I love my pony but he can be a right pain in the neck sometimes. Willow is four years old, a cremello – diluted gene, blue eyes and a cross between a connemara and a welsh. We got him when he was just two after being told he was five but there you go it could have been worse he could be twenty two! Anyway, he was barely broken, couldn’t trot and green as the fields around me but of course we were just as bad, not a great combination you might say but things improved, we learned, experimented, practiced horse riding till our backsides hurt and eventually changed things around.
He is four years old now, doesn’t kick, fairly well-mannered and lively but likes to do his own thing, gets bored and is at times lazy. The other day we were riding him up the field and he kept stopping and starting and going backwards. It was frustrating to say the least. He gets into moods and once he decides he doesn’t want to do something no amount of kicking will make him budge. It was suggested by a farrier that if it happens again, one of us should stand behind him and push him on with a stick just to get him moving or perhaps even lungeing him would do the trick.
Ponies are notoriously stubborn and also very clever, it is difficult to stay calm and not get angry. But I love him to bits and do my best to understand his ways without giving him too much free rein. Willow is very young and immature, hopefully when he’s older he’ll be more experienced, we’ll be more patient and learn to be better companions and teachers for one another.
