This afternoon, we brought home our newest acquisition, Dutch Treat, aka Duchess.  Duchess is believed to be a Welsh/POA (Pony of the Americas) cross.  She is about 14hh, strawberry roan color and will be 9 years old in May.  We got Duchess specifically for Vicki.  While Devil isn’t going anywhere, Vicki really could use a slightly larger mount and Amanda is planning to do some sharing of Devil this year.

Now, I know at least a few of our closer horse friends are thinking, “they don’t get mares!”  It’s true, we broke our rules and got another mare.  It’s not that we haven’t ever had a mare that we liked, it just creates complications in the herd.  This time around, we decided it was worth the hassle to add a mare to the herd of 6 geldings.

We acquired Duchess from a young woman who started her and used her in a lesson program.  Duchess has experience on the rated hunter/jumper show circuit, but has been out of work for about 2 years while out on a lease that didn’t use her.  She doesn’t have any health issues, just needs to get back into work.  Vicki says “riding Duchess is like riding Devil, but a mare”.  We all know Vicki will ride anything, but Anna and I think they are a really good match.  There was one other part of her background that sealed the deal.  Duchess is a jumper.  Vicki has acknowledged that it will take lessons and hard work for Vicki to be ready to jump anywhere near what Duchess has done in the past, but I’ll just share these 2 photos of Duchess jumping courses a couple of years ago.

The snow is melting and spring has arrived, so it’s time to get the ponies back in shape and get ready for the show season.  Stay tuned to follow the progress of Vicki and Duchess as a team!