Haida Tapestry (Taps)

Haida Tapestry, or ‘Taps’ as we affectionately call her, is a 15hh Appaloosa x Quarter horse x Arab mare.

Taps was bred locally on Dartmoor by an amazing lady whose mother had started breeding horses many years ago. They had bred generations of Taps’ family, and she has quite an impressive family tree. Taps has an amazing story relating to her name. One night, many, many years ago, when the family who had bred her lived in America, their mare jumped out of the corral and got loose on the North American plains, where she mated with a stallion whom the local Haida Indians owned. The resulting foal was stunning and became the first broodmare of a very successful bloodline. All the horses bred from this original mare have the prefix Haida; eventually, the family moved back to the UK and brought all their horses back with them on a boat !!!

Taps is the matriarch of our herd! 

All of the other horses will follow and be led by her. She is always the one to eat first and decide who she will allow to share a hay net with her. Sometimes, just one look from her has one of the younger horses backing away.

Taps enjoys hacking and working in the school; she has competed quite successfully locally. She is a very affectionate horse and will often put her muzzle to your face and demand a kiss on her nose. She considers herself to be a bit of a queen bee within the herd and often makes us laugh with her obvious disgust at something we have done…for example, turning her out of her lovely warm stable to stand in a field in the rain or taking off one of her warm snuggly rugs. We often joke that in bad weather, she would happily move into the barn and lie by the aga.

Taps’ talent as a therapy pony is her natural ability to show people kindness. 

We find that she understands people who have suffered trauma, and she will work her own special type of equine magic to help people heal and overcome their experiences. She teaches people how to trust again.