Re: Pony Power!

["lori cox" <blaircox@safeaccess.com>]

I love your pony stories!
One of my best horses was a Welsh/ Arab cross. Didn't need shoes, lived on
pasture with the cows. She only had the woods for shelter and probably never
saw the inside of a barn. I rode her almost every day for at least an hour,
sometimes most of the day, the 4 years I had her, never had a health
problem, laimness problem or anything like that. The only reason she was
sold was because my dad decided at the age of 15, I was to big for her! Dad
was always selling things.

  Lori, who would love to get a hold of her neighbor's Icelandic pony!
(especially after riding John Parke's pony.BTW John, I'd love to do it
again!)



>Thanks to all who responded about my wonderful ride on Jynx this past
weekend.
>
>Just wanted to let you know that she recuperated wonderfully from her 25
>miles, and looks better than ever. (In spite of the fact she hoovered grass
>the whole time she was there, her belly shrank up real good)
>
>In regards to the posts about ponies being tougher than horses, you won't
get
>an argument from me.  I drove a team of small shetlands in the local draft
>horse club and had a wonderful time at the fair that year.
>
>We pulled a wagon, logs, and did the dead weight pull, all against draft
>horses, with the exception of a pair of POA's, who still out-weighed my
team
>by nearly 800 lbs!
>
>During the weight pull, which involves progressivly loading weight onto a
>flat skid (called a stoneboat) your team must pull the weight a distance of
>15 feet to continue to the next round.
>
>We pulled against the POA's, starting at 250 lbs.  We got to 2500 lbs
before
>we couldn't "go the distance" But my team made it over ten feet at that
>weight.
>
>Also of note is the fact that you can't hit the horses in any way to make
>them pull.  It's all voice command.  You may not even slap the lines on
their
>rumps.  What a thrill it is to have a partnership like that!
>
>The two ponies I had at the time were a 22 year old backyard shetland that
a
>freind of mine rescued off a kill truck for a bottle of whiskey and another
>backyard shetland brought to me by the local animal control after someone
had
>abandoned her and another horse by tying them to a tree and moving out of
>state.  (The horse tied with her died)  Between the two of them, their
weight
>was 850.
>
>Another interesting thing is that in pulling 2500 lbs, my little team
pulled
>three times their body weight, but the Big Boys, whose teams weighed from
>3200 to 4000 lbs got to about 3800lbs before they quit.  That's only about
>half their body weight!
>
>The 22 year old pony routinely pulled over 1000lbs of grain from the
driveway
>to the barn on a stoneboat, before we had the road to the barn.  It was
about
>250 feet. She also hauled manure at least once a week, was driven to cart
4-5
>times a week, 5-15 miles with me and the kids, and was ridden too.  All
this
>on a few pounds of oats, and limited pasture!
>
>When I pulled at the fair, many, many, people talked to me afterwards about
>how surprised they were by the amount of work the team could do.  Boy were
>they surprised to learn that Ginger, the older pony, had already been shown
>in light harness in 6 classes that day! To top it all off, it was 104 in
the
>arena that day, and the ponies were just a little "hot under the collar"
when
>I was done.
>
>Once in a while I would get nasty comments about "How mean it was" to use
the
>ponies like that.  Nearly always it was from someone who knew nothing about
>horses.
>My point to people is always that I feel it is much better to use a pony,
>than to let it starve or founder in the pasture.  I can't begin to tell you
>how many ponies I have resued over the years. And with the exception of
two,
>(one who died of a blood clot three weeks after severly foundering, and one
>who had to be destroyed when his coffin bones fell through the soles) all
of
>them were rehabilitated, went to good homes, and were used well.
>
>I have always said that if you crossed backyard shetlands with arabs, you
>would get indestructible endurance horses.  Jynx probably doesn't have any
>arab in her, but she still proves that ponies can go the distance!
>
>Julie, Rayna and Jynx the Wonder Pony
>
>
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=