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A 'Classic' Posting of the Norwegian Fjord Horse listserver

The Stallion Grabb by Brian Jacobsen, DVM

This message is from: bcjdvm@juno.com

My grandfather, Harold Jacobsen, liked to think big.  He was a very
independent person and was always doing things that went against
"traditional" wisdom.  Like learning to ski at the age of 50.  Like
starting to raise Norwegian Fjord Horses at the age of 59, never having
owned a horse before.  Like owning 38 Fjords at one point in the mid
1980's.  Like selling Fjords to almost every state in the country, and
Canada.

In 1980 Harold decided he wanted to bring another stallion to Norwegian
Fjordhest Ranch.  We had imported the stallion Dragtind several years
previously, and we realized we needed another stallion to breed with if
we were going to keep any of Dragtind's daughters.  He had learned about
the stallion Grabb (the "a" is pronounced like "ahhh" when you go to the
dentist - or like the sound of "sob" as in crying), and he decided that
was the one he needed to bring home.  At the time, Grabb was considered
by many to be the best living Fjord stallion in Norway, and we didn't
think at first that the Norwegian officials would allow him to leave. 
For two reasons though they finally agreed.  First, Grabb had bred mares
in Norway for quite some time, and he was not getting any younger at 19
years old.  And second, the Norwegians were truly concerned about Fjord
breeding in the US and knew the contribution Grabb could make in the
quality of Fjords over here.

So on August 13, 1980, Grabb set foot for the first time on American
soil.  At that time stallions only had to undergo a three-day quarantine,
so it was not long afterwards that he arrived at our ranch in Carbondale,
Colorado, high in the Rocky Mountains.  My first thought upon seeing
Grabb was, "What a horse!"  Almost without fail, this was  everyone's
reaction upon seeing him for the first time.

Grabb had a physique like I've never seen on a Fjord, before or since. 
He stood about 14.2 hands tall and, I'm estimating, weighed 1200 pounds. 
I wish I had a judges comment card on him, but I don't, so I'll comment
from what I remember of him and from pictures.  Grabb had very nice
overall symmetry being well-balanced front and rear.  His withers and top
of his croup were level.  Grabb's chest and neck were very impressive. 
His chest was very wide and very muscular.  His neck was nicely arched
and came high off his shoulders.  His back was long, he was thick
barreled, and very strong coupled.  The rear quarters were strongly
muscled with a slightly sloping croup.  Grabb had a very masculine head
with a proud carriage.  

Grabb's movements were classic Fjord for the time period he came from;
High knee action and strongly driven from the rear end.  Harold liked to
say he "came on like gangbusters" when he was running toward you.  My
impression was that of a freight train bearing down on you; Lot's of
noise, steam, and this massive body coming toward you.

Probably part of the reason I thought of him as a freight train was that
I was never sure if he would stop when he was barreling down the fence
line toward me.  I was fairly young at the time, and I never gave him the
chance.  I was in good company, though, as there were many people who
jumped up on the gate when Grabb came charging toward us at what seemed
like 90 miles per hour!  Let's just say he was a fireball!  Grabb's main
job in Norway was breeding mares, and he took his job very seriously.  We
would hand breed, and when one would hold the mare at one end of the
arena, Grabb would enter from the other.  My older brother John would put
the bit in Grabb's mouth, attach the long lines, set his feet, give the
command to open the gate, and then "ski" 100 feet across the arena until
Grabb reached the mare.  While he was "wide open" when he arrived in
Colorado, within two years he had settled down quite nicely was about
average for a Fjord stallion.

Some of my most interesting memories of Grabb involve breeding him.  As
anyone who owns a stallion knows, they are very spectacular as they
prance and perform and show off for a mare, and so my grandfather liked
to show Grabb off to visitors when such an event was taking place.  My
job was to hold the mare's tail out of the way and, as I had the best
vantage point, to judge whether it was a successful breeding or not. 
While my grandfather was a very bold and forthright man, and was not
embarrassed by anything, I was a painfully shy young teenage boy who
blushed if a girl so much as looked at me.  I still cringe as I can hear
Harold's voice calling out to me from 30 feet away over the fence and
expecting me to answer no matter who was watching - male or female. 
While I can talk of such things relatively easily now as a veterinarian,
back then I lived in mortal fear of the inevitable question, "Is it in,
Brian?"

Grabb was considered a "matador" of the Fjord breed in Norway.  This term
was reserved for stallions of unusual quality who made a large impact on
the breed.  He had more registered, prizewinning sons and daughters than
any stallion in his time.  Of 98 registered offspring, 20 were sons and
78 daughters.  Of the sons, there was one 1st prize, eight 2nd prize, and
eleven 3rd prize.  Of the daughters, six won 1st prize, 21 won 2nd, and
50 were awarded 3rd prize.  Grabb himself was a first prize stallion who
was also awarded 1st prize for the quality of his offspring (shown on
pedigrees as "1.pr - 1.avk.pr").  Grabb is the only stallion ever
imported from Norway to the US to have that distinction.  His Norwegian
registry number is N-1651; His sire was Gullring  N1576  2.pr, and his
dam was Ivana  N12275  2.pr.  Grabb's heritage is interesting as he has
influence from all three major stallion lines: Bergfast, Oyarblakken, and
Hakon Jarl.  In fact, of the 32 stallions on his registration
certificate, 4 are matadors (Bergfast 635, Gloppang 894, Oyarblakken 819,
and Torbjorn 1417).

When attempting to characterize Grabb's offspring, I think consistent
quality is the best description.  Few are outstanding attention-getters
like he was; Instead they are a quality group of well-conformed and sound
horses with good personalities and good minds, and they pass this on to
their foals.  I think of the stallions Leik and Grabbson as examples, and
the stallion Ask who was imported from Norway into Canada.  Also my
favorite mare that we still own, Lilli.  We never showed the Fjords, and
many of the people we sold to didn't either, so I don't have show records
to point to.  Many of Grabb's get aren't even NFHR registered due to
differences of opinion that Harold and others had with the Registry years
ago.  But Grabb and his get, perhaps more than any other line in the US,
form a backbone of high quality Fjords that runs throughout the whole
country.

Grabb's untimely death was just as spectacular as his life.  In 1985,
since I was going off to college and Harold would have little help with
the horses, he decided to sell out.   He ended up selling an
unprecedented 33 Fjords to a man named Cliff Baltzley from Pecos, New
Mexico.  This included every horse we had but Grabb.  Grabb was going to
Cliff's ranch also, to breed mares, but Harold still owned him.  The
stallions were housed near each other, and somehow, either Dragtind or
Grabb knocked down part of his panel fence, and then knocked down the
fence enclosing the other stallion.  At 24 years of age, Grabb did not
have much of a chance against Dragtind, who was half his age.  Though he
must have fought valiantly, Grabb died at 11:00 a.m. on July 28, 1985,
from injuries sustained in the fight.

Brian Jacobsen, DVM
Norwegian Fjordhest Ranch
Salisbury, North Carolina