Canadian Dama de Noche

Dama is owned by Jennifer Tarrant of Guelph, Ontario. Jennifer tells the story of how her horse came into her life.

"Dama, as she is affectionately called, came to be mine when she was just one and a half years old. My very good friend Camilla Willings of Fina Vista Farm had been helping me to find my first horse, a dream since I was a little. I flirted with the idea of an Icelandic but had started riding Camilla’s Paso Finos - it wasn’t long until I was hooked on that smooth gait and that playful temperament. I was now looking for a Paso. We had looked at many videos, many web pages, a few farms around the area when one day she took me to a farm outside of Flamborough. She had remembered seeing this little buckskin filly as a new babe a while back and heard that she was for sale again. We walked in the barn, Dama put her head over her stall door and I sighed "I want that one…" Camilla laughed and it was pretty much a done deal.

I did what any seasoned horse person would advise you never to do. I was a very, very green rider (with confidence issues… big confidence issues) and I bought a very, very green horse. If it hadn’t been for Camilla, my wonderful and endlessly patient friend, helping me along it could have been a horrible disaster but it really couldn’t have turned out better.

Dama, whose name incidentally refers to a night blooming flower, is now ten years old and we have had quite a ride. She has taught me so much about myself and what I am capable of. She has shown me patience, shown me how to be in the moment, how to slow down and how to be peaceful in myself, how to trust myself and to trust her. She has taught me a new language. It has been remarkable and humbling to me that this beautiful, magnificent creature has given me her trust and that she has become my partner and friend.

I have had some pretty bleak moments in the last few years and I have buried my face in her mane many times. She always responds by wrapping her neck around me, she always just knows. She has a remarkable temperament and is a forgiving soul. She has given many a child careful pony rides and many riders hours of fun on the trail. Camilla often comments that she could have sold Dama a hundred times over but to me she is priceless and I look forward to many more years of learning and growing with each other."

Congratulations to Dama for being our October 6^th, 2008 Horse of the Week.