Progress with the ponies...
Nov. 22nd, 2020 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickSo there are two project ponies. Genie (Pon-Pon) and Snap. They are tiny. Genie is about 13.1 hh and Snap is probably 12.3 hh. (These are rough heights with a stick on dirt while ponies were greedily eating their grain. They are both air-ferns, thrifty as fuck, and have no need whatsoever for an actual can of grain. They get "grain" to entice them to come out the field for work, split between "before work" grain and "after work" grain because for greedy ponies, having grain TWICE is better than having grain ONCE even if it's the same total amount but served in two halves to make two "grain" events. Since it's a quarter can total per pony, that's like four greedy pony mouthfuls at a go, not a lot of time for the adult in the room to screw around measuring the pony.)
Genie sort of rides. She was on a trail ride (with pic) here a few weekends ago. I've since taken her out by herself twice now, both for exciting trips down to the Micah Barrier at the bottom of the hill. (Since the days of Applesauce Child, Micah bought the buckwheat field and built a barrier at the property line at the bottom of the hollow. He also timbered it and ruined it above and beyond putting up a barrier. Micah is not one of my favorite people.) First solo outing this year had about fifty (literally) circles of hindquarter disengagement from the driveway to the pear tree. Pony was rigid and vibrating over things like Truck At Sawmill 400 Yards Away Backing Up And Beeping and Person Sighting In A Deer Rifle (the season cometh) Over The Far Hill. So, we did circles. Lots of circles. Eventually, pony heaved a huge sigh, got two inches shorter,and walked on. Downhill to the Micah Barrier was uneventful and polite. So, we turned to head back up the hill. Pony insta-trotted. So we halted, turned around, walked back to the Micah Barrier, halted, turned around toward home, and tried to walk off. And trotted. So many times, like thirty, but eventually Pon-Pon gave up on the trotting as well and walked her ass quietly home. Now, it was like 55F and she was in winter fur, so she was sweaty on neck and chest due to her own stupid.
I sort of expected some stupid (she has a lot of emotions by herself and this is a known feature of the pony) during the first few solo outings so I picked a calm, warm day for the first outing so that she'd get hot and tired quickly. She'd also been on the "route" for walkies before so that it was not new or strange. The new and strange part was just doing it by herself as a riding horse. However, it went worse than I expected, with more obvious nervousness and fraughtitude. So, the ride that should have taken half an hour took a solid hour. Ugh. But she is a very clever pony. No, really. More clever than that. Super-clever. And if you quit because of shenanigans, she will bring twice the shenanigans next time because they worked last time.
So that was Saturday.
So we repeated the ride on Sunday. If you can't do it nicely the first time, you sure as shit don't get any better by NOT DOING IT AGAIN. So we did it again. I mean, you have to. And she wasn't bad per se on the first outing. She didn't rear, buck, bolt, or anything like that. She sped up and was tense. Okay. So we did it again. On Sunday, en route to the pear tree, there was ONE circle of disengagement. On the way home from the Micah Barrier, there were THREE instances of "reverse, retrace, and try walking this time".
From fifty to one, from thirty to three. GOOD PON-PON. It was also forty degrees with wind and random acts of firearms on Sunday, so that didn't help. Now, she was not perfect. She had splattery poops and she champed the bit nervously. But, she flat walked and didn't pull on me or charge off trotting. We were done in half an hour, pony was entirely unsweated. And there may have been an extra handful of grain in the "after" grain allotment.
Pon-Pon is not going to be a beginner child's pony, ever. She is too much pony for a beginner child. Too athletic, fast, quick, smart. ("Fast" is raw speed. A thoroughbred is "fast". "Quick" is ... moves like a cutting horse. Sudden. This pony is both.) Also she is independently minded. She will probably wind up being an adult's pony.
