Pony Rides At Fall Foliage
Oct. 7th, 2019 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI got roped into Pony Rides at Fall Foliage, which is a fundraiser for the 4H. The pony rides finance the building of electrical hookups for campers at the fairgrounds (adjacent to the horse show rings, for the horse-showing contingent to use). Excess funds get split up amongst the clubs whose kids, adults, and ponies volunteer their time to do the pony rides.
Pony rides are a lot of walking -- you lead the pony or you walk alongside the child getting the pony ride to ensure that the child doesn't fall off the pony. We did 220 pony rides on Sunday, so that's a lot of walks.
Mostly it's wee tots (3, 4, or 5 years old) who are doing the pony rides but sometimes not. We are an Equal Opportunity Pony Ride Emporium. The most frequent question we got after stuff like "What's his name?" and "Can I ride the baby horse?" (He is a mini, not a baby, and yes.) was Is there an age limit for the pony rides?
Our standard response: Well, yes. (sad look) The age limit for our pony rides is five dollars. If you have five dollars, you can have a pony ride. (This is what passes for fun when you're leading bored ponies out and back on a two minute walk, over and over, for the entire day.)
We had a handful of adults who wanted pony rides as sort of a bucket-list activity. We had one mini (for teeny tiny kids), a 12.3hh pony, and two 13hh+ stocky, solid ponies sturdy enough to carry most adults. We don't want to have to turn away bigger kids or adult-sized people. However, as these are ponies and not ATVs, there are people large enough that they really shouldn't be on the ponies.
Mostly, people too large for the ponies don't ask about pony rides. For the very few who asked while appearing to be well in excess of what even our largest, stockiest pony should carry, we quietly allowed as how the pony rides have a weight limit of 200 lbs.
It's hard to tell people that they are too big for an activity and we tried to make it as kind, low-key, and not-humiliating as possible.
Pony rides are a lot of walking -- you lead the pony or you walk alongside the child getting the pony ride to ensure that the child doesn't fall off the pony. We did 220 pony rides on Sunday, so that's a lot of walks.
Mostly it's wee tots (3, 4, or 5 years old) who are doing the pony rides but sometimes not. We are an Equal Opportunity Pony Ride Emporium. The most frequent question we got after stuff like "What's his name?" and "Can I ride the baby horse?" (He is a mini, not a baby, and yes.) was Is there an age limit for the pony rides?
Our standard response: Well, yes. (sad look) The age limit for our pony rides is five dollars. If you have five dollars, you can have a pony ride. (This is what passes for fun when you're leading bored ponies out and back on a two minute walk, over and over, for the entire day.)
We had a handful of adults who wanted pony rides as sort of a bucket-list activity. We had one mini (for teeny tiny kids), a 12.3hh pony, and two 13hh+ stocky, solid ponies sturdy enough to carry most adults. We don't want to have to turn away bigger kids or adult-sized people. However, as these are ponies and not ATVs, there are people large enough that they really shouldn't be on the ponies.
Mostly, people too large for the ponies don't ask about pony rides. For the very few who asked while appearing to be well in excess of what even our largest, stockiest pony should carry, we quietly allowed as how the pony rides have a weight limit of 200 lbs.
It's hard to tell people that they are too big for an activity and we tried to make it as kind, low-key, and not-humiliating as possible.
