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[RC] ponying young horses - agilbxrThe new baby, Merlin, is doing great, and we are working on teaching him to pony now. (and on teaching Alpine not to panic when the pony rope touches his butt. Sigh...). I wasn't going to teach him this so soon as he has a few other issues I need to work on, but he was gelded last week, and since I refuse to lunge a 6 month old colt, we started ponying him for the exercise he needed. It took 20 minutes of dragging him for him to figure out it was much easier just to trot to keep up with Alpines fast walk....
Anyway, now that he does pony, I would like to take him out on the trail for a ride. Alpine's tendon injury is 6 months old, and the vet has advised us to start walking him. So we are about to start some slow, short rides...about 1.5 to 3 miles at a fast walk (Alpine doesn't know any other speed). Is this too much for a 6 month old colt to do? Merlin is going to be my next endurance horse, and I want him started right. I'd turn him out in mountainous terrain to run all around and get strong, but I live in North Florida, and the biggest hill is the ant hill in my back yard. Sooooo, we have to find other ways of doing this. He does have 20 acres of flat sand to run..... Juli and the Herd
Alpine (yay! I get to work again!! But I don't like the pony rope..it touches me)
Spot (I don't pony....)
Merlin (?????)
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