Doll House Farm was established in 1969, when Jim and Cynthia Doll began to show interest in Thoroughbreds. Cynthia had grown up in Indiana around her father's Saddlebreds.  She likes to tell the story of when she was a kid and wanted to show her horse at the County Fair, she had to first ride into town and get her horse shod, then continue riding twenty miles.  Once at the show grounds, she showed in her classes, then had to ride the twenty miles back home! Recently married, Jim and Cynthia had just purchased a small farmhouse on eight acres with a run-in-and-out shed.  Little did they know this property was soon to be transformed into and named Doll House Farm, with the help of Jim's construction background. What was once completely wooded was eventually to be turned into a beautiful six-stall barn, paddocks, pastures, and a riding ring.  Looking back, if Jim only knew what he was getting himself into!  In the meantime, their first foal was born in the run-in-and-out shed.  Gaelic Hooligan was almost not meant to be.  After he was foaled, he showed no signs of life. The veterinarian was packing up his things, when all a sudden Jim noticed an ear pop up.  From there on out Hooligan was a healthy bay colt.  The farm grew rapidly throughout the 1970's.  Hooligan was now in training as a racehorse and there were many other conformation hunters now on the ground at the farm.

Beth was born in 1971 and Mary followed in 1974. As the story goes they were both riding as soon as they could sit up, even before. Beth was often seen riding behind Cynthia or Jim in a backpack, on their trusty trail horse. This was the beginning of the endless pursuit for the "perfect" pony.

Under the tutelage of Do Hamilton, Beth was the master at Short Stirrup. She had the perfect seat and was perfectly content winning Short Stirrup classes on her Welsh pony, "Thrones Model T." But when she didn't win she was sure to let the judges know!

Mary on the other hand had no desire to learn any equitation, including her diagonals, which always seemed to keep her out of the ribbons in Short Stirrup classes!  She was much happier "bombing" around the farm and over jumps. Too bad her 10 hand Shetland pony, "Cutie Pie." refused to jump over one foot.  Mary moved on to Imarebel (said I'm a rebel) and onto the outside course at the age of five.

One and Only was a sight unseen purchase for Beth.  After much anxiety, having only seen photograph's from Gayfield's Farm in Arkansas of "O&O", she arrived and was better then imagined. Immediately Beth hit it off with O&O, broke her and was soon competing in the Welsh Pony classes.

Mary and Imarebel continued to be the perfect match for one another. Mom remembers the time looking up at the riding ring, which was situated at the top of a hill on the farm, only to see Mary's stirrups jacked up like a jockey and seeing the pony racing around the ring as fast as it could go and Mary urging him on for more speed.! They were perfectly suited for one another. He always seemed to get back at her. Like the time he got loose and took off through the trails that surrounded the farm. Mary stood screaming and crying, "my pony is running away, my pony is running away" as Imarebel continued to do "laps" on the trails around the farm enjoying himself as pay back for Mary!

All this time Doll House Farm was continuing to breed, raise and show conformation Thoroughbreds.  In 1984 when nerves were wearing thin, because the big Thoroughbred babies were just becoming too difficult to raise and show with two young kids around, Cynthia met Wendy Scott Marsten from Scotland. Wendy had moved to Asheville, N.C. and had brought two section B stallions and four section B mares with her.  After seeing Wendy's ponies, we purchased one mare in foal (Salvandi Linnet) and traded the last of the thoroughbreds (except for one) for Salvandi Skylark and Salvandi Calidog. We were now into pony breeding. We turned our attention to Calidog and had him going under saddle within two weeks of his arrival at the farm. Harry Duce and Mickey Sage helped us to start him over fences. Mickey showed Calidog for us the first year and rode him to many championships in the Welsh divisions.

Shortly after acquiring Calidog, we purchased Shenandoah White Lace (Lacey) for Mary, a lovely Welsh mare with beautiful conformation and a wonderful jump. So now we had Calidog, One and Only (0&0) and Lacey going to the Welsh shows. We bred One and Only and Lacey in 1985 to Calidog and continued to show the mares over the summer.

In 1986 the mares had two beautiful fillies, Doll House One and Only and Doll House Touch of Lace. Beth and Mary had a blast riding their mares with the foals at side. When one of them wanted to go jump some fences, the foal left behind was very content to stay with the other foal and its mom. Then the girls would switch and repeat the routine. Beth switched 0&0 over to driving and competed in a few combined training events and obstacle classes, but she was starting to feel the need for a larger mount. Beth turned to Calidog and was soon showing him very successfully at Welsh shows. Mary continued to show Lacey and together they won the AHSA Clan Glomadh High Score Welsh National Championship Award in 1987. During this time Mary also began catch riding ponies in the pony hunter divisions.

Beth always had the skill and passion for driving and we were very fortunate that Sharon Chesson loaned her two small Welsh ponies, Acquila Serenade and Acquila Sundae, for her to drive as a pair. Mary served as her navigator in the carriage. Cynthia joined in on the fun and began driving Cali as well. All three ponies relished the work and we entered a combined training event held at the United State Equestrian Team facility in Gladstone, New Jersey. Jim was delegated as groom for both the pair and Calidog for the event. Beth then 14 and Mary 11 were going to embark on an experience that they will never forget. Jim and I caught up with them as they came out of the woods on their marathon course. Well our hearts about went through our chests, you see there was a huge drop off as they came down onto the road at a very forward trot. The carriage went airborne with the girls and their judge just laughing. Mary then was almost hurled off the side as they also had to make a turn. As they continued on the course, Jim and I ran to the obstacles and watched Beth maneuver the pair through the patterns. By now many spectators were also watching and we all ran from the water obstacle up towards the next obstacle on course to get a good position to watch them come through. Problem was with a lot of people running on the route, the pair was forced to go around and missed a required gate. Without the unfortunate mishap at the gate, Beth and the pair would have won the pony pairs competition at the event. Regardless, it was an unforgettable weekend for all of us. Not long after the Gladstone Event, Sundae and Serenade had to go home and we then began looking for an equitation horse for Beth.

At this point, the girls began riding more and more at other farms. Beth settled in at Sandy Lobel's farm (then Tewksbury, now Ravenswood) doing the equitation on her horse Perrier. Beth competed with Perrier throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, including the Devon Horse Show. In 1989 Beth went on to college and graduated with a degree in Accounting from Wesley College. In 1992 she married Dale Allen who is a career (a) serviceman in the United States Air Force. They have two boys - Ryan (1996) and Brandan (2001). Beth, Dale, family resided in Warrensburg, Missouri for 7 years then were transferred to Edwards, California for 4 years. In the fall of 2005, Dale retired from the military after 20 years of service and the Allen's began their trek east. They have sinced settled in Gerrardstown, WV near Martinsburg. Both boys are enjoying school. Dale is in management at the Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corporatio and Beth is a CPA working for an Accounting Firm in Martinsburg. While in the military Beth and the boys were able to join us here on the farm with the boys in the summers, helping to break and train ponies. The boys seem to really enjoy being around the ponies. In the summer of 2006, both boys enjoyed showing at some of the local and Welsh shows.

Mary began riding for Gary Duffy, Mindy Minnetto, Ashmont Farm and various other people. During this time, we also began to cut back on the Welsh breeding and began breeding a few crossbred ponies. Around 1989 Mary began riding and showing our last homebred Thoroughbred, Leisure Time, in the Junior Hunters. They were very successful together and qualified for the Pennsylvania National (Harrisburg) and Washington International three years in a row. They also qualified for the National Horse Show during Mary's last year as a junior. Mary also used this mare to qualify for the Medal and Maclay finals in 1992. With Mary's junior years over, she accepted a position with Jubilee Farm in Omaha, Nebraska as their professional rider. She later returned East to be the assistant trainer/barn manager for Emil Spadone's Fieldsteps Farm (now Redfield Farms). After a severe foot injury and just feeling a little burnt out, Mary decided to take some time off and go to college in 1995. She earned a bachelors degree in Kinesiological Sciences at the University of Maryland in the fall of 1998. In 2000 she married Neal Moran and they now reside in Virginia. Mary currently works for the Computer Sciences Corporation and also develops web sites on the side. She also enjoys showing and riding some of the ponies in her spare time. Mary and Neal welcomed their first child Colin Patrick Moran, who was born June 23rd, 2004. Colin loves being around the ponies and is looking forward to making his show ring debut in 2007!

Back to the farm…we sold Doll House Bunnykin (our first Welsh baby) as a two year old but were able to buy her back many years later and bred her to the TB stallion Sun War Dancer. This breeding resulted in Doll House Storybook whom we showed in the pony hunter breeding classes. In 1999 she was the two-year old filly class winner at Devon. For her next foal Bunny was bred to Calidog for a purebred Welsh which resulted in Doll House Moonshadow (now deceased), a lovely black colt whom we sold as a two year old to Amy Corson of Kelviden Farm in Ithaca, NY. Amy successfully showed Jaspar earning a Supreme Championship and in 2003 he was the USEF and WPCSA National High Score Welsh Pony Champion. We bred Bunnykin again to Calidog and they produced Doll House Shananigan, another lovely black colt. He consistently earned ribbons three years in a row in the pony hunter breeding classes at Devon and Upperville.

Doll House Farm relocated from New Jersey to West Virginia in the late fall of 2000 when Jim and Cynthia both retired. The 108 acres farm has miles of logging trails that are wonderful to ride on.

In 2004 we aquired a new stallion, Telynau Flight of Fancy. Flight is a wonderful addition to our farm and is such a joy to have a around. He has the most incredible personality and expressive looks in his eye, it's a joy to walk in the barn each day and see his "smiling face!" Flight has helped us overcome the sorrow of losing Calidog in 2006. After 23 years with Cali in our lives, it was very sad day when we had to say goodbye. We still get tears in our eyes when we talk about him.

In early 2007 we purchased a new farm in Western Maryland. We look forward to being closer to Beth and Mary and their families. The new farm is also much closer to the various shows that we like to attend each year.

We continue to enjoy our ponies and produce one to two foals a year. It is great fun to watch them grow and develop into fine individuals. It is always a thrill to watch them continue their careers with new owners as well. Every single one is a part of our family and has earned a special spot in our hearts.