Other project pony is Snap, who is I guess about 12.3. She's not 13hh. Compared to Genie, she is tiny. Her feet are tiny. She is just tiny. Teeny tiny. I do not know how I am going to get someone on this pony. I really don't want to be on the pony. I get that she's two inches shorter than Pon-Pon but she's a different scale. Fortunately, Snap has fantastic pony character, which is to say that she excels at UNFLAPPABLE about her body and also WOULD LIKE TO BE ON BOARD WITH YOUR PROGRAM WHATEVER IT IS. Trys had been doing work with her, but... I didn't find that to be particularly useful.
Trys isn't as... sharp as I am. She's softer. You'd think softer would be more helpful to horses, but this is not actually the case. Horses do best with clarity and consistency. Sharp is actually faster and clearer, as long as there is a RELEASE and CONSISTENCY, than soft. So, Snap didn't have the skills I would have liked to see on her and the skills she had were not as crisp as I wanted.
Snap couldn't work a gate. (Stand quietly while human opens gate, be directed to proceed through gate, turn and face human once through, stand quietly while human closes and latches gate.) She didn't lead well enough. Her circles and rope work were... slushy. All of these things are now... snappy. I fixed them. Took two outings. She also stands quietly and DOES NOT FUCKING PAW. I also fixed that. And she ponies alongside the Bird, very VERY nicely.
Snap is tiny. She's the size pony that a small child gets so that they can be ponied alongside an adult on a big horse. For her, being an expert at "being ponied" is a job skill. So, once the leading and standing were fixed, I took her out with me on Bird and we practiced ponying, changing sides during ponying (walk in front of Bird as directed, turn and wait at my other knee until we proceed), trotting figures of 8 and circles, walking and trotting and walking and trotting, and standing. A lot. She's got a good handle on it. We need to do more outings for proof of concept (with her wearing tack and packing some half-full feed sacks) but she's got a good idea of what is needed.
I am considering bribing Trys's seven year old non-riding child to sit aboard the Snap while I pony her (after she's had a shakedown cruise or two with an adult passenger) so that she can practice toting a child. However, he is very distractable... not sure how that is going to go.
Today I rounded up a western saddle for Snap and made her drag the plastic jugs around so that they banged into her knees as she trotted. She didn't care. She is very unflappable.
We're going to try to shove the Snap pony at Cassity for her daughter (who is now four? Five?) but for that to work Snap needs to pony BEAUTIFULLY and also "ride". I've got some work to do between now and spring.
Genie sort of rides. She was on a trail ride (with pic) here a few weekends ago. I've since taken her out by herself twice now, both for exciting trips down to the Micah Barrier at the bottom of the hill. (Since the days of Applesauce Child, Micah bought the buckwheat field and built a barrier at the property line at the bottom of the hollow. He also timbered it and ruined it above and beyond putting up a barrier. Micah is not one of my favorite people.) First solo outing this year had about fifty (literally) circles of hindquarter disengagement from the driveway to the pear tree. Pony was rigid and vibrating over things like Truck At Sawmill 400 Yards Away Backing Up And Beeping and Person Sighting In A Deer Rifle (the season cometh) Over The Far Hill. So, we did circles. Lots of circles. Eventually, pony heaved a huge sigh, got two inches shorter,and walked on. Downhill to the Micah Barrier was uneventful and polite. So, we turned to head back up the hill. Pony insta-trotted. So we halted, turned around, walked back to the Micah Barrier, halted, turned around toward home, and tried to walk off. And trotted. So many times, like thirty, but eventually Pon-Pon gave up on the trotting as well and walked her ass quietly home. Now, it was like 55F and she was in winter fur, so she was sweaty on neck and chest due to her own stupid.
I sort of expected some stupid (she has a lot of emotions by herself and this is a known feature of the pony) during the first few solo outings so I picked a calm, warm day for the first outing so that she'd get hot and tired quickly. She'd also been on the "route" for walkies before so that it was not new or strange. The new and strange part was just doing it by herself as a riding horse. However, it went worse than I expected, with more obvious nervousness and fraughtitude. So, the ride that should have taken half an hour took a solid hour. Ugh. But she is a very clever pony. No, really. More clever than that. Super-clever. And if you quit because of shenanigans, she will bring twice the shenanigans next time because they worked last time.
