Ponying a young horse is a perfect tool for developing strong hooves, muscle, bone, and confidence. If you are planning to start a trail or endurance prospect it is an invaluable tool for a number of reasons:
- Horses learn to carry themselves over varied terrain without the weight of a rider interfering with balance
- It helps them get accustomed to having a person “above” them
- It allows a long, slow distance workout
- It instills confidence in the young horse by being able to follow along with a more experienced buddy
- It teaches them proper manners while moving next to other horses
- It allows you to work two horses at once.
Randy and Cheryl Winter* of Longmont, Co have been ponying the filly they raised since before she was weaned (see photo.). “Ellie” is now 20 months old and is already doing five and six mile routines. Randy feels that it is essential to get horses out and start putting in some distance. “That way,” he says, “It’s not some big surprise when you [start riding] them and expect them to go out [of their relatively small pasture or paddock] for miles and miles. They just figure it’s no big deal—they’ve done it before.” Regardless of whether you want a trail horse, a jumper, endurance horse or western pleasure mount, ponying is invaluable for helping young horses with balance, body development, and fear issues.
“Hoof boots are an important part of the workout,” says Randy. “You want your young horses to have a great experience. If they are hurt because they weren’t wearing boots and got a stone bruise, or are tender-footed and you didn’t protect their feet, you’ve just given them a bad experience.” It only takes one or two of these and a horse will figure out it’s not so much fun to go out anymore. Horses that hurt often become reluctant, spooky and willful. And you’ve just gone backwards in your training. Why risk it?
In order to properly pony a horse you need to be a competent rider, have a quiet and tolerant pony horse, and your youngster should be well halter broke and know how to move off of pressure. The details are too lengthy to write about here, but Cherry Hill and myhorse.com have articles on the web, and other resources are available.
Easyboots and Epics both come in very small sizes to accommodate young horse’s feet.
*Randy and Cheryl Winter own Max Tack and have been EasyCare dealers for over 20 years. They are experienced boot users and are now riding in Easyboot Gloves. Ellie wears Easyboots. Randy and Cheryl can be reached at (303) 651-1574 cherylrandyw@earthlink.net (Longmont, Co).
