The Good And The Bad

I had a whole post thought up about the downside of having children who like horses. How hard it is to catch and ready them while keeping kids from killing themselves, how hard it is to pony one while riding double with the other, how hard it is to force myself to go out and do the hard stuff instead of just skipping it in favor of something easier. It is hard. It isn’t fun, not like going for a ride without kids is fun. I never got around to writing it though. Because I keep realizing more and more that it is so worth it. (And the post mostly seemed like whining.)

Every time I watch this kid ride I know it’s worth the fear and frustration and struggle. She does such a good job. Her determination to get to where she wants to go is amazing. She is determined to ride by herself, tired of being ponied. And she wants to go fast. Yay, fast. She seems to tiny to ride by herself. I try to remember that I wasn’t too much older than this when my mom got her fiery young Morgan gelding, four to my five I believe. All I wanted was to ride him. She let me. She swears I didn’t get run away with and fall of of him every time I rode him. Just almost every time.

She has a wonderful little mare though, and wont be getting on my young horse. Her mare is gaited, the best thing ever in a kids horse. Smooth and easy to ride, none of that being bounced out of the saddle at a trot. Onna is patient with her child and willing. Onna puts up with unclear cues and yanking on the bit like Coyote never would. Onna stands quietly for her little girl to shimmy up her side. She’s determined to mount from the ground, so I stand at Onna’s head and feed her cookies to help make the experience less obnoxious. She can almost do it. Between the stirrups and her short stirrups she has a ladder, she just has to figure out where and how to hold on. She want to be able to get on and off from the pickup too. It’s a wonderful training opportunity. I offer clearer aids as Onna’s riders short little legs ask for a side pass or to yield haunches, then click and reward. Hopefully we will have Onna trained to her little riders unique cues by the time they are both ready to go it alone.

The perfect princess pony for a perfect little princess. May they grow old together and continue to be the perfect pair.

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