This is Lucky Acres Princess Dawn, and we call her "Princess."  We have several "Princesses" on our farm, but she's the original, and she stakes claim to that name.

After getting hooked on the Gypsy Vanner breed with Mason, that began a steep acquisition period for us.  We couldn't get enough of Gypsy Vanner horses.

Princess came to us with a very solid, traditional pedigree, and she was our first piebald Gypsy Vanner that we owned.  She was purchased in foal.  This was to be her fourth foal in four consecutive years, so she was very proven.  She was over 9 months pregnant when we purchased her.  After some unwanted delays with transport, and a required stop-off halfway to us, she foaled out at the overnight layover farm in-transit to us.  The excitement of our new mare coming to us was now also combined with the excitement (and some trepidation) that she'd be coming with a little bay tobiano colt by her side.  That little guy needed a few weeks to get his legs under him before he'd be able to be transported, though.  Because he constituted a "hiccup" in our plans, and because Sugar Hiccup was on the song list for our horse names, he was dubbed, "DC Dawn's Sugar Hiccup."

Sugar, as we called him (now called Percy), further cemented our absolute love for this breed.  There will never be another one like him.  He is the standard by which we judge all other foals.

Princess followed up with her fifth foal, Ricky (now called Quill), the next year.  An absolute beauty of a colt.  This guy is show quality and is probably the best "mover" we have ever had the pleasure of foaling.

This year, she gave us Zake, a black blagdon colt with very good conformation and very, very mild manners.

She is currently pregnant for her seventh foal in seven consecutive years.

She is the holy grail of mares.

She absolutely hates being in heat, and she absolutely loves being pregnant and having a foal by her side.  She is grumpy and frumpy, but smart and highly over-protective of her young.  She's an easy keeper and all-around easy to work with.  She's the best kind of mare.

She's one of my personal favorites.

Princess is the closest Gypsy Vanner horse that we have to a retirement period.  Her retirement will be bittersweet and we already have a name picked out for her last foal.

Princess is one of our "keep forever" horses due to what she means to us and due to being a bit "longer in the tooth" than our others.