News and Updates

And just like that - it's a wrap on foaling season 2026.  This morning, around 2 am, Barbie foaled a beautiful palomino fewspot colt who looks so much like his daddy!  I cannot wait to get home from work and spend some more quality time with him.  He's so perfect!  I can't believe she gave us a palomino - I mean, would I have had more yellow and less white than the fewspot?  Yes.  Am I still delighted in him - also yes.  Do I wish he was a filly?  Yes.  Am I still planning to keep him unless someone really sweet talks me out of him?  Also yes.  I didn't plan to sell all of the babies this year.  It has been too weird not having an in hand project.  I'm hoping that by the end of the season we can look at finding Lilo a show home of her own and then next year I can hit the show circuit with a rider and an in hand project again.  Two riders is WAY too stressful for me.  

We love our fillies but we have been blessed with 3 amazing colts this year. They are the friendliest and quietest bunch we have ever had.  Hoping that Patch is as good as Ant and Pickles.  Pickles makes sense to me since we worked with him so much but I'm not exaggerating when I say that Ant came out wanting to be friends with humans.  It's the craziest thing.  

While foaling season went fantastic.... breeding season has been a real kick in the teeth.  Mares keep coming up open, Jasmine cultured back with 3 different bacteria, Nugget has been reluctant to breed a couple of them and we have been having to sweet talk the heck out of him and mares only stand a couple of times before going back out of heat, you name it...  We have exactly ZERO mares confirmed in foal for 2027.  Zero.  And I don't have a lot of high hopes for this last round of breeding Jasmine and Cher either.  Sigh...  I just need someone to stick! (Preferably Fi and China but beggars can't be chosers at this point in the game.)

Last weekend we attended an open show at the MEC to get back into the swing of things for show season 2026.  We had a great time and it was so fun to see open show friends from over the years that we haven’t gotten to visit with in AGES.  It was also fun to see Lilo and Nani’s reactions to some of the GIANT horses we showed with and stalled next to.  I’m pretty sure Nani was thinking to herself that she didn’t even know horses came in such big sizes.  At one point in the hunt seat warm up I found myself going the opposite direction of the “crowd” when I was on Lilo.  Picture a 52” pony heading straight at a wall of 16+ hand horses coming at us.  Lilo never flinched - I was, to put it correctly, crapping my pants. Pretty sure no one told Lilo that size matters in a fight. 

My biggest worry going into the show was representing the POA well in an open show situation.  Lilo was going to be at her first ever show under saddle and admittedly, she didn’t get a lot of time under saddle going into the show.  She is the greenest of green.  She had her squirrely moments, but always kept her head about her and came back to me. Nani was going to be doing her first ever lope patterns and being asked to step up her game with new challenges.  I wanted nothing but for them to behave and show folks what a good pony can do.  I wanted people to see how amazing a POA is. They far surpassed my expectations. 

I definitely discovered things I need to work on.  Lilo’s back up button and our power steering malfunctioned at times.  For a pony that likes to quit on me at home, I couldn’t find her brakes  here or there. But overall, Lilo crushed it in a large senior walk trot division.  She likes to be lazy and not jog true at home so I pushed her out and kept her moving this weekend.  She was one tired pony by the end of it all. I think she made it approximately 5 minutes after her last class on Saturday before she was down for the count.  On Sunday, she moved me to tears a couple of times. She had so much try and was such a good girl.  Huge thanks to Sophie for all her in hand work.  Lilo is easy to do showmanship with!  Just need to work on the pivot - oh and myself. Apparently my showmanship F & E score was a huge disappointment. My trainer can be kind of of a bitch to be honest. 

As we entered our last class I made a promise to Lilo that we are going to get her trained the best we can and find her the perfect little kiddo to love her, pet her, give her treats and lots of kisses.  She is the biggest cuddle bug and sweetest little girl.  She deserves the very best and her own little kiddo someday. I don’t think she even cares if it is a little girl.  I could see her loving all the antics of a little man as well.  She will never flinch at anything they throw at her, that’s for sure. 