So that was Saturday.
So we repeated the ride on Sunday. If you can't do it nicely the first time, you sure as shit don't get any better by NOT DOING IT AGAIN. So we did it again. I mean, you have to. And she wasn't bad per se on the first outing. She didn't rear, buck, bolt, or anything like that. She sped up and was tense. Okay. So we did it again. On Sunday, en route to the pear tree, there was ONE circle of disengagement. On the way home from the Micah Barrier, there were THREE instances of "reverse, retrace, and try walking this time".
From fifty to one, from thirty to three. GOOD PON-PON. It was also forty degrees with wind and random acts of firearms on Sunday, so that didn't help. Now, she was not perfect. She had splattery poops and she champed the bit nervously. But, she flat walked and didn't pull on me or charge off trotting. We were done in half an hour, pony was entirely unsweated. And there may have been an extra handful of grain in the "after" grain allotment.
Pon-Pon is not going to be a beginner child's pony, ever. She is too much pony for a beginner child. Too athletic, fast, quick, smart. ("Fast" is raw speed. A thoroughbred is "fast". "Quick" is ... moves like a cutting horse. Sudden. This pony is both.) Also she is independently minded. She will probably wind up being an adult's pony.
Other project pony is Snap, who is I guess about 12.3. She's not 13hh. Compared to Genie, she is tiny. Her feet are tiny. She is just tiny. Teeny tiny. I do not know how I am going to get someone on this pony. I really don't want to be on the pony. I get that she's two inches shorter than Pon-Pon but she's a different scale. Fortunately, Snap has fantastic pony character, which is to say that she excels at UNFLAPPABLE about her body and also WOULD LIKE TO BE ON BOARD WITH YOUR PROGRAM WHATEVER IT IS. Trys had been doing work with her, but... I didn't find that to be particularly useful.
Trys isn't as... sharp as I am. She's softer. You'd think softer would be more helpful to horses, but this is not actually the case. Horses do best with clarity and consistency. Sharp is actually faster and clearer, as long as there is a RELEASE and CONSISTENCY, than soft. So, Snap didn't have the skills I would have liked to see on her and the skills she had were not as crisp as I wanted.
Snap couldn't work a gate. (Stand quietly while human opens gate, be directed to proceed through gate, turn and face human once through, stand quietly while human closes and latches gate.) She didn't lead well enough. Her circles and rope work were... slushy. All of these things are now... snappy. I fixed them. Took two outings. She also stands quietly and DOES NOT FUCKING PAW. I also fixed that. And she ponies alongside the Bird, very VERY nicely.
Snap is tiny. She's the size pony that a small child gets so that they can be ponied alongside an adult on a big horse. For her, being an expert at "being ponied" is a job skill. So, once the leading and standing were fixed, I took her out with me on Bird and we practiced ponying, changing sides during ponying (walk in front of Bird as directed, turn and wait at my other knee until we proceed), trotting figures of 8 and circles, walking and trotting and walking and trotting, and standing. A lot. She's got a good handle on it. We need to do more outings for proof of concept (with her wearing tack and packing some half-full feed sacks) but she's got a good idea of what is needed.
I am considering bribing Trys's seven year old non-riding child to sit aboard the Snap while I pony her (after she's had a shakedown cruise or two with an adult passenger) so that she can practice toting a child. However, he is very distractable... not sure how that is going to go.
Today I rounded up a western saddle for Snap and made her drag the plastic jugs around so that they banged into her knees as she trotted. She didn't care. She is very unflappable.
We're going to try to shove the Snap pony at Cassity for her daughter (who is now four? Five?) but for that to work Snap needs to pony BEAUTIFULLY and also "ride". I've got some work to do between now and spring.
