"Dunsplashin Chico Little"
Affectionately known as "Little".
Palomino Tobiano
Foaled Registered PHPA 664
Born 6-9-2006
Photos taken November 2007.
Sire - "Dunsplashin Warpainter"
PHPA 282 Chestnut Tobiano
Dam - "Dunsplashin Velvet Cream"
UPWBDA PNM0087 Solid Palomino
BRED BY DUNSPLASHIN STUD
HOW "DUNSPLASHIN CHICO LITTLE" AKA "LITTLE" GOT HIS NAME!
Little was bred by Dunsplashin Stud owned/operated by my sister, hence Dunsplashin is the prefix he was born under. When "Little" was born our little sister was visiting the stud at the time, and on seeing him said he looked like a "little" copy of "Chico" (his sire Dunsplashin Warpainter is known to his family as "Chico"). The movie Chicken Little was fresh in the kids mind at the time and he spent some time known as "Chicken Little" as a pet name while a registered one was decided, I have to admit at first his pet name was pretty off putting but it grew on us and we registered him under the original name "Dunsplashin Chico Little" and known as "Little" for short.
LITTLES STORY
There is a story behind the birth and acquisition of any horse if you care enough to find it out, this is "Little's Story" and in it that of his dam "Dunsplashin Velvet Cream" and grand dam "Sister", I guess too its mine....
SISTER
Sister & I both aged 13 years.
As a young girl my sister and I had always wanted a pony, when I was 8 my parents bought a small hobby farm and our first pony who was the picture of your typical naughty pony, pigrooting, scraping us off by going under trees etc. Nether the less we survived and one by one we moved on to bigger and better mounts, when I was 13 it was my turn. We happened upon a spirited 13 year old Arab pony mare who stood all of 13 hh if that at our local pony club where she was attempted to be ridden by the same girl we got our first pony from, she was quite a famous pony - for all the wrong reasons. She shied, she bolted, she was just plain nuts apparently!
So were we obviously, for we paid the grand sum of $150 for this mare and took her home.... Dad was a horse breaker of the old style and he set about straightening her out which involved many long rides and wet saddle blankets with my older sister in the saddle. Then came the day she was deemed to be sorted out and was mine alone. I remember that very first ride well, it was a perfect sunny day, the butterflies in my belly slowly melted away as I on my little mare and my sister on her gelding rode alone the lengthy lane leading to our block. I began feeling good, so good in fact that when we came to a favourite jumping log in the way I headed her over it............and promptly found myself sitting on one side of the log reins in hand with the horse on the other. I swear she was laughing at me. And so from that moment I learnt that a horses respect should never be taken for granted but earned and demanded.
Months later we ourselves joined the local pony club and I took the mare, we didn’t have the right gear or the most expensive horses - in fact mine was apparently the nuttiest horse around but over time they came to wonder and respect the little grey mare and her rider. We went on to win many timed events and our age champion for the year, to top it all off this was all achieved by competing against her previous owner/rider. Not bad for a pair of "out of the bush by hard riding" sorts. We also won our pony clubs "Most Improved Rider".
This mares name was "Sister".
"Sister" and I were inseperable for some years but eventually the inveitable happened - I grew and she didn't so I moved on to bigger horses but they never did measure up to that little grey mare, she remains to this date the best little mare I have ever owned and had the pleasure of riding.
I could never part with her so she remained in the paddock for a few years, when I was at college she was put to a arab colt and went in foal however some idiots on motorbikes broke into our vacant block and chased the horses causing her to lose the foal, all that remained was the mess I took her into the dam to clean off. The offenders were never caught although we had our suspicions.
After that I gave her to my sister who had plans to breed a few foals, she herself fell pregant and was too busy to continue on this path and "Sister" was returned to me. An old horseman we met through family thought her such a nice type he asked to go foal for foal with me and with my agreement he put her to his QH stallion "Pale Oak" who was a palomino that would do almost anything for his mate & owner.
PALE OAK (QH)
SISTER IN FOAL
"Sister" foaled a lovely palomino filly which was a bit of a shock to us all considering the odds of grey were so high, she was a great mum (she had previously to our knowledge at least one foal) but put so much into her foal that by the time the filly was a yearling we were worried she would not cope with a second and the descision was made that I would keep the filly and her mum. I named the filly Velvet Cream.
We were at the time living some distance from where they were kept and had other horses to pick up at the time, we could only take two so we took the two younger fillies we owned leaving "Sister" on a friends place with a retired racehorse gelding for company. When we later came to pick the mare up some months later we discovered the "gelding" was obviously not "gelded" and the unhorsey friends had not known this, there sitting in the paddock with extremely large foal belly was "Sister".
We put "Sister" in our paddock agistment with the rest of our herd and to her credit she foaled a lovely little pally/weird coloured colt we named "Cupid" (see his photo in the SOLD album - link to left of page), this foal contracted strangles not long afer birth and we had no horse transport at home so we bundled him into the back seat of our Ford sedan and drove him into the vet where he was saved. Mare and foal then moved into our back yard for more intensive care, despite early weaning of the foal and good quality feed on demand "Sister" now aged 21 did not recover and I made the descision to have her put down.
It was not made easily but she'd been a good little mare and deserved her rest, I did not want to see her suffer as the years made her life harder to maintain. So we loaded her on the float and met the vet at our local dump (as we nor family owned anywhere at the time), the place they put down the animals was a curiously peaceful place, with nice soft green grass and pretty flowers all over the ground, I stood holding her lead and stroking her lovely face while she was needled and instantly went down, one more needle and the vet left us in peace. I wept for hours over the loss of my best friend and even now am typing with tears running down my cheeks.
RIP "Sister" the best little mare I ever owned.
SISTER AND I
DUNSPLASHIN VELVET CREAM
As time passed we started "Sister's" foal "Velvet" under saddle, I held onto this part of her for dear life but it was with a sad heart I came to the conclusion she was just to small for us and she was sold on to my sister on the condition that were she ever to be sold she would be first offered back to me. I am happy to report that she is still in that home.
Years later "Velvet" was carrying her first foal by "Dunsplashin Warpainter" when I was pregnant with my first child, we joked about who would pop first - the horse won by a few days giving birth to a beautiful palomino solid filly who was nicknamed "Grace". "Grace" was sold and later renamed "Belle", her registered name is "Dunsplashin Oakeys Golden Dawn".
"Velvets" second foal was also by the same stallion, another solid golden palomino filly, this one was called "Zena" (her registered name is "Dunsplashin Zena Painted Princess") who was sold locally and we had the pleasure of giving a few weeks cattle work recently after she had been broken in by my sister.
The third foal was "Little" again by the same stallion "Dunsplashin Warpainter". Against all odds instead of the expected plain chestnut colt we thought the mare would give after two such nice fillies she popped out a lovely palomino tobiano colt, at this time we were on the look out for a colt to start our pinto herd and he was just what we ordered, but another couple had first option and there followed a few days of nail biting until we were told that they'd passed him up as he was "too good to geld".
So living close by my sister we were there to handle him at every stage, "Velvet" like her dam puts so much into her foals that it was decided to wean him early in which we were involved every step of the way with handling etc and he came home with us to live when ready.