Brambleridge Grand Finale. 2022 Halfbred Connemara mare by *TBS Declan Pondi ex Sparrow’s Tiptoes by *Grange Finn Sparrow.
‘Keeper’ is our ‘bonus’ baby. I had ‘retired’ Tippy in 2020 after her filly, Pirouette, because I felt at 24 she had done her duty and I was worried about breeding her again. She was NOT happy in 2021 when the foals started arriving and she did not have one! Just for the heck of it, I said I’d try her back to Declan one more time. At 26, she easily delivered ‘Keeper’, the only non-grey buckskin filly she’d given me. I had sold the colt option in-utero and assumed I would not be keeping a foal from her.
Keeper is a wonderful combination of her sire and dam and is probably the most like Declan of the four foals from the cross. This is fitting, since she was born on her father’s birthday! I have not done a ton with her, but I did work with her a handful of times before dragging her to a YHS show in 2024 and she did us proud, qualifying for Championships in hand and in loose jumping. She scored a whopping 8.6 in loose jumping, beating out all of the horses less one. More importantly she loaded and unloaded like a champ, stood quietly in a stall and was cool as a cucumber all day.
She is currently doing ground work and getting ponied around the neighborhood in preparation for her start under saddle.
