Wooden Pony Ride

Shetland ponies can make excellent mounts for children, but they need a good ...

Shetland ponies have a high cuteness factor, but pound for pound, they are the most powerful of all equines.

As sweet as they appear, and as capable as they are, it takes years of education to make a good riding pony .

The theory about the origin of this breed is that equines were in the process of evolving into different species as they spread across Eurasia from their North American origins, adapting to habitats from desert to tundra along the way. Far north in western Europe — under pressure of rocky terrain, bitter cold, long winters, and often severely limited food supply — ponies grew smaller and tougher.

The most dramatic of these influences resulted in the Shetland Pony. People came along and domesticated ponies and horses, mixing and genetically engineering them for various purposes. Distinctions between horse and pony types blurred. Geographically isolated, Shetland ponies have retained much of their original characteristics.

Shetland ponies have worked the land on farms and under it in mines. Today they are mainly ridden by children, are excellent in harness and also work in circuses. This is the story of one Shetland gelding named Cheyenne.

Cheyenne was purchased in the summer of 2005 to be a lesson pony. By veterinarian dental exam, he was determined to be about 12 years old at that time. Recent dental examination estimated his age as 12 years old at this time — six years later (In other words, his age is unknown.).

He was bought from a man who raised and worked ponies for pony rides, and had become chronically unwell. The ponies were running amok, with little work and several unplanned pregnancies.

The basic skills required of a pony ride animal are to be quiet while in a harness or under a saddle and to walk while led in circle after circle. It is rather dull work, but ponies get to hang around other ponies and basically move as a team.

A riding pony, on the other hand, must independently walk, trot, canter, jump, turn and, importantly, stop at the request of a small child. Big difference.

I will remind kind readers that ponies are mature, adult animals with their own perspectives, instincts and motives. They possess “pony attitude.”

It is actually not easy to train a good riding pony, especially a mature adult. What you need is a strong little rider with steely nerves who is motivated to make that pony his or her own and some capable adult help. Fortunately for Cheyenne, just such an 8-year-old rider devoted herself to his improvement.

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