From feedlot to braided Bermuda show pony

What a Deal and Amy Outerbridge at a recent Bermuda horse show

From the Camelot feed lot in New Jersey to the sandy shores of Bermuda, it didn’t take long for Whippany to shake off his sea legs, from days of ship travel, to be reborn as a children’s show pony.

Two years after Esther Rebecca Douglas of Bermuda spotted his picture on the Camelot sale-horse listings, and saved him from possible slaughter, What a Deal, as he is now named, is as pretty as a picture, and as cooperative as the most expensive import horse.

After a year spent packing children along trails in deep sand, and up rocky terrain, What a Deal was recently braided, scrubbed to sparkling, and presented at the Bermuda Equestrian Federation Spring Hunter Show.

Ridden by Amy Outerbridge, who leases him with another girl, the pair finished in the ribbons. What a Deal won two 4ths, an 8th and a 9th!

Looking at photographs of his nicely tucked head, shiny coat, and well-muscled form, his past life spent huddled in the Camelot feedlot, awaiting his fate, seems like a lifetime ago.

If not for a second look that Douglas took of a Camelot Feed Lot picture by Sarah K. Andrew, the shaggy, dirty animal with a sad look in his eye might not have made it.

“When I first looked through the photos of available horses at the Camelot Feed Lot, I didn’t see him,” says Esther Douglas, in an earlier interview with OffTrackThoroughbreds.com.

But when she looked a second time, a new picture had been added to the album. This time, she saw the dainty face and kind expression that compelled her to step up and make a purchase.

He arrived in Bermuda in April 2011, and now there’s nobody who doesn’t notice the flashy, well-behaved show pony who’ll pack around his riders like he’s happy to do it.

OffTrackThoroughbreds.com continues to run update stories on previously featured OTTB. Congratulations to What a Deal and the people who are helping him live happily ever after.