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which_chickI have teased project pony pictures and there are, today, project pony pictures. I assure you that these are two different little bay ponies, not the same pony twice.
Project Pony the first is Snap. Snap is (Just so you know, Snap is related to Button and Zipper. Her name has nothing to do with biting and a whole lot to do with clothing fasteners.) plain, solid bay with a mealy muzzle and an absolute ton of hair. She's approximately 12.3 hh.
All of Snap, who is ignoring the photographer and handler and looking out over the (needs to be mowed down) dead and overgrown garden:
Snap headshot showing adorable pony character and wee pony ears:
Project pony the second is Switch. (She's related to Thistl and Jagger and Briar and that style of thing. We like theme names.) Switch has a tiny white star on her forehead but is otherwise a solid bay pony. She is a touch bigger than Snap at about 13.1 hh. (I have a measuring stick and I ballpark measured the ponies today during the pony work session.) Anyway, here she is:
And Switch headshot showing similarly adorable pony character and wee pony ears:
For today's outing, the ponies got to wear a 'bridle' (simple loop headstall, no browband, no throatlatch, no noseband with a bit attached, no reins) while doing their ordinary rope work. Mostly this is just to get them used to wearing a bit (two-joint snaffle with a bean in the middle, big loose rings), get used to being asked to take a bit, drop a bit, etc. It's also so that they can get over the trying to spit the bit phase of things. (As a general rule, ponies do not love bits and the first couple of times you put a bit in a pony's mouth, the pony is hyper-focused on trying to spit the bit out. These efforts do not work because the bit is kinda strapped on there, but the pony does not know that right away and keeps trying to spit the bit out.)
I don't attach reins to the bit rings until the pony has stopped trying to spit the bit -- until then, they're not ready to listen to the reins and bit anyway. Might as well let them get quiet about the mouth first, in their own time. (This usually takes about three exposures to wearing a bit. It's not a huge deal and I'm not missing out on, like, weeks of riding time because we proceed with the riding time using a halter and reins until the pony is quiet-mouthed with a bit.)
Then I slipped the bridle off and fixed up reins to the rope halter and did some mount/dismount practice. Today, the ponies held themselves still, no handler involved, rider only. (We'd previously been having a handler stand kind of near/in front of the pony being mounted to discourage forward motion, but this time we did not do that. Ponies were OK holding themselves still for mounting/dismounting. GO PONIES! The mounting-dismounting stuff was a review of last time and it went fine, total snoozefest for the ponies.
And then (new material) we went for a little ride with each pony, one at a time. 'No, really. This is like effort three or four or something and we're doing independent rides. (Lol. They are small, short "rides". The ponies are beginners. They have no balance and no muscle and they walk like they're drunk when a rider is aboard. The only rides they can do are small, short rides.)
The ride truly wasn't much: Stand to be mounted. Wait for cue to move off. Walk like thirty feet down the driveway, turn a big circle at the walk, halt when you're facing the way you came in. Move off again, walking, back to where you started. Halt. Back up one or two steps when asked. Halt. Stand to be dismounted. Big pettings, much praise.
This is without someone leading the pony, just a rider on the pony with reins attached to the halter. (Because we're not ready for bit reins yet.) It's an actual ride, though a short and simple one.
Both Snap and Switch walked off, slowly and a little unsure, but calmly. Both ponies turned a big circle, demonstrated a halt, did at least a step of back-up (from the halt), and then walked on again and halted again back where we had started. Good job, ponies!
These are not broke ponies, don't get me wrong. They're good-natured and fairly nonreactive little shits who would very much like to Go Along and Get Along. They are doing absolutely the right things and they are not worried about what they are being asked to do. But they are not at all "broke" for people to ride yet. They need a lot more of this.
But... but... how did they know what to do with "walk on" and how did they know how to halt and how did they know how to back up and how did they know how to turn with reins?
Remember the rope skills I talked about? Those.
How do they know how to walk on?
Rope Skill 1: Make circles around handler at walk and trot. There's a "walk on" cue you use here and that's the "walk on" cue you use when you are doing these little rides. It's the same "walk on" cue that the pony already knows.
How do they know how to halt and back up?
Rope Skill 4: Back yer ass up. There's a cue the handler uses here and it's the same cue you use for the pony when riding. Also, just to be sure we have a 'halt', we practice with the 'reins' on the halter before we throw a leg over. The ponies are short enough that you can stand to the side of them, at a shoulder, facing forward, and just put your arm over their back so that you can have each hand more-or-less where each hand would go when you were "aboard" and then you play reins like as if you were riding. It's nice to have a halt and a back-up installed before you throw a leg over.
How do they know how to turn with the reins?
Rope Skill 2: Rope skill 2: Turn out of rope. Rope from halter is strung behind pony, above hocks, and the slack is gently taken up. Pony must kind of turn around (away from rope holder) to free self from rope. This skill teaches a pony to follow the "feel" from the lead rope, like we want the pony to follow the feel from reins. Additionally, we do "rein practice" for turning left and right with the handler on the ground at the pony's shoulder taking the slack out of the rein until the pony's head follows the feel. It's like the halt/back up thing, and done at the same time.
The ponies got two sessions of halt/back up and left/right rein practice before I threw a leg over. In controlled, familiar circumstances, it's easy for ponies to stay calm and solve these simple questions. Note that we're not leaving the barnyard, where they have lived forever and are calm and relaxed. We're not trying to have a wreck, here. This is getting the skills down without adding any additional stressors like New Location or Strange Horses or whatever.
But yeah, they're cute as can be and doing well. We'll give it another shot next weekend. (This is not my job. I want Trys to help me and I have to schedule for when she's available. So that's once a week. More often would be fine, but ponies remember VERY well and they don't need to be worked every single day to learn stuff. They are learning fine with once-a-week efforts.)
