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Pony Power!



Thanks to all who responded about my wonderful ride on Jynx this past weekend.

Just wanted to let you know that she recuperated wonderfully from her 25 
miles, and looks better than ever. (In spite of the fact she hoovered grass 
the whole time she was there, her belly shrank up real good)

In regards to the posts about ponies being tougher than horses, you won't get 
an argument from me.  I drove a team of small shetlands in the local draft 
horse club and had a wonderful time at the fair that year.

We pulled a wagon, logs, and did the dead weight pull, all against draft 
horses, with the exception of a pair of POA's, who still out-weighed my team 
by nearly 800 lbs!

During the weight pull, which involves progressivly loading weight onto a 
flat skid (called a stoneboat) your team must pull the weight a distance of 
15 feet to continue to the next round.

We pulled against the POA's, starting at 250 lbs.  We got to 2500 lbs before 
we couldn't "go the distance" But my team made it over ten feet at that 
weight.

Also of note is the fact that you can't hit the horses in any way to make 
them pull.  It's all voice command.  You may not even slap the lines on their 
rumps.  What a thrill it is to have a partnership like that!

The two ponies I had at the time were a 22 year old backyard shetland that a 
freind of mine rescued off a kill truck for a bottle of whiskey and another 
backyard shetland brought to me by the local animal control after someone had 
abandoned her and another horse by tying them to a tree and moving out of 
state.  (The horse tied with her died)  Between the two of them, their weight 
was 850.

Another interesting thing is that in pulling 2500 lbs, my little team pulled 
three times their body weight, but the Big Boys, whose teams weighed from 
3200 to 4000 lbs got to about 3800lbs before they quit.  That's only about 
half their body weight!

The 22 year old pony routinely pulled over 1000lbs of grain from the driveway 
to the barn on a stoneboat, before we had the road to the barn.  It was about 
250 feet. She also hauled manure at least once a week, was driven to cart 4-5 
times a week, 5-15 miles with me and the kids, and was ridden too.  All this 
on a few pounds of oats, and limited pasture!

When I pulled at the fair, many, many, people talked to me afterwards about 
how surprised they were by the amount of work the team could do.  Boy were 
they surprised to learn that Ginger, the older pony, had already been shown 
in light harness in 6 classes that day! To top it all off, it was 104 in the 
arena that day, and the ponies were just a little "hot under the collar" when 
I was done.

Once in a while I would get nasty comments about "How mean it was" to use the 
ponies like that.  Nearly always it was from someone who knew nothing about 
horses.
My point to people is always that I feel it is much better to use a pony, 
than to let it starve or founder in the pasture.  I can't begin to tell you 
how many ponies I have resued over the years. And with the exception of two, 
(one who died of a blood clot three weeks after severly foundering, and one 
who had to be destroyed when his coffin bones fell through the soles) all of 
them were rehabilitated, went to good homes, and were used well.

I have always said that if you crossed backyard shetlands with arabs, you 
would get indestructible endurance horses.  Jynx probably doesn't have any 
arab in her, but she still proves that ponies can go the distance!

Julie, Rayna and Jynx the Wonder Pony


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