On Sun, Jan 14, 2007 at 12:25:44PM -0600, Raven wrote: > >> i recall there being a lot of resistance here on this list to the > idea that i was going to be putting a lot of kids on my icey; that he > would be a bad choice for that b/c of his breed > > I think what upsets some of us, was the fact that you never gave that > horse a chance to adjust to his new home. To settle down, get used to > the routine, give him time to get ot know you, and you know him. You > got him home and threw him into work, right away.
if i'd felt he needed it at the time, i'd have waited until he seemed ready. he adapted very fast. the worse version was when i moved him to his current barn, and the owner has a way of "introducing" horses that kept stjarni stall-bound for most of several days, and he stocked up and was (relatively) excitable under saddle. frankly, he did better being chucked in at the deep end. > And you wanted to > use him as a 3 gaited lesson horse. Had this been me, I would have > gotten a POA, who is 3 gaited. This had nothing to do with the fact > that Stjarni is an IcePony. I believe I would have felt the same if > you had gotten a TWH to use for a walk, trot, canter lesson program. i tried some poa's (my childhood pony was a poa and i love them), but it was stjarni **as an individual** who i thought would be a great, safe lesson horse. i mostly ended up using him as a one-gaited lesson horse, to be honest, that gait being walk. i didn't keep trying to use him for trotting when it became clear that that was difficult. he canters beautifully and readily, and as soon as he got the voice command for that i felt comfortable teaching people to canter on him. (i told them not to care what gait he picked it up from; they were just to sit it regardless of whether he trotted or tolted along the way.) > IMHO..you were very unfair to that poor little pony! And I hope those > "words" speak to you. i was there, and you were not. i can see how you might think this, and tell this story to yourself. but i watched stjarni like a hawk every step of the way, made sure he was never uncomfortable, never unhappy, in his actual expression of himself. and i don't think that's unfair. --vicka
