Re: Ponies

[LSimoni197@aol.com]

Ponies,

I cannot be silent on ponies any longer.
My 6 Children, all of whom started on and continued to ride ponies, from
Shetlands to Welsh and POA, s till the kids feet drug on the ground!  We got
so many free "rotten" ponies.  I would ride them first, and then the kids did.
Kids did not get to ride alone to mess up the animals till they were old
enough to be true horsemen.  I even had a Mini for my 18 month old Twins
because they would run up and hug a bigger ponies back leg.  

The ponies were much easier to train than young children.  Once smoothed out,
I would ride a pony while my kids rode theirs all around the park trails, or
streets with me.  Of course the first muddy stream crossing was a big deal.
Both child and pony could learned together.  All but my youngest child fell
off at their first big stream leap.  Not the Baby on his little 40 inch white
Shetland "Snow Flake."  All the kids told Chess to lean forward, hold the mane
and stay with the movement.  He may be my best rider, and he was on a pony
till 14. Chess and all the kids rounded up our cattle, and the cattle on the
10,000 Acer Grant Ranch while riding on ponies.

PONY ADVANTAGES
Not costly
Short enough child can tack up themselves
  "           "                 mount by themselves
               "                 not get hurt when falling off on that first
jump
                "                never have a horse prevent kid from mounting
by moving away from rock-tree-trailor-post-curb
Not usually spooky
Never need shoes, 6 kids, I saved a the money to support my horse habit on all
of the shoeing jobs I never needed.
Cheap to feed, do not need grain
Small, I could trailer 6 ponies in an old single axle sheep trailer, which is
what I could afford, 
Never broke your toes if you got stepped on.
I could afford to mount myself and 6 children on ponies and have a ball riding
in parks and on trails in so many places.

EXTRA PONY ADVANTAGES
Businesses and people began to ask us to give pony rides because we had such
well behaved ponies.  The first time was at a Super Market Chain warehouse
truckers rodeo.  Each child led their pony to give these rides while the big
rigs did their tricks beside us, and the Fire truck put up its 5 story ladder
and shot off the high pressure fire hoses, right next to us.  This was our
first time working in the big City, in a ring with flapping flags around us.
10 years the ponies went to birthday parties in backyards in every town in the
Bay Area.  The families with young children in Hillsborough thought "Snow
Flake" was the neighborhood pony we spent so much time there.   Road in
elevators to the 16 floor for gimmicks, walked through homes in San Francisco
to get to the tiny back yard for the party.  Every weekend, 6 different
backyards, sometimes walking on a 18" path around swimming pools, with
balloons popping, and kids splashing.
Never a child hurt, mine who did the leading, or the little children who had
their only experience with a horse on these ponies.  We went to so many
Nursery Schools in the nice weather.  These ponies learned in 15 to 30 seconds
to accept any hazard in the back yard, or side yard.  

Ponies, like horses, need to be trained by adults.  If you short change the
training of the pony, or the child rider, there will be problems.  With
ponies, that happens all of the time.  When I conditioned my Arabs for
endurance, my children stayed with me on their pony.

Ponies are smart, please do not try to say that is a bad quality.

Lynge Simoni
West