How good riders get good...
Aug. 26th, 2022 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chick(Not about the D. Emerson book.)
Friend of mine posted on facebook pictures of their children out playing horse a few weekends ago. They were sorta-public on facebook, so...
Tot #1 on the bay pony is seven years old. Here's them:
If you're not super-good at horses, that there is a kinda high-octane pony, a pony that moves out a bit. This is Tot #1's first move up pony after Tot #1's starter ponies that were kinder and gentler. Tot #1 and pony are moving at a pretty good clip, there.
I have it on good authority that Tot #1's pony is a borrow-n-return pony. Borrow now, return when outgrown by Tots in your household. This is frequently what happens to solid, safe, confidence-building move up ponies in the horse world. They aren't sold, they are loaned out.
Tot #2 on the gray pony is four years old and in the very early stages of learning-to-ride-independently. The pony is going a lot slower than the bay pony in the first picture. (This pony is twenty-five, and, as it happens, the granddaughter of the pony I learned to ride on when I was 11. She's a poor man's welsh, a shetland-arab cross (7/8 arab) that has maintained a lot of the pony characteristics with some arab refinement added.)
Tot #2's pony belongs to the family and has a very wide and deep store of experience to bring to the table for her novice tot rider. She has been under saddle since she was four and is taking care of Tot #2 while Tot #2 gains confidence with the whole riding gig. This pony is worth her weight in gold and will (should she live that long) wind up providing this same service to the family's Tot #3 expected later this year.
Okay, so this is all very nice, tots on ponies, etc. Yay. How do good riders get good?
They get safe, regular practice on ponies of suitable temperament and ability from a very early age. This is not just practice at home, it's also practice out-and-about, with parents and family willing to round up tots and ponies and throw everybody into the truck & trailer and haul to some venue and Do The Thing of a Saturday.
Safe, regular practice. An adult has to be willing to assist the tots with catching the pony, saddling the pony, supervising the riding, supervising the putting-away-of-the-pony, etc. A contained area in which to practice is helpful.
Pony of suitable temperament and ability. This is not an easy thing to find. The people who have charmingly adorable 25 yr old troopers who will take care of a four year old tot are not going to offer up that pony to a random stranger. The people who have a suitable move-up pony for the seven year old who wants to go faster aren't gonna hand it over to just anyone. There need to be connections in the horse world so that these ponies are made available to the tots who need them.
Practice out-and-about. It's a lot of weekends and a fair amount of money to go to venues (even kind of small, local venues) and Do The Thing. It's more-worth-it if all the kids participate and a lot harder to justify if only one kid in the family wants to play.
And, again, from a very early age. This means either a fortune in instruction or parents who know and understand ponies and how to arrange kids-n-ponies so that everybody survives and is the better for the experience.
Friend of mine posted on facebook pictures of their children out playing horse a few weekends ago. They were sorta-public on facebook, so...
Tot #1 on the bay pony is seven years old. Here's them:
If you're not super-good at horses, that there is a kinda high-octane pony, a pony that moves out a bit. This is Tot #1's first move up pony after Tot #1's starter ponies that were kinder and gentler. Tot #1 and pony are moving at a pretty good clip, there.
I have it on good authority that Tot #1's pony is a borrow-n-return pony. Borrow now, return when outgrown by Tots in your household. This is frequently what happens to solid, safe, confidence-building move up ponies in the horse world. They aren't sold, they are loaned out.
Tot #2 on the gray pony is four years old and in the very early stages of learning-to-ride-independently. The pony is going a lot slower than the bay pony in the first picture. (This pony is twenty-five, and, as it happens, the granddaughter of the pony I learned to ride on when I was 11. She's a poor man's welsh, a shetland-arab cross (7/8 arab) that has maintained a lot of the pony characteristics with some arab refinement added.)
Tot #2's pony belongs to the family and has a very wide and deep store of experience to bring to the table for her novice tot rider. She has been under saddle since she was four and is taking care of Tot #2 while Tot #2 gains confidence with the whole riding gig. This pony is worth her weight in gold and will (should she live that long) wind up providing this same service to the family's Tot #3 expected later this year.
Okay, so this is all very nice, tots on ponies, etc. Yay. How do good riders get good?
They get safe, regular practice on ponies of suitable temperament and ability from a very early age. This is not just practice at home, it's also practice out-and-about, with parents and family willing to round up tots and ponies and throw everybody into the truck & trailer and haul to some venue and Do The Thing of a Saturday.
Safe, regular practice. An adult has to be willing to assist the tots with catching the pony, saddling the pony, supervising the riding, supervising the putting-away-of-the-pony, etc. A contained area in which to practice is helpful.
Pony of suitable temperament and ability. This is not an easy thing to find. The people who have charmingly adorable 25 yr old troopers who will take care of a four year old tot are not going to offer up that pony to a random stranger. The people who have a suitable move-up pony for the seven year old who wants to go faster aren't gonna hand it over to just anyone. There need to be connections in the horse world so that these ponies are made available to the tots who need them.
Practice out-and-about. It's a lot of weekends and a fair amount of money to go to venues (even kind of small, local venues) and Do The Thing. It's more-worth-it if all the kids participate and a lot harder to justify if only one kid in the family wants to play.
And, again, from a very early age. This means either a fortune in instruction or parents who know and understand ponies and how to arrange kids-n-ponies so that everybody survives and is the better for the experience.
