Post by bellajack on Mar 16, 2007 21:30:29 GMT -1
Daloumie Crackerjack is 6 years old going on 32! He doesn't believe in wasting energy on anything as trivial as work.
His favorite word is whoa and anything with a 'wh' in it will produce a sliding stop any western horse would be proud of. It doesn't have to be me saying it, any passer-by uttering a 'wh' sound will do.
If I don't concentrate when riding him very strange things happen! Solid objects leap out in front of him forcing him to stop. He is very apologetic about this, but when the tree, hedge, brick wall, fence, telegraph pole or whatever insisted in blocking his path when I had momentarily nodded off due to the slow ploddy rocking motion going on underneath me, what else could he do?
Now I thought this was pretty d**n smart of him but he managed to surpass himself on long reins. I had been doing a lot of trotting, running along behind him which he was mostly quite happy about, apart from a few 'wh' sounds which he heard and I didn't causing me to run into his bum when I hadn't anticipated a sliding stop.
However when I got puffed and dropped out to one side so I could make him trot on a circle around me, he obviously decided this was unequal division of labour (yes I do lunge him but I still have to run around with him if I want to get anything approaching a working trot and to have any chance of getting him to canter I have to canter as well. If you are thinking that it's a good job that I'm an athletic 15yo, I am actually 50!). I could see that he was having a little think but was totally gob smacked by what he came up with next.
He thought he heard the 'wh' sound and stopped. I told him that he was mistaken and to move on. He tried very hard to do so but although I thought I was steering him forwards he assured me that I was actually pulling him round in a circle on the spot, and unfortunately this meant that his legs got totally tied together by the reins, so he could only stand and wait to be untangled. He had no choice!!
I could not believe that he had deliberately tied all four of his own legs together. I untangled him, told him that he was a good boy for not getting into a panic, and sent him off again. One circuit later he went through the same routine again! I was in the presence of a superior being! I managed to keep a firmer hold on the outside rein the 3rd and 4th time he tried it and steered him out of it so, with a sigh, he abandoned that particular cunning plan.
Just how intelligent are these Dales Ponies? I am thinking of enrolling him with MENSA. It is all done with great politeness and he looks at me with this 'so sorry but it's really not my fault, I don't know how it happened' look on his face, that all I can do is laugh.
Will somebody please tell me that they had a pony just like him and by the time it got to 6 and a half it got all keen and forward going - please!!!!!
His favorite word is whoa and anything with a 'wh' in it will produce a sliding stop any western horse would be proud of. It doesn't have to be me saying it, any passer-by uttering a 'wh' sound will do.
If I don't concentrate when riding him very strange things happen! Solid objects leap out in front of him forcing him to stop. He is very apologetic about this, but when the tree, hedge, brick wall, fence, telegraph pole or whatever insisted in blocking his path when I had momentarily nodded off due to the slow ploddy rocking motion going on underneath me, what else could he do?
Now I thought this was pretty d**n smart of him but he managed to surpass himself on long reins. I had been doing a lot of trotting, running along behind him which he was mostly quite happy about, apart from a few 'wh' sounds which he heard and I didn't causing me to run into his bum when I hadn't anticipated a sliding stop.
However when I got puffed and dropped out to one side so I could make him trot on a circle around me, he obviously decided this was unequal division of labour (yes I do lunge him but I still have to run around with him if I want to get anything approaching a working trot and to have any chance of getting him to canter I have to canter as well. If you are thinking that it's a good job that I'm an athletic 15yo, I am actually 50!). I could see that he was having a little think but was totally gob smacked by what he came up with next.
He thought he heard the 'wh' sound and stopped. I told him that he was mistaken and to move on. He tried very hard to do so but although I thought I was steering him forwards he assured me that I was actually pulling him round in a circle on the spot, and unfortunately this meant that his legs got totally tied together by the reins, so he could only stand and wait to be untangled. He had no choice!!
I could not believe that he had deliberately tied all four of his own legs together. I untangled him, told him that he was a good boy for not getting into a panic, and sent him off again. One circuit later he went through the same routine again! I was in the presence of a superior being! I managed to keep a firmer hold on the outside rein the 3rd and 4th time he tried it and steered him out of it so, with a sigh, he abandoned that particular cunning plan.
Just how intelligent are these Dales Ponies? I am thinking of enrolling him with MENSA. It is all done with great politeness and he looks at me with this 'so sorry but it's really not my fault, I don't know how it happened' look on his face, that all I can do is laugh.
Will somebody please tell me that they had a pony just like him and by the time it got to 6 and a half it got all keen and forward going - please!!!!!
!