Berry Sweet Jubilee in senior WT

Showmanship - 3,2

HUS  - 6,3

Equitation - 2, 1

West. Plsr - x,x

West. Horse. - 2,1

Nani also had a great first show and didn’t disappoint. This is my solemn promise that I will work on showmanship (I mean it this time).  I was beyond proud of the progress she made, even from Saturday to Sunday.  She has me so excited for this year.  

Berry Sweet Shenanigans in senior+

Showmanship -  x,3

HUS  - 4, 2

Equitation - 2, 2

West. Plsr - 5, 3

West. Horse. - 2, 1

Best of all were the comments that the people were kind of enough to share about how cute our ponies were.  Wonder was a big hit - she had come along for the exposure and arena time. Some kind folks told us that Nani was the coolest moving pony they had ever seen.  She got lots of compliments for how pretty she was and I even had one lady on a big QH tell me that she was considering getting a POA now.  Winning! 

Thank you to the show staff for putting on an amazing show!  We love and miss our open show friends. I hope I convinced a few of you to come show at our POA shows with us this summer.  We have open classes, high point buckles and most importantly - a whole lot of fun!

For me, foaling season is a tough season to be a horse owner.  It is exciting and brings some much joy.  Joy for bringing a beautiful creature into our world and the miracle of birth,  joy for a future show partner,  joy because I can't wait to meet new people and introduce them to our Berry Sweet family and joy because I feel that Tim and I are slowing building a legacy in our POA breed. 

Every year I say that this crop is the best ever and every year I truly believe it.  I have had the dream of watching our babies succeed in the hands of competitors all across the nation for many years now.  I would love for someday people to ask their friends, neighbors or eve post of social media asking where they can get a top notch POA and have people respond, "Berry Sweet Acres".   I dream of the day that a youth wins a title, or a Congress class with their own "Berry Sweet" pony.  Someday we will be the farm on people's names when they think of success stories and talented ponies.  I hope. 

That said, babies are my all time favorite part of ponies.  I love showing and training ponies.  I love my old broodies and our little man, Nugget.  But the babies.... they make me smile so much.  Their little sass, their cuteness, the way they try to act so brave and independent, right up until the moment when they absolutely aren't... it all makes my world go round.  But the last few weeks before they arrive is. the. worst.  

I try not to even start thinking about it until a week before due date.  Every single one of our mares likes to go at least a week past their due date, every single time, every single year except for the best broodie on the whole darn planet - Fi.  She's our one on time (or even a couple days early) broodmare.  About the time that our first mares are due is when the posts start popping up about foals being born around the country.  A lot of those posts make me lose my patience for meeting our precious littles ones.  However, this year - and I know it is every year - it seems like for every happy birth story there is an equal number of posts saying, "looking for a nurse mare" or "have a nurse mare available" - meaning the foal or mare has died.  Then there have been the horror stories - I have now heard of two different foals in completely different places where a leg didn't develop. One was completely missing a hoof.  There have been the horror birth stories, the losses, the tough decisions... both with complete strangers and with trusted friends in the horse world.  I'm freaking out.  We are only one third of the way through our foaling season and Cher is currently several days past the 340 mark or her "due date".  All is going to be okay.  Right?  

Funny related story was about an episode in the show "The Incredible Dr Pol".  He is a veterinarian and in this particular episode and Amish Belgian mare had been foaling for 18 hours before they got the vet out.  By the time he got there the foal was obviously dead.  It was so large and the head was twisted back so she wasn't able to deliver the baby.  Dr Pol had to cut the head off the foal with a wire tool before the parts could come out of the mare.  I was traumatized.  I was talking to my vet about it and saying I was terrifield.  Bryce laughed and teased me saying, "Melissa - you call me 20 minutes after your mare starts foaling worried.  There isn't a chance in hell you're waiting 18 hours to see if the mare will somehow have it on its own."  We both laughed and yes folks, he's not wrong.  But there are roughly about a million and one other ways that foaling can take a turn for the worse and my brain is really good at concocting worst case scenerios. 

So here we are with Cher at day 345 and not so patiently waiting for her to start looking like we will be seeing a baby.  I'm ready, she's ready and the sooner this baby is here, safe and sound, the sooner my anxiety can calm back down and I can sleep again. 

Made a few updates to the website!  Had to share our new little man.  You're lucky I haven't figured out how to put videos on here (other than YouTube) or I would be driving you all crazy with clip after clip.  For some reason, every little thing he does is adorable and absolutely perfect.  It can't be that he is my little dream come true.  I have wanted a Chocolatey baby for at least a decade.  Several years ago I bought the Breyer horse of Chocolatey and have tried to get this baby on the ground for at least 4 years.  First I was outbid on the stud service and then I won the stud service but lost the broodmare. Then finally Pepper took and I waited that whole long year for baby Pickles to arrive. 

Everyone asks - why Berry Sweet Era.  Well, in case you didn't know, Sophie is a huge Taylor Swift fan.  Yes, my daughters are "Swifties".  There isn't a chance that her pony's baby "theme" wouldn't be Taylor Swift related.  Hence his registered name (and his sister's name - Wonderland).  As far as "Pickles" goes - I'm a huge fan of pickles and pickle flavored things.  By the way, pickle flavored cotton candy is delicious....  Chocolatey's owner and the one who stands him at stud is my friend Linzy, who is also a big fan of pickles.  There was never any doubt that boy or girl, Pepper's baby this year would be named, "Pickles".   Also the nicknames are so fun;  Pickles Pants, Picklebutt, Mr. Pickles, the possibilites are endless.  

With all that said - I have updated the website with a few other little gems.  I have always put all of our ponies on the website: www. allbreedpedigree.com.  I added buttons on all of the ponies with links to their pedigree pages on All Breed.  Maybe you all don't get going down the pedigree rabbit hole like I love to do, but just in case - they are there for you.  I did stop myself from adding the pedigree. button to every single foal we have raised.  If you need more info on any of our previous Berry Sweet babies, just feel free to ask! Most of our babies would have their sire and dam right here on this site so you can see their extended pedigrees through their parents. 

Well, that's all my ramblings and catching up for today.  Remember to check us out on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok! 

All of a sudden it hit me the other day that this year is a big year for Nugget.  When a POA turns 6 they need to be inspected for permanent registration.  It's crazy to think that Nugget is 6 this year.  Where did the time go?  It feels like just yesterday we were bringing home this little peanut with the plans that he would become our herd sire.  Now here we are and all 49" of him is ready to be given permanent status. 

In case you're wondering, when a POA foal is registered,  they are given tentative registration.  This is because by the time they are six they need to meet a certain height and color requirement for registration.  Nugget easily meets the height requirement; he is actually closer to being too small than he is to being overheight.  He also easily makes the color visible at 40 feet requirement.  Some ponies are born solid and their color changes a great deal by the time they are 6 (Wonder will be a whole new pony by then.) Others are in height as youngsters and don't get the memo to stop growing by the time they are 6.  Anything over 56" or still lacking color is given "ID" papers or what used to be called "breeding stock" papers.  They are STILL a registered POA and they can still be used for breeding, they just cannot show in the regular (not open) classes at a sanctioned POA show.  Nothing wrong with an ID pony! They have their place in the breed and the world too.  

It is hard to believe Nugget is old enough to be given permanent registration.  He is still our bestest boy but I guess he's more of a "man" now.  All "grown up" and ready to be officially official.  Time to get him inspected!

I continue to learn more about this website format and how to add, change, embed - you name it.  For now the news/updates and blog format will be on this page.  Let me know what you love or hate about this website and what you would love to see.  Thanks for stopping by!