet peeve is those who refer to the Belgian as a "Belgium." The Belgian originated in Belgium. I get the normal, average folk, and can chalk it up to an innocent mistake. Half of those call my Belgians "Clydesdales." What really shocks me is the number of breeders and even showman who refer to the breed as Belgiums! That's a bit of a harder pill to swallow.


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

We used to raise crossbred haflingers. Then everyone started calling them half lingers. They aren't half of anything!! Drives me nuts. Last HPD I went to the announcer called them half lingers. I quit going. Then it doesn't bother me. Don't have a haflinger on the place now. The Norwegian Fjords took their place quite well.


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

I forgive you old habits are hard to break. one of my old habits is bad spelling as you probably have noticed.


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

I recognize that spelling of words in the English language can evolve over time and change from their root origins, I think it's important for the draft community to hold steadfast on legacy names and correct spellings since what we do is an endangered craft, and that by preserving proper names for things, we in some ways preserve their historical connection.


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

I have been reading this thread and trying to contain myself. I just lost, so here goes...

The purpose of spelling, syntax and overall good grammar is for clarity of communication. As they slip, so does communication. A misspelling here or there is no big deal. But consistent misspellings plus lack of punctuation and capitalization plus use of texting abbreviations totally lose me. There are posts (sometimes here and in other forums) that are so labor intensive to understand that I give up. THAT is the purpose of correct usage of language in its written form. It is not some form of torture that is imposed upon children in school. They are made to learn it so that others will understand what they are trying to communicate.


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

I guess we should all go back to swingletree instead of singletree then, as I understand that is the correct terminology.

Picket wire = purgatory is another

There are a lot of words that have been changed in the U.S. from their original European spelling


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

Just for the heck of it I Google searched for halflinger (half) and it corrected me and searched for the proper Haflinger......

Just saying...... Someone gets it. Also known as Avelignese.


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

Vince, you are right , of course, that a lot of words have changed their spelling, sometimes because of ignorance, sometimes out of laziness, sometimes because the language over times changed the pronunciation, sometimes to hide something, for example the country of origin( especially in cases of people's names) sometimes because the original spelling was ambiguous or variable. But in the case of the Haflinger there is , as I showed, and Brian explained, a good historical reason, which defines the horse.
I think most of us would agree to the maxim, if you do something do it right, and that pertains to spelling as well, I would like to assume.
As a fifth generation educator I really enjoy it that we are discussing the importance or respectively non-importance of correct orthography.
p I always reminded my students, youngsters or adults, " when in doubt, look it up". There are dictionaries.


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

Can I just add that I have really enjoyed reading this thread? Words ARE important, and without them we wouldn't enjoy the humor and self-deprecation you have all brought to the discussion.

Time to go brush my Per Sharon.


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

Bird ...thanks for the chuckle. I had to read it twice!


7 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum