Pony Time

Barn time tonight. 

I went ahead and saddled up and then realized that someone had a beginner riding lesson, which was fine.  I am happy to share the arena, but it gets more complicated when the novice rider is being lunged, so I went ahead and stopped my regular circles/whatever type riding and stood and chatted with another boarder tonight.

Then the owners of the two weanlings brought their babies into the arena for some more socialization.  The SFM is actually turned out with both, so she didn't really care.  I used that time to do some easy trot work and a brief canter.

Look an actual picture of me riding the other day. 

The babies were pretty adorable.  They were a little concerned about their field mate now having something strange going on and why on Earth was she running??  They skittered around a little bit and I stood and talked to them and tried to convince them that I really wasn't terrorizing the Semi Feral Mare, although there are plenty of days that the Mare thinks that too.  ;)

I ended up talking about ponying young horses and then voila--ended up with the first little weanling who needed some exercise.  Recently gelded, he needed to move around a bit and here I was.  For his first ponying experience, he was great.  Responsive to following and seemed happy go lucky to get along with the program.  He had to do a cute little lope to keep up with the Mare's obnoxiously huge trot, but that was all good.

Baby number two was a little less happy with the endeavor.  He desperately wants to be friends with the Mare, but is still very subdued and a bit terrified of her.  He is also a bit sulky.  But I was very happy and pleased with him too as by the end, he finally figured out how to come along quietly at both the walk and the trot.  

Sorry no babies.  This was Saturday doing bending work ;)

Yay babies.  :) 

The Mare did great too dealing with the slight chaos of the occasional baby skittering around or stopping dead or whatever random hijinks they did.  I think her biggest concern was dealing with the mixed signals when I was wrestling a baby with one hand and inadvertently shifting my weight in the dressage saddle, as it's a bit harder than my typical ponying in the western saddle--less leverage.  The Mare was like...weight?  Leg?  OK, we can move away from this pressure too.  

Lots of laps later the final tally was:

1 Tired Not-As-Feral Mare

2 Tired Babies

1 Human who realizes how sore her biceps now are

But it's funny how just simple baby wrestling made me happy tonight.  No idea why.

Either that or the drugs are working too.  ;)

Anyone else ever have the pleasure/joy of ponying a less than cooperative steed?