Darling Queen, better known as “Darla” around the barn is owned, ridden, and adored by Avery Griffin. Darla is an 11-year-old Holsteiner whose sire is Cassini and damsire is Quidam de Revel. Darla is a gorgeous dappled grey with flea-bitten areas on her shoulders and hindquarters. The pair have been together for a short 3 months and trains with Kersten Levine at Esoteric Farms in Houston, TX.
Avery found Darla through fellow trainers, Martien van der Hoeven and Maarten Huygens last November. She remembers the first time she saw her thinking to herself how gorgeous of a dappled grey she was. When Avery first tried Darla she remembers jumping her over some fairly big jumps, which Darla made seem so easy, this put Avery at ease and boosted her confidence levels.
Avery shares her favorite memory with Darla is when she took her to the Gold Star Clinic in Thermal, CA, and was able to take care of her for a week. “She was pretty new to me, I had only gotten her about 2 months ago, and I was still getting to know her. I spent a lot of time with her and one of my favorite things was when we would go on hand walks in the morning when the sun was rising. I loved hanging out with her on our own. She goes in a hackamore. She is very sweet and loves hanging out with people. She trots up to me in her pasture and she lets me ride her bareback.”
Although the pair are still getting to know one another and have many memories yet to come, Darla sure does love her carrots. She doesn’t seem too picky, so far she has tried goldfish and loves those too!
Avery started riding at age 5 and has been riding for 10 years now. She started by doing a summer camp at her farm and fell in love with the sport and the rest was history! She shares that her favorite thing about owning horses is getting to know them and learning each one of their different personalities, as well as, how sweet they are, and how hard they will try and work for you.
