This little tale is a cautionary tale about agreeing to something when you are half asleep.
One Sunday the mother of one of my students shows up pulling a horse trailer. When I go out to greet her, she proceeds to unload the most adorable little shetland mare. She tries to hand me the leadrope and says "Fix her!". By now I am totally confused. I ask her to slow down and explain. She says that she had explained last night but for the life of me I did not remember talking to her the night before. She can tell that I am still confused and finally starts to explain. She did call last night or more precisely this morning at 5 am. My brain fog now begins to clear. I vaguely remember my daughter coming in at an ungodly hour mumbling something about a horse and to get her to leave me alone to return to my dreams I said , yes. "Yes to whatever, just let me sleep!" I explain this to the mother. She laughed and said she could understand, but I had said yes and she was holding me to it. I asked her to explain exactly what had I agreed to. So she begins to tell me the story of Skippy. A 5 yr old shetland mare that they had owned for a couple of years. I had seen this pony at a couple of playdays and at the local queen contest. It never went well. The pony would just do as it pleased at all times and the final straw was at the county fair the night before it had kicked another pony in the lineup. I asked about the ponys training. When they bought Skippy, she was a leadline pony. I asked about who trained her to rein? "Well, no one" I asked what bit they used "A straight bar curb" Uhhhh huh. As I am mulling this over, Skippy is happily dragging the mother all over the yard to graze. I am now torn. I am waaayyy to big to be riding a shetland, but this little pony is getting a bum wrap. I tell the mom that I don't know what I will be able to accomplish but I will give it a try. I knew that I could achieve alot through ground work but I would have to see about any riding. She thanks me and I take Skippy from her and walk to the barn. Skippy tries to drag me along, but a few well timed tugs on the leadrope she decides to walk right along with me. I leave her to make herself at home and return the next day. A through evaluation makes me believe that she is a great little pony that has been mishandled and allowed to be the dominant factor in the pony/child/parent relationship.
Fast forward one month - After lots and lots of lunging, long reining and manners lessons. Skippy is a joy to work with. She has proven herself to be a willing partner and quick learner. I now ponder what she will be like with a rider. (She has no history of bucking, rearing, flipping). My son had already volunteered to ride Skippy the first day, but I told him No. I didn't know enough about the pony. After working with her a month, I was confident that my son could handle her fine. I tacked her up, lunged her a bit and then had my son mount. I then lunged them around for a bit. The pony behaved beautifully. I unclipped the lunge line and told my son to walk her a bit. She moved off, but when she realized that I did not have hold of her, she merrily trotted off to the gate. I told my son to ask her to walk (seat, voice, hands). She still trotted. I told Jake to pull her around until she walked and then try again. They did this several times. The pony then decided that the trotting trick didn't work so she just tried the stop and graze tactic. Jake just continued to squeeze her forward and bump her head up. By this time, Skippy was beginning to show the spoiled pony attitude. She finally just sulled up and refused to move. Jake tried squeezing with his legs, smooching, off-tracking - nothing worked. Jake was beginning to get frustrated and Skippy knew that she was winning. Jake finally reached around and smacked her on the rump with his hand. She jumped forward. From that time on the ride went smoothly. I decided then to leave the under saddle work to Jake - with supervision.
The last month has been a real treat. My son has learned an appreciation for what I do and we were able to spend some great times riding together. Skippy went home yesterday doing better than I had ever hoped. Jakes last ride was a bareback jaunt around the arena where he and Skippy completed a mini trail course (bridge, poles, cones). So goes my cautionary tale. Thankfully this ended well, but I have warned my family about asking me things when I am asleep but by the glint in my son's eyes, I am sure that he will use this bit of knowledge about his mom in a devious way.
I am sorry that I can't post any pictures because I don't generally post pictures of clients horses but this is a picture of Jake and one of my other horses (he was 9).
