There is soon to be a new filly in the pasture. It is all kind of crazy and unbelievable when things work out. We are super excited about how things are working out for us and looking up for us this summer. There will definitely be plenty of projects in the pasture, that’s for sure. But what’s another mouth to feed when it’s a beautiful redheaded one?
On Sunday we got to visit with our friends, the Dykstras. They were missing the head of the household as he was off galavanting and saving the world, or at least doing his part in Guatemala. But we had to make a mad dash down because we heard Alise was home from Africa, but only for a limited time. It’s been since last summer when we saw her, so tooooo long! We hopped in our car and headed down, just Sophie, Libby and I.
What Libby didn’t know was that I was bursting with a surprise. You faithful blog readers, and Mane Focus facebook page followers, know that she has a new project in her game pony, Quixx. But Libby has decided to devote her summer and every spare minute to horses. She’s riding for Pete, training for Daryl and wants her own projects too to bring along. She’s even been hopping on my two for me since I have had very little time to ride. But she wanted another project. Something reasonably priced that she could turn into a good kid’s pony. We kind of miss working with the ponies and Libby found how happy Quixx made her heart when she hopped on him. So she had been sending me pics of ponies. All the way down to Dykstras she kept talking about this overheight pony in OK that she thought she could get pretty reasonable and get started this summer. I was biting my tongue and doing my best not to smirk. Because Anne and I had a surprise.
We got to Decorah and after a few quick hugs we had to go for our pasture walk and see babies. They have four adorable new POA babies. We have 3 nice colts at the barn where we board, but I’m telling you, there is nothing cuter than a POA foal. They are just so tiny! And their little muzzles are so teeny tiny and soft. AARRGH! I’m going to have a heart attack from the cuteness. We made our way around the barn and then out to the pasture to see the last two foals and giggle at their shenanigans. Lastly we moved out to the pasture where the two year olds and an open mare were hanging out.
As we walked up Libby made some comment about the two year old Hope. She was surprised to see her still there as she thought she had sold. We didn’t say much else about it other than talking about the other two and how pretty Alise’s 2 year old was looking. And then Anne asked Libby when she was going to pick up her filly. Libby was a little dumbfounded and asked “what”? And Anne explained that Hope was her new project. And Libby went “what”? And at this point I started getting all choked up as Anne explained to Libby again that Hope was hers and that she was counting on her to do a great job with her and help promote the Dutch name again in the open show circuit. And Libby still looked in disbelief, but before she could ask “what?” again I explained that I had already cleared it with our barn owner and that we would be bringing Hope home for her to work with. Libby was still so overwhelmed and in shock that she didn’t quite know what to say. We kept chatting about her and probably 5 minutes later, Sophie broke all the tension by asking, “wait, so are we really getting this new pony?” That set us all laughing. You can always count on Sophie to bring humor into any situation.
It wasn’t until we were in the car on the way home that the realization of this beautiful little redhead coming home with us really hit Libby. She started babbling about her and we both got excited about having one to start from the ground up this summer. Libby is already planning which shows will have room in the trailer to get her to to stand around and see the sights.
Now for a little bit about her, Dutch Hope (we absolutely LOVE her name), actually bears no relation to any of our previous Dutch ponies. Hope is by their new young stallion, Dutch Golden Chocolatey who is by the appaloosa stallion that Libby and I have drooled over for years, Chocolatey. We have always loved their gorgeous palomino stallion, Ritchie. I mean, look at him!
Hope is out of their former broodmare, Dutch Dancing on Impulse who was out of their adorable little show mare, Justa Star Dancer and by their former stallion, A Perfect Impulse. We have loved Purdy (A Perfect Impulse) since the first time we saw him and Libby even got to compete against him for several years. He is a real gem of a pony who goes back to A Sudden Impulse, AQHA. And Dancer (Justa Star Dancer) went back to Kid O Tough, who happens to be our all time favorite POA stallion and known for producing versatile ponies who excel at, well, everything.
If that isn’t enough to make Hope a fun prospect to have in the barn, in looks she reminds us of one of our all time favorite mares who we had to sell due to downsizing a few years back. Gretchen and Hope also share zero as far as relation wise. But we had to do a few side by side comparisons because we think they look so much alike anyway. It’s exciting to be bringing home such a beautiful girl. Gotta love redheads!
In case you’re all losing track; we now have two 3 year olds - only one of them can be described as “broke(ish)”, two 2 year olds - only one even started, and a yearling. A whole lot of potential and a whole lot of work ahead of all of us. Good thing this is our favorite kind of work.
No comments:
Post a Comment