Flinging pony final post

["Angela C. McGhee" <rides2far@juno.com>]

Thank you very much to the MANY people who wrote with ideas.  I've read
them all, but time's so tight I'm not sure I'll get to answer.

The conclusion:  Whereas I have found that the most common advice for all
full sized horse problems is "Call a Chiropractor"
It's good to see that the advice for all ponies seems to be, "Knock the
tar out of him".  Makes me consider switching to riding ponies...much
simpler. :-)

Also, whereas with horses we demand all sorts of subtle bits, with ponies
it's "Put a big ol' shank on him"...the funny thing is, it's often true. 
One of the best little Shetlands I ever knew rode with a walking horse
bit and the shanks practically hit her knees.  So long as she wore it,
you never even had to take the slack out of the reins.

I think we're going to go back to lots of trotting, and I'll ride the
"other" Welsh pony to keep the speed down, get her a more secure saddle,
a Legacy helmet, and occassionally ride him my self and "knock the tar
out of him" when he bucks.

One more story on this pair.  A month or so ago we took him to a ring and
she rode him there.  He started off pretty squirrely and I rode him for
awhile, then she insisted on getting on and rode him around trotting,
cantering and jumping small jumps. 

 Finally, it was time to go home and I walked out to meet them in the
center of the ring with a big apple in my hand.  I gave him a bite, then
she started begging to canter him around "one more time".  I said, O.K.
and put the rest of the huge apple away.  They headed off at a canter,
which got progressively faster as he circled the ring back towards me. 
Finally, as he was almost back to me, he dropped his head and 1/2 bucked
to a stop.  Quickly I reached up to grab her off so I could jump on and
"knock the tar out of him".  Before I could get her off, he started
"going down".  At first I was alarmed, but then realized, he was actually
trying to go from a canter to a bow without getting 100% stopped.

 We had taught him to bow for treats and he's used to them being fed to
him between his front legs.  He'd circled that ring with that apple on
his mind the whole time and couldn't wait to get stopped to bow.  So, I
didn't knock the tar out of him, and vowed to not have food anywhere in
sight when she's riding. :-)

Angie

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