Darden Maximus, “Max”, is a 2009 (13yo) registered Section B Welsh Pony bred to excel in the hunter ring by Darden Welsh Ponies. Max’s sire is Darden Speedy Connection and he’s out of Gayfields New Best Friend.
Max has his permanent USEF measurement card and is a top of the line medium at 13.2h. Sadie was gifted Max as her Christmas Pony when she was 6 years old, and the video subsequently went viral with almost a million views and a unique opportunity for a young kid to learn how to ignore jealous anonymous internet commentators! (Seriously, if you are bored and have a few hours on hand, the comments are pretty funny)
Max has done “all the things” over the years with Sadie. He came to us with a few months under saddle as a 5yo pony. But was already kind and simple….enough so that Sadie was riding him all over the place as a 6yo kid. And he’s been Sadie’s best friend for the last 8 years. They’ve done hunters, jumpers, clinics all over the place, pony camps, trail rides, and all of the silly things little girls do with their ponies (bareback, bareback doubles riding, being ridden standing up, jumping bareback, packing around beginners, being ridden without a bridle, etc.). He is as trustworthy as they come to be around and has functioned as my “buddy pony” for all of my new sales horses as they’ve come on board (if you find FF Clintaro’s sales page or Rasen BHS’ sales page, you’ll see Max in a supporting actor role as the pasture mate of both) and he’s lived out in my mare herd in times where he didn’t have a buddy. He gets along with any and every horse. He hauls easily, is easy to trim, easy to handle, and just all of the things you would expect from a kids’ pony.
Max has an auto change, and more than that, he’s been trained to do a flying change with a “boop!” noise, which means that a trainer or onlooker can assist the change from anywhere if he hasn’t already done it in auto pilot mode.
He clips, hauls, bathes, and patiently stands in place to have his whole body painted with glitter paint (he’d rather you didn’t ask why we know that) or plants himself in the middle of the ring in a trustworthy manner while his kid hops off to set fences or videotape me.
Max does have a peek at the fences on occasion, but will trot anything with any rider, no matter how spooky – like my wavy-childrens-slide-turned-jump-fill, or an entire 0.85m jumper course at the spookiest venue we go to (Jumpernite). No spook about things around him (in other words, that’s not doublespeak for something really bad)! His program when greener was to trot the course first and then he was perfect (this was done by his little kid, not by a trainer). We still employ this method on schooling day when in new venues. The pony will trot a 3’6″ course, so scope is no issue!
We would prefer to lease Max out and his lease price is in the low 5 figures. Purchase is in the mid 5 figures.