Shitlands, the spawn of satan, brats, arseholes, dickhead, morons, ************* Un-typable things for a website – I think 99% of us who have dealt with, ridden, or worked with ponies will have used one of the above – or all of the above terms.  And although horses can MORE than earn these titles as well – they just never seem to get the same flack that the ponies do.

Before I go any further with this article – I’ll be totally honest about my own two mini Shetlands.  They have been called every name under the sun – there are days when I could happily kill them – but I felt it important to write this article – because even though I had ponies as a young kid, I didn’t have the same understanding of them as I do now.. I moved onto horses at the age of 12 – and never owned anything smaller than a 16.2 – until I had to step out of the saddle and suddenly found myself as a mum to two of the smallest ponies I’d ever seen standing at 7 and 8hh.  As an owner and rider that never enforced unnecessary punishment on any of my bigger horses, I found myself handling these two like eggs… petrified that any too strong a movement would break them… particularly when they both needed extra gentle handling being two rescue ponies… but it led me to share my thoughts here..

Ponies are a lot smaller than horses – often smaller than the humans that handle them. It is very very easy to drag or pull a pony along and this can cause them to physically worry,  I mean think about it – how many times have you had to haul a small pony along behind you – when the pony is just confused or upset or even scared by the approach – which is mostly totally unintentional by the handler. We as humans can then confuse this behaviour for stubbornness or pure brazenness on their behalf – often making an already unintended volatile situation worse and resulting in the handler getting frustrated and the pony more upset.

Think about it – when handling a 16.2hh – putting pressure on a lead rope is very different from an 8hh pony. What a horse deems as a gentle tug, can result in a small pony thinking they’re being strangled, or upset them due to unnecessary force, making them not want to follow. Putting your full weight against a big horse, asking them to move over – is literally just that – a small percentage of the horses own body weight being used against him, but doing that to a pony – and again it’s something I see a lot – is people launching themselves against them – will actually result in the pony being pushed, or even knocked off balance… and the reaction is often, fight or flight.  

I know I have learned so much in the dispersion of my strength and weight from handling my two minis – and neither of my ponies are ever fearful  because of this learning – there are times, when I just catch myself in time, from dragging one of them along because they’re not keeping up – but just being a conscious handler will soon become forefront of the mind.

So whether you are just starting off in the handling of your own small ponies – or maybe after buying one for your child – I would hope this article will give people a different perspective on these little ponies – don’t get me wrong – they will try your patience and test you like you never imagined – but being an aware handler, is going to make both your time together so much more peaceful, better and stress free.

Ponies are the absolute best and I’m not for a second saying they won’t deserve a smack, because god knows a lot of them do and just because they’re small and cute, cannot be the reason why they don’t have manners- particularly if they’re prone to nipping etc –   but if you must – just do it with care always remembering that just because they have four hooves a mane and a tail – doesn’t make them the same as their bigger comrades!!