From her sire, our Palomino Wb Stallion, Jaybee Excellent she inherited her faultless temperament, beauty, elegance and glorious colour while her dam, a 17.3hh full Trakhener mare, Liesel (Kaliber, Wesuw), blessed her with that sought after height so rarely seen in palominos.

As she was destined to be big, we decided to start her at 2 years of age.  This was achieved with absolutely no fuss at all by the inimitable Adam Sutton from Cooronbong, NSW who aptly nicknamed her "Miss Whatever".

Turned out for 2 months she was then bought back in for extremely light work before winning her first ever ridden class at the Cobargo Agricultural Show in February 2006.  After several more wins under saddle we then turned her back out till May, when again we commenced very light work (maximum of 2 rides per week) in preparation for the EFA Newcomer Horse of The Year Show in October.

Monthly lessons with the fabulous Les Friend saw her transform from a gawky baby to an elegant hack and in no time at all she was  happily  working in a frame  not often seen in  babies.   Mallie is a dream to ride as she genuinely seems to enjoy being ridden.  The contact is always light  and soft and she has only ever been ridden in a snaffle and so far,  barefoot.

A 3 week show run out the west of NSW saw her collect the required 7 quallies for the Open Hack ring Sydney Royal (one at each show we attended).  Beautifully ridden by 19 year old Kristen Salway of Cobargo, her wins included:

Champion Open Hack 4 times
Reserve Champion Open Hack 4 times
Open Ladies Hack
Pleasure Hack twice
Champion Ridden All Breeds 3 times
Reserve Champion Led All Breeds twice
Champion Led Mare, Filly or Gelding
Champion Lady Rider Under 21 - 5 times
Champion Open Adult Rider over 17
Champion Lady Rider of Show
SUPREME Rider of Show TWICE
Champion Led Coloured Horse
Reserve Champion Led All Breeds twice

Back home for a week's break, she was ridden a total of 3 times only before we headed off to Sydney and EFA Horse of the Year where she amazed us all by not only placing in the Top 10 Open Hack class (out of 25) but then going on to place equal 4th in the night-time indoor arena final against the creme de la creme of the show world. Quite a feat for a 3yo Palomino Warmblood only under saddle for 10 months ridden in a snaffle by a 19 yo!



Not content with that she then went on to place 4th in the HOTY Newcomer class (an early class after her late 11pm HOTY final the night before so understandably she was a bit flat!), after which she woke up long enough to win Champion Intermediate Hack.

Kristen also won Champion Lady Rider 17-21 on her!

Another 2 week rest in the paddock and it was off to the UPWBDA Southern Regional Championship and Open Hack show in Canberra. Here
she exceeded all expectations by collecting both Supreme Led AND Ridden Dilute of Show, Champion Open Hack and Champion Child Rider, ridden this time by Kristen's equally capable young 16yo brother, Patrick Salway.

Waking her up for the photos was somewhat difficult as she is just SO quiet that she thinks nothing of catching a quick snooze between
classes or, in this case, clicks of the camera! 

Mallie is the epitome of what we always hoped to breed and is a total doll to own and ride.

* Malenka is Ukrainian for "little girl" which, tongue in cheek, she was never destined to be!"



* Mallie was honoured by Horse Deals in their December 2006 Tribute to a Champion segment, the first time ever for a young horse to be featured.
NB  Photo credit for the bottom two stunning photos go to Tracey Bavington of horsephotography.com.au
We are extremely grateful to Horse Photography to have been granted permission to  reproduce the copywrite images here.  Thank you.