Drybarrows Illicit

Announcing the addition of Drybarrows Illicit to our herd at Feathered Foothill Farm. Recently blessed to win the bid at the North West Auction’s Hill Bred Gems Sale in Cumbria, 2023. Illicit is a grey filly out of Drybarrows Azizi and by Bluecaps Gilbert.

Drybarrows Azizi is out of Drybarrows Swallow and by the stallion, Carrock I’m Yer Man. Very excited to meet this legendary Fell stallion in person last summer with Melissa Kreuzer of Dream Hayven Fell ponies on a Pony and Pints Tour. Our third tour of Cumbria together with added bonus of getting the to visit the Bracklinn Stud in Scotland where Carrock I’m Yer Man now resides. It was an honor to meet Alistar and family along with their beautiful herd of ponies.

Bluecaps Gilbert is out of Underwoods Miranda and by the accomplished Wildhoeve Okidoki.

Bluecaps Gilbert resides at Drybarrows and is the only colt sired thus far by Okidoki. Okidoki won HOYS in 2022, qualified in 2023, and took a respectable 5th placing. In 2021, won National Pony Society Mountain & Moorland Ridden Pony of the Year. He was Reserve Mountain & Moorland Champion at Royal Horse Society in 2017.

David Thompson of Drybarrows was kind enough to again host our tour in 2023, and we spent hours out on the fell overlooking Haweswater, capturing many beautiful photos and videos, while our group socialized with his wonderful ponies and their sweet temperaments. All ponies having impressive ways of going through steep and challenging terrain.

I glimpsed a view of Illicit with her lovely dam doting on her, during the visit. In making such an important decision to add to my herd, it is invaluable to personally observe a pony’s temperment within their herd, and with us; conformation from one foal to the next and in comparison to their dams, witnessing that hardiness on the fell, and adaptability to their surroundings. All by and large, from ponies largely untouched by humans, and living rather independently of humans.

It is an impressive moment when a dam is trusting enough to let her youngster approach an unfamiliar human and a youngster be curious enough to give the grace of their attention to someone they just met.

Very excited about this amazing Fell pony acquisition to our growing genetically diverse herd with high hopes of performance and breeding in her future. We hope she will enjoy growing up in a herd on our own challenging foothills in the temperate oceanic climate of the Willamette Valley region of the Pacific Northwest.

Welcome, Drybarrows Illicit, to our diverse herd here that includes Bybeck Victoria, Greenholme Peggy, Featheredfoothill Faith, our senior gate greeter and only gelding, Littletree Matador, and my first and most accomplished performance mare, born in America, JKL Istas.

Photos by Bonnie, co-traveler, 2023

Photo (overlooking Haweswater) by Katarzyna Okrzesik, circa 2015, Drybarrows Azizi as a filly with dam Drybarrows Swallow

Last four photos by David Thompson