Pretty Farthing is a Welsh pony cross Dartmoor and has the best of both breeds. He's beautiful and on the ground he's rather sweet. He loves all of the attention he gets from his little handler.
Like a lot of ponies he has learned to push people out of the way with his nose - after all they're blocking his eye sight - and to walk into their space to be petted. Both of these behaviour are totally normal and often inadvertently reinforced by the people around them. A cute and 'cheeky' pony is hard to resist one way or the other.
We worked on both of these things and made sure that he got plenty of lovely rubs for just standing still and looking charming.
When ridden he can be quite challenging for a small person with little muscles. In the past he has pulled (or rather pushed) a trap and therefore known his own strength. Moving away from the gate he's quiet and slow but on the way back he tends to rush...
...and then tends to nap when asked to move away from the gate again. It's really not easy for a little dot to answer this behaviour when each pull of the saddle launches her out of the saddle. However, showing A how to move her hands up and down the reins helped a little and we've talked about using Daisy reins.
For now it is no good just engaging with his no as this will just perfect his technique even further. So for now A needs to ride in this particular area on the lead rein but it can be really loose and just an anchor for when he chooses to nap.
In the meantime the adults in his life can work on retraining him with techniques such as short reining and long reining which he should find easy.
Ponies like water will always try to take the easiest way down the stream and little rocks like A are not much of a barrier.
After a long session he went out like all grey ponies to have a roll...
...and then cantered off down the field to his friends.
"Thank you so much for today. My head is buzzing with all the new information. I enjoy learning. Please thank Tracey for all the excellent pictures. They tell a story and jog my memory. I will carry on with the work and complete all the reading." SCThe blue tits are continuing with their daily endeavour, finding food for their young.
The donkey foal is testing her springs...
and this one is taking refreshment...
...before leading everyone a merry dance.
