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IN MEMORY OF
(Ultimate Command x Rum Brook Victoria)
1990 bay mare
1990-2008
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DV was my partner – my sister’s teacher – my first “transported semen” foal – my love…
SHE was suppose to be the horse that would put me on the map and SHE was so beautiful that she would not be
denied. I guess looking back that is all true – she won Jr. and Grand Champion in Hand Mares in her age groups,
from Maine to California. It was difficult and mostly impossible to beat her in hand. d’Vision was correct in every
regard, and in her youth she was breathtakingly beautiful. She LOVED to model and she LOVED to show off, and so her
successful career can only be attributed to my sister, Katrina Crie who trained and showed her to all those wins
except the last which was in California and our friends the Skile’s helped because I had knee surgery and couldn’t
run with her. Jon had his amateur card and showed her to win her division and GC Classic Morgan in Hand at the Mother
Lode All Morgan show. DV loved to ride on the trailer and she loved to go to horse shows and I honestly have never had
another like her in that regard.
When I moved to Reno, I leased her to be bred to Futurity First Command. “Ben” was owned by Susan Overstreet and the resulting
black colt (that I always wanted to name “Who’s On First”) was a challenge from the moment he was born. Sunday morning, 8:30 am and DV was laid
out in her stall with two feet and a nose poked out and she was quitting on me. I watched impatiently until I realized that she REALLY needed some
help; that whoever was in there had big shoulders. He was the black colt
with the perfect star that would be named “Colors of Midnight” and become the favorite driving horse for Bill Pettis in California.
I tried for two years after to get DV back in foal to Ben, but it was not to be. DV had the first stages of what years later we had diagnosed as ‘hormone induced laminitis'. I was devastated – most because each month that she cycled she was in AGONY as no horse I’d ever seen.
The reproduction vets treated her with all they knew but none of it really helped. After the second summer of her excruciating heat cycles and
sore feet we decided the only choice was to remove her ovaries and be done, but we had to wait for winter for her hormones to shut down before
that surgery could be performed. She spent three weeks in the clinic and then came home, but had to be stall bound and hand-walked.
She is the reason to this day I have a portable TV in the barn. She got bored and hated being left alone when
the others would go out in the mornings, so I got her a TV, and we used many different horse-calming natural supplements and she healed and recovered. She liked to
watch ‘talk shows’ like Oprah – but not cartoons or anything that was not “real”.
It was a full year before she could go back to work, as it took that long for her feet to grow out, but from there on, she was sound and solid. Fancy and prancy,
she was the one everyone was drawn to - she was the one who gave kisses like a Labrador Retriever puppy and had eyes like a doe so big and dark and soft. She played
baby sitter for the foals that the other mares had and was the best aunt and ‘teacher’ because she had herd savvy and knew how to take care of herself. Her heart was
as big as a house and she cared deeply about her responsibilities over those last years. She raised Claire and loved Laila.
When “Handsome” (The Phantom of the Opera) arrived in Reno in 2005 DV was smitten, so they got to run the fence together and he had a best friend to the day he died.
Stacey Stearns took care of DV her last winter while I was recovering from shoulder reconstruction and told me every day about the antics of Aunt DV… she always made all of us smile.
I had to make DV’s decision for her; she had a relapse with her feet and she was trying really hard to hide it from me. She would come out and model and crane her neck and flatten her back and BEG for mints or anything in a cellophane wrapper.
She knew all my secrets and she loved me every day. Born in Maine and raised in New Mexico and Nevada, everyone wanted to meet DV. She had her own group of fans and she never let anyone down. She was Victoria’s last live foal – it turned out that as I tried to breed Torrie back to Ultimate that when DV was born her little hoof tore the bification of her uterus, which caused scarring that made it only half the size it originally was. We didn’t know that until she lost a full sibling to DV in 1991; we thought Torrie was done but not at all.
Once the scar tissue was removed she was fine to breed and conceived. She delivered a full term bay filly sired by Immortal Command on Valentine's Day and it was dead, and this happened at Rum Brook Farm and Meg was just devastated. So was I. Later in the spring we shipped Torrie to NM to be with DV and they lived their lives together to the end.
Katrina said she made all of her mistakes on DV as an up and coming trainer but you would never know that. DV was very forgiving to all of us for our mistakes and she loved to make us smile and she loved to make friends and she loved life. God Bless you “Miss Ness” (short you know for Her Highness) for all you did for all of us. I know she romps in deep grass with her mom, best friend LCS Fine Crystal, Handsome and little Laila who was never quite right but DV didn’t care – she took great care of her and loved her in her short life.
Deeply missed by Holly, Katrina, Stacey, Judy and Meatball, Schutz, Katie and Modie, Happy and every person she ever met because they were all her friends. Dr Brian Peck and
Dr Marty Gardner of the Great Basin Equine Clinic … and Justin her farrier… we all miss DV and her “presence,” which was a gift.
More pictures of DV
(click on any thumbnail to enlarge)
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