My first time ponying a horse

August 14 / 2007 01:52 PM Filed in: Trail Riding
I've never ponied a horse before, other than for about ten minutes in an arena, but I needed to get three horses to a trail head today and I only have a two horse trailer. So I decided that my friend Jane would ride Belle, and I'd ride Kelton and pony Ivy. I figured if we got down the road and things got hectic, we could always turn around and call the people we were meeting at the trail head. Or I could've gotten off and led both Kelton and Ivy by their halters. But it all went well! I have no idea if Kelton has ever ponied a horse before, but I know Ivy's never been ponied, and they both acted like old pros.

We had to ride through a cow pasture that now has cows in it, so that meant we had to open the hot wire gate on one end and a metal gate at the other. That was pretty uncomplicated on the way out because the cows were well out of the way, but on the way back the cows were crowded around the hot wire gate. So I pointed Kelton and Ivy towards them and we pushed the cows away! I'm pretty sure neither of them have ever done that before. Then, because Jane needed both hands to handle the hot wire gate, I ponied both Ivy and Belle through the gate and up the driveway a bit. I can see how ponying could go really wrong, but I'm glad everything went right today! I look forward to ponying Britta on some trails.

I put a photo of me ponying Ivy off of Kelton on Ivy's photos page. I also added a photo of Laura riding Ivy.
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