Part of the idea of getting a young horse while I still have Fetti around is that Fetti can speak experienced horse to her and explain that life is not terrifying and we do weird things sometimes.

Fetti is loud and clear but also polite with her turnout corrections. The first two weeks involved running Polly off with pinned ears and occasionally bared teeth. Then all three ponies were let loose in the round pen, we eventually asked for basic w/t/c, they eventually sorted out some of their differences.

The other pony involved here is like Switzerland. She’s neutral, unbothered by other horses, sometimes lets herself get pushed around. We were pleasantly surprised when she double barreled Polly and connected! after Polly tried to mount her. Both walked away sound and hopefully miss Polly learned from it.

Once turnouts seemed to be going reasonably well, I started working on ponying. Attempt #1 consisted of “F YOU” from Confetti as soon as we got close to Polly when tied. We practiced standing instead and went on a trail ride without the baby.

It’s been better from there. I have ponied other horses off Fetti in the past. She doesn’t really neck rein, but she is solid on leg cues and generally works with me when my signals are all discombobulated. Polly got some cranky looks but they’ve been surprisingly civil.

So we went to the park.

I can’t remember if I blogged it or not, but Polly’s first park experience was.. eventful. I hiked across the river with her and she went right in. The wedding photographer and gear were thirty seconds into the actual park. Then three horses needed to pass us. Big pony eyes. Big pony ears. Not a ton of focus. Thomas train whistles semi-constantly. Hikers with dogs. Runners without dogs. Frankly, she did way better than I expected given all the chaos, and in some ways better than Fetti would have.

For our evening ponying ride, it was quiet. She followed right in to the river, halted periodically, looked a bit but was super, super polite. Several hikers, a couple runners, one hiker with dog. One time passing horses going the opposite direction. Both mares were foot-perfect (aside from Fetti diving for grass since my hands were full). Knock on wood, but we’re off to a promising start.