BEHS 1247 – Sweet Duchess

She has spent the last four months with a youth handler working on the ground. Her youth training challenge partner has started riding her under saddle in various saddles, including English, Western, Endurance, and Bareback, and says based on her reaction to riding cues she does not seem to have been ridden frequently.
She is very sure of herself and likely has been the boss of her handlers most of her life, so it is recommended a confident beginner to handle and an Intermediate rider with supervision. She is a horse that will be successful with consistent and regular training.

When her challenge partner first picked her up, she was extremely afraid and nervous with trailers. Now she loads herself into a trailer and she also would not pick up her feet well either, which she has gotten much better at. With consistency she will lift her legs and stand still. If her feet and legs are not consistently worked with, she will revert to old ways.

Sweet Duchess and her youth handler have learned to navigate obstacles in hand and work a lung line. Her lunging has improved from not knowing how to stop to beautiful turns. She is still working on lunging in a round pen and prefers the lounge line. Sweet Duchess can be buddy/barn sour at times, especially at home.

Sweet Duchess also has been diagnosed with Cushing's disease, which can easily be controlled by one pill a day. She doesn’t have many teeth, so she needs more feed than others in order to maintain her weight. Although she loves hay and has 24/7 access to it, she cannot chew hay at the rate or as easily as others. She needs feed with no sugar or molasses along with hay to maintain her weight. It takes her longer to eat her morning and evening meals, so it is best for her to be in a stall by herself to eat. She has thin soles and wears Equine Fusion Ultra All Terrain boots when ridden.

Sweet Duchess ideal home is someone who wants to love her. Sweet Duchess has a lot of life left in her and would make a great pleasure, trail, or even obstacle competition horse, which she has competed with in hand with her youth handler.