Greydales, Daloumie Black Cherry and Daloumie Sweet Olivia
Village Chieftain is one of my favourite stallions and I had always wanted one of his offspring. So when Lorraine Wiltshire sent me a pic of a robust little one day old black filly, I was smitten. Apparently the pic was taken just after the filly had been born, and had been washed away down a stream which had turned into a raging torrent after a night’s rain! Luckily she was caught before she got washed under a fallen tree trunk, and was rescued by Lorraine and a friend. She seems none the worse for wear!
Cherry is a feisty little filly who has bags of character and is dead cheeky. She will be the one who will give you a crafty nip, who pings around at the end of the leadrope like Tigger and also starts a stampede in the field when you are having a quiet walk round. She is also very loveable although you always have to watch your back when she is behind you!
Cherry lives with the herd and is currently a strapping 2 year old (14.2hh!). I’ve started rudimentary training via bitting and basic lunging, on a very infrequent basis but so that the verbal commands become ingrained. She has only had two sessions this year but is already walking, trotting and halting on command!
When I went to look at Cherry as a foal I spotted another leggy yearling in the field who had lovely paces. This pretty bay was Olivia, who was also up for sale. Well impulsive person that I am, I agreed to have both!
Olivia is a very sensitive filly who does not like feeling restricted or confined. She was very reactive as a yearling and two year old, with a tendency to panic and rear so everything has to be done at her pace, without pressure.
I bitted her as a two year old but she could not stand any pressure whatsoever and reacted to loose side reins by rearing up and falling over backwards! I did some lunging with her which she took to well, and left her for the winter.
I had the idea of putting her into foal but unfortunately she did not approve of my choice of stallion (Village Chieftain!) and the liaison was not successful – so it was back to the drawing board and basic training. Olivia has accepted me lying over her back so I thought I would put my more agile daughter on her back, which she accepted without fuss. We walked off a short way, but suddenly Olivia freaked and bucked poor Anna off, so again it was another hard lesson in doing things VERY slowly at Olivia’s pace (ie, sitting on her back but not walking off!).
I thought I would attempt some long lining but was rather apprehensive about her acceptance of the bit. So I began by attaching the lines to her headcollar and she walked around the arena like an old pro, to verbal commands. I then attached the lines to bit and headcollar, expecting fireworks or at least some resistance – but there was none! So I went the whole way and attached the lines to the bit – off she went, as if she had done this for years. She is very responsive to long lining and can walk and trot figures of eight, halt and back up, and go over trotting poles.
Strangely considering Olivia’s panicky tendencies she is actually the most bombproof out of my whole herd, apart from Dan! She is not fussed about vehicles or any strange things I may put in the arena. She is a strapping 14.3hh at 3 years old; I will bring Olivia on very slowly and do a lot of ground work with her which I think will be very important in her case - after all I am in no hurry to back!