which_chick | Pony pony update: Bad pony riding and some pics

Wait what? I thought the ponies were being good?

One of the things that ponies are expected to tolerate and understand is bad pony riding. This is because sometimes ponies have to give "pony rides" to people who have never been on a horse before, especially if the pony might belong to children with friends. "Can I ride him?" is a question that children-with-ponies get from children-without-ponies. Also, sometimes the pony gets roped into doing "pony rides" as a fundraiser for various pony-adjacent clubs and activities... and the pony needs to not-be-an-asshole about that, too.

So, once the ponies have some idea of how riding is more-or-less supposed to go, we introduce leadline bad pony riding. This is done with the pony in a halter and lead, with an experienced handler on the ground (so no shenanigans will be tolerated and someone with a clue is, truly, at the helm) and a "bad rider" aboard the pony. We start with a true "bad rider", a person who does not ride and is not good at getting on or off ponies and not good at sitting on them while they walk (or in the case of Switch) waddle off.

This person will be somewhat timid and ineffectual and may (even with a bucket mounting block) take a couple of tries to get on the pony. They will sit too far forward or too far back or wiggle around weirdly or lurch instead of following the motion or hold too tight with their legs or a variety of other *wrong* things but their wrongness is not purposeful or specifically designed to irritate the pony. For this, we used Trys's older boy (he's 12 and doesn't horse) because he's a "bad rider" but not in a purposeful way, just the usual way. Here's a picture of Snap engaged in bad pony riding:

Ponies were both good for ordinary (real world) "bad rider". (This was as expected. If we didn't think they could handle bad pony rides, we would not have done them yet.) So then I got on Trysta's pony (Snap) as a purposeful bad rider (in that I know particularly how to be most irritating and most off-balance and most inappropriately positioned and loud and wiggly and so forth) for a pony ride and she got on my pony (Switch) and did the same. Ponies definitely had disgusted looks on their faces, but they were not worried or sudden or startled. They were tolerant, their extreme disapproval expressed by a tail swish and a grumpy pony face. Good job, ponies!

Nothing we do as "bad riders" is actually harmful for the ponies. It's annoying and unpleasant.

Example: Try to get on pony, get leg "stuck" on top of pony, drag leg off over butt of pony while leaning body along/on pony and yelling a bit and gripping pony neck and so forth.

Example: Be doing the pony ride, lean forward so that weight is ON pony neck, grab pony around neck in a big hug, say I LOVE YOU PONY SO SOFT AND FLUFFY at volume. Mess with ears and forelock while aboard.

Example: Pat pony badly. (*PAT* *PAT* *PAT* is not really what ponies like.)

Example: Flap legs uselessly at the pony to "go faster" (pony knows that the person to obey is the person with the lead rope, this is ignoring practice). Be sure to work flank, back of belly areas. (Not kicking, more rubbing/flapping. They need to be OK with legs randomly touching them for no reason in wrong places.)

While ponies do not, as such, eye roll... the ponies definitely were I have an idiot aboard. *sigh* This kinda sucks, but at least it's better than the coal mines.

We also took a walkie across the road and through the hayfield up to the edge of the copse (new location). It's the season of Pumpkin Army, so we need high visibility and good sight lines for little brown maybe-a-deer ponies. Nobody wants to be shot. That went well, too. Both ponies settled down quickly and did their rope tricks in short order.

Here's Trys and Snap in front of us, doing walkies.