Hi shorthorsemom~!
I've decided to split and answer some of your points separately, rather than try to do it via paragraph... I see you've edited it since I first saw it but didn't have time to respond (should be outside again now, but... resting the sunburn from this morning).
She must have a decent background of training to stand calmly with a flipped cart and a leg over the shaft while you took those photos.
I would like to say yes, she did have LOTS of work - not just in driving, but in all manner of ground manners as she didn't seem to have any when she arrived. I know who foaled her out, I know what they did with her and I know what was done with her with the woman whom I got her from. I was shocked by her "lack of manners" when I picked her up. She was not quite 2 yrs old. She was a complete .... ummm.... BUTTHEAD. I've owned ponies and horses for almost 40 years now and i have never been stepped on or run into as much as she did. She was actually very difficult to work with - took forever to get her to stay out of our space. I know she seemed to like running into and knocking Vicki down at first! I worked with her in 2012 a lot. Sometimes daily with very concentrated works, then she'd have time off - yes, I knew she was a baby. I wish now that I had taken her with us when we went driving off our property! She'd have learned a lot - if my driving ponies could have put up with her (debatable!). She was also worked by my daughters a handful of times - I wasn't real happy with our youngest and my SIL (other daughter's hubby) putting the two granddaughters on her when they did... I wasn't there then...
Many driving horses would have never stopped and paused if they had had a wreck like that, they would have exploded until humans and carts were reduced to injury and breakage. I looked at your whole album and you are quite lucky.
You are right - on both or all 3 counts. BUT again, we've spent time working with each one. I am usually caught by surprise when we've had an "explosion" - though if I go back and look thru pictures, I will usually recognize problems we MAYBE should have recognized ahead of time. I'm far from perfect. As is, I spend a lot of time doing ground work on each of our ponies. Honestly, we've had several explosions, and in some cases, accidents, from/with different ponies. Each has stopped - long before destroying equipment - when they've been "in-trouble" and "need help". I've even had several trainers tell me I spend way too much time doing ground work and just need to get some of these ponies hitched and going down the road - working. I don't agree and am not comfortable with that.
I hope you find out what is upsetting her...I would go way back in her training and go forward again very slowly.
I'm not really sure we need to go "way back in her training"... I feel that there are a couple of specific issues we are looking at right now (very specifically -working in blinders and getting back to getting some more flexing/giving). Of course, I could be wrong.
I would also check teeth and for any other medical reasons first ,
I have had her teeth checked - both last fall and earlier this spring (September 2013 & late Feb 2014) and according to my vet, she is fine. HOWEVER, I've got some things I don't agree with this vet about (she doesn't seem to like doing teeth at all and really seems to "put off" doing the smaller ones...). Ami IS going to my previous vet for a good look at her teeth AND a chiropractic work up the end of July. YAY!!!
not trying to fry you, I didn't take it that way, but thank you for saying it!
kind of you to reach out and share and educate.
There are several "newbies" lately that i felt some of these would be educational. That was why I chose to do the write up and post those pictures.
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Your original post also commented about the picture taking or that the person taking the pics should be helping with the pony... I can't remember how you worded it exactly .
Vicki and I used to work our ponies together
several times a week -
EVERY WEEK - in 2010 and 2011. Things changed for both of us in 2012 - I spent some time on the road with both ponies (had 3 Foundation Classic ponies and 1 Mini/ASPC w/ trainers and being shown - 1 made it to Congress and the other went to Nationals - as did I) and family and she was just starting to have to do some care-taking for her father. When we did get together - one or the other of us would stop sometimes and take pictures while the other working AND THEN we'd swap ponies and take more - fun and educational! We've got TONS of pictures - most never get "fixed" (cropped/resized for being able to post) - don't like what we are wearing (I had one pic where my shirt and bra had issues - hubby appreciated it - I deleted it from EVERYTHING - LOL), decided that that just didn't show us at anything "good", the horse is just "not showing right", could have been a good pic - but anywhere from a little to a lot blurred, or we've cut off legs, heads, tails, cart - etc... Our most recent pics definitely show my weight gain and also that vicki is having issues with her back (though she's lost a GREAT amount of weight!!). Both of us are a little "touchy" about sharing some...
BUT Vicki's granddaughter's have gotten a little older (imagine that) and now aren't as interested in really riding or caring for the ponies or full size horses, but they do like taking pictures. They have caught some "doozies" - both at some of the events we've been at and with our own ponies. Neither of these young ladies has enough experience with the ponies themselves and no safe knowledge/understanding of things that can go wrong with the ponies while driving. The best place for Jasmin WAS outside the roundpen, behind the camera. I sure appreciated the 100s of photos she's taken and shared with me!! I forgot to put the copyright info on those photos like I normally do. I need to go back and do that... I was not at Vicki's the day these photos were taken. There are others yet, that I have to get from Vicki/her granddaughters.
If folks look at the
dates, these pics were taken - you will see that they were taken some 9 months ago. Ami was worked thru this problem at that time for a number of works and never did have another problem like that (at that time) and seemed to be coming along well. However, there were things going on then and I felt that she needed time at that point to mature and that is a lot of the reason when she came home that she didn't get much work and I didn't hitch her to a cart (plus in the nasty weather, my cart stayed over at Vicki's...
). I did, however, pull her out and start working her again earlier this spring some - first single pulling a tire. Then she was paired up with Cupid - and he was the one at that time having a problem. He was VERY put out that we were asking him to work with another pony. He did work with his sire (no longer with us and NO pictures of them as a pair,
) and with another pony last fall - KoKo. After dealing with some things with Ami, he has worked the best with her. He was awesome this past week while working her with him...
Some of our 3 yr olds have done really, really well working. Some have obviously needed time to "grow up" and become mature. All receive a certain amount of work and even when going well - they get breaks or time off or whatever you want to call it... Simply to be "baby horses". Plus I have had some health issues, currently have a lot of ponies and have a different job - all meaning that some of that time off is ... "forced"
My hubby and I currently own 26 head of equine - and I am the only one taking care of them. 2 are full sized horses, one a shet/arab x that is 13 hh, the rest are "my shetlands"... Yes, this year, I'm finding out that I simply have way too many. I haven't bred any mares since 2012... Part of me misses the babies, but I need to be able to do things with the ones I've got and I now fully understand that, LOL. Of those numbers, most are under 5 yrs of age!
Thank you for pointing some things out to us - both vicki and I. We are continuing to learn. I was able to take some more lessons in late 2012 - but it's been a while and I want to go back. Eventually, I want to take some specific lessons with specific ponies - Ami as a single is one of them. I would eventually like to show her in driving - aspc/amhr and ??CDE??... And maybe as a pair with Cupid (however, he's not double registered AMHR like she is). Time, more training, time, conditioning, time...
Neither Ami nor Cupid is the laid back pony like Cupid's dam or like some of our much larger Shetlands. I expect they will always be a "spicy" pair. Cupid's full brother is maturing and I'm very excited by him.
BUT he looks to be similar to Cupid in personality, so I fully expect to see some of the same things when we start him in harness.
Right now, he's just learning basic handling and is a year old. He's not had any of the concentrated handling that Cupid had by this same age, so things could get real interesting.
