Such nice weather for December!
Dec. 12th, 2020 02:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickIt was sunny and almost 55F outside today for the last day of rifle deer season. (There are other deer seasons but this is the one where you are most likely to be randomly shot.) Snap pony did the last little bits of her Riding Readiness work in the (crowded) driveway while Liss was milking the cow and feeding the blind ladies, Theron was putting hay in the field with the tractor, and random young fellers were standing around in bright orange and pretending to get organized for hunting.
And since all of that went well, I hollered at Evan to get his ass over here and submit to test dummy for the Snap project. (Evan is the uncle of Snap's eventual target-owner, Charleigh.) He's like twenty and skinny and bounces well even though horses are not his jam. I am like fifty and not skinny and I don't bounce well. So, Evan was the crash test dummy.
Evan's job was as follows: Get on the pony, corpse position. Get off the pony. Get on the pony (other side), corpse position. Get off the pony. Sit on the pony. Off the pony. Sit on the pony again, pony walks (being led) maybe twenty feet out and back. Get off the pony. Get on the pony, other side. Ride out and back twenty feet. Get off the pony. Get on the pony, out and back the driveway. Get off the pony. Get on the pony, out and back the driveway with a few trot steps both ways. Get off the pony. (There is no expectation here for Snap to follow directions from Evan. She's just to tote him along while being polite and attending to me.)
This seems like a lot of on-the-pony, off-the-pony stuff. And it is. It's repetition of the skills she will need. Stand for someone to get on. Wait. Walk off calmly when directed. Halt. Wait. Stand while a person gets off. Wait.
When the pony is for a small four year old, the pony needs to stand still to have a child climb aboard or to be plunked aboard. The pony needs to wait patiently for the mom to get her own horse situated and be ready to head down the trail. The pony needs to truck alongside the big horse, toting her tiny tot, without any stupid going on. So, those are the things we are practicing.
Tomorrow, Evan and Snap and Bird and I will go on a 'real' outing so that she can pony alongside a big horse while toting a rider. I'm sure it will be fun.
Then I got Chantilly out the field for her helping of Horse Kindergarten. Four days of work into the project and she catches well, works a gate well, knows her rope drills, handles all over her body, picks up her feet, and... today we wore a saddle and blanket for our ground work drill. So it's going nicely as well. She's more of a pony than Snap, probably best for an adult, but she's super slight and maybe 13.2 hh. That's not really an adult size. I'm not sure what to do with her, but I'll think on it.
And since all of that went well, I hollered at Evan to get his ass over here and submit to test dummy for the Snap project. (Evan is the uncle of Snap's eventual target-owner, Charleigh.) He's like twenty and skinny and bounces well even though horses are not his jam. I am like fifty and not skinny and I don't bounce well. So, Evan was the crash test dummy.
Evan's job was as follows: Get on the pony, corpse position. Get off the pony. Get on the pony (other side), corpse position. Get off the pony. Sit on the pony. Off the pony. Sit on the pony again, pony walks (being led) maybe twenty feet out and back. Get off the pony. Get on the pony, other side. Ride out and back twenty feet. Get off the pony. Get on the pony, out and back the driveway. Get off the pony. Get on the pony, out and back the driveway with a few trot steps both ways. Get off the pony. (There is no expectation here for Snap to follow directions from Evan. She's just to tote him along while being polite and attending to me.)
This seems like a lot of on-the-pony, off-the-pony stuff. And it is. It's repetition of the skills she will need. Stand for someone to get on. Wait. Walk off calmly when directed. Halt. Wait. Stand while a person gets off. Wait.
When the pony is for a small four year old, the pony needs to stand still to have a child climb aboard or to be plunked aboard. The pony needs to wait patiently for the mom to get her own horse situated and be ready to head down the trail. The pony needs to truck alongside the big horse, toting her tiny tot, without any stupid going on. So, those are the things we are practicing.
Tomorrow, Evan and Snap and Bird and I will go on a 'real' outing so that she can pony alongside a big horse while toting a rider. I'm sure it will be fun.
Then I got Chantilly out the field for her helping of Horse Kindergarten. Four days of work into the project and she catches well, works a gate well, knows her rope drills, handles all over her body, picks up her feet, and... today we wore a saddle and blanket for our ground work drill. So it's going nicely as well. She's more of a pony than Snap, probably best for an adult, but she's super slight and maybe 13.2 hh. That's not really an adult size. I'm not sure what to do with her, but I'll think on it.