Project Pony the first is Snap. Snap is (Just so you know, Snap is related to Button and Zipper. Her name has nothing to do with biting and a whole lot to do with clothing fasteners.) plain, solid bay with a mealy muzzle and an absolute ton of hair. She's approximately 12.3 hh.
All of Snap, who is ignoring the photographer and handler and looking out over the (needs to be mowed down) dead and overgrown garden:
Snap headshot showing adorable pony character and wee pony ears:
Project pony the second is Switch. (She's related to Thistl and Jagger and Briar and that style of thing. We like theme names.) Switch has a tiny white star on her forehead but is otherwise a solid bay pony. She is a touch bigger than Snap at about 13.1 hh. (I have a measuring stick and I ballpark measured the ponies today during the pony work session.) Anyway, here she is:
And Switch headshot showing similarly adorable pony character and wee pony ears:
For today's outing, the ponies got to wear a 'bridle' (simple loop headstall, no browband, no throatlatch, no noseband with a bit attached, no reins) while doing their ordinary rope work. Mostly this is just to get them used to wearing a bit (two-joint snaffle with a bean in the middle, big loose rings), get used to being asked to take a bit, drop a bit, etc. It's also so that they can get over the trying to spit the bit phase of things. (As a general rule, ponies do not love bits and the first couple of times you put a bit in a pony's mouth, the pony is hyper-focused on trying to spit the bit out. These efforts do not work because the bit is kinda strapped on there, but the pony does not know that right away and keeps trying to spit the bit out.)
I don't attach reins to the bit rings until the pony has stopped trying to spit the bit -- until then, they're not ready to listen to the reins and bit anyway. Might as well let them get quiet about the mouth first, in their own time. (This usually takes about three exposures to wearing a bit. It's not a huge deal and I'm not missing out on, like, weeks of riding time because we proceed with the riding time using a halter and reins until the pony is quiet-mouthed with a bit.)
Then I slipped the bridle off and fixed up reins to the rope halter and did some mount/dismount practice. Today, the ponies held themselves still, no handler involved, rider only. (We'd previously been having a handler stand kind of near/in front of the pony being mounted to discourage forward motion, but this time we did not do that. Ponies were OK holding themselves still for mounting/dismounting. GO PONIES! The mounting-dismounting stuff was a review of last time and it went fine, total snoozefest for the ponies.
And then (new material) we went for a little ride with each pony, one at a time. 'No, really. This is like effort three or four or something and we're doing independent rides. (Lol. They are small, short "rides". The ponies are beginners. They have no balance and no muscle and they walk like they're drunk when a rider is aboard. The only rides they can do are small, short rides.)
The ride truly wasn't much: Stand to be mounted. Wait for cue to move off. Walk like thirty feet down the driveway, turn a big circle at the walk, halt when you're facing the way you came in. Move off again, walking, back to where you started. Halt. Back up one or two steps when asked. Halt. Stand to be dismounted. Big pettings, much praise.
This is without someone leading the pony, just a rider on the pony with reins attached to the halter. (Because we're not ready for bit reins yet.) It's an actual ride, though a short and simple one.
Both Snap and Switch walked off, slowly and a little unsure, but calmly. Both ponies turned a big circle, demonstrated a halt, did at least a step of back-up (from the halt), and then walked on again and halted again back where we had started. Good job, ponies!
These are not broke ponies, don't get me wrong. They're good-natured and fairly nonreactive little shits who would very much like to Go Along and Get Along. They are doing absolutely the right things and they are not worried about what they are being asked to do. But they are not at all "broke" for people to ride yet. They need a lot more of this.
But... but... how did they know what to do with "walk on" and how did they know how to halt and how did they know how to back up and how did they know how to turn with reins?
Remember the rope skills I talked about? Those.
How do they know how to walk on?
Rope Skill 1: Make circles around handler at walk and trot. There's a "walk on" cue you use here and that's the "walk on" cue you use when you are doing these little rides. It's the same "walk on" cue that the pony already knows.
How do they know how to halt and back up?
Rope Skill 4: Back yer ass up. There's a cue the handler uses here and it's the same cue you use for the pony when riding. Also, just to be sure we have a 'halt', we practice with the 'reins' on the halter before we throw a leg over. The ponies are short enough that you can stand to the side of them, at a shoulder, facing forward, and just put your arm over their back so that you can have each hand more-or-less where each hand would go when you were "aboard" and then you play reins like as if you were riding. It's nice to have a halt and a back-up installed before you throw a leg over.
How do they know how to turn with the reins?
Rope Skill 2: Rope skill 2: Turn out of rope. Rope from halter is strung behind pony, above hocks, and the slack is gently taken up. Pony must kind of turn around (away from rope holder) to free self from rope. This skill teaches a pony to follow the "feel" from the lead rope, like we want the pony to follow the feel from reins. Additionally, we do "rein practice" for turning left and right with the handler on the ground at the pony's shoulder taking the slack out of the rein until the pony's head follows the feel. It's like the halt/back up thing, and done at the same time.
The ponies got two sessions of halt/back up and left/right rein practice before I threw a leg over. In controlled, familiar circumstances, it's easy for ponies to stay calm and solve these simple questions. Note that we're not leaving the barnyard, where they have lived forever and are calm and relaxed. We're not trying to have a wreck, here. This is getting the skills down without adding any additional stressors like New Location or Strange Horses or whatever.
But yeah, they're cute as can be and doing well. We'll give it another shot next weekend. (This is not my job. I want Trys to help me and I have to schedule for when she's available. So that's once a week. More often would be fine, but ponies remember VERY well and they don't need to be worked every single day to learn stuff. They are learning fine with once-a-week efforts.)
