The appy is a great breed. I have no experience dealing with a Clydesdale...except following them around at the state fair. 
@berdie Of course, the Appaloosa, born right here in the northwest, is my favorite horse. You see a ton around here, where a soft step and a thick ankle are as needful as anything else. Appys, Quarters, and Morgans tend to rule the back country around here. Likewise, a mustang around here will likely be from those breeds, not the short coupled little cutting horses like y'all have down there.
I DO love me a Tennessee Walker. I have sat a few, worked a couple... And you are right... That high stepping syncopated gait is the easiest to sit that I have ever known. But I will take an Appaloosa over about any. Just about the best natural mountain horse that there is.
Likewise my affinity for Clydesdales. The work horse has a deep history up in here. And there is something grand in dragging logs behind a good matched pair... Way different from just pulling a wagon or a plow. So naturally, draft horses are measured by that, and are still kept around even as a historic novelty. I learned ground reins early, and can run a team pretty well. And from that, a love of Clydes.
Truthfully most of my horses were mutts, much like my dogs and me. They needed a place to be and I had one. In addition to my needy ones, I had a couple of paints that were great horses. I had a Tennesse Walker that I adored. Riding him was like sitting in a rocking chair. If I were still able to ride, that would be my horse.
Not that I meant to put on airs... I have worked papered horses, but have never owned any. In fact, my experience on them la-ti-da moneyed ranches soured me plenty on that whole thing. Like my beloved Malamutes, what they look like is good enough to call them so. There is a durability that I admire that does not stay in papered lines.
I do agree with you about them being herd animals and working with them. I fostered a retired racehorse for a time. She was a maniac. But after a time being around my spoiled babies and getting outside...and finally letting me come around her...she rowdied on down quite nicely.
That's the thing, see... And most of why them high-dollar horses are so dang neurotic. Imagine taking something so beautifully made for open pastures and lock it in a stall its whole life... I'd be crazy and jangley too.
And to the subject of the thread @roamer_1 I would absolutely love for this horse to go the distance. How much fun would that be!!!
A Triple Crown? oh, but wouldn't it be nice. Every now and then, there is a special one that not only wins the crown, but walks away with it... Like it weren't nothing. I always think there will never be another. But every now and then... This one raises that hope, don't it?
@Bigun
