Gottta share this and pony folk will appreciate it most.
We've had minis for several years. They are loves of my life but they can and do have a mind of their own as I'm sure everyone knows. Just last year we bought a double registered ASPC/AMHR gelding. He can be sweet and he can be stubborn (learning things) but he's nearly always obedient. When I go out in the pasture he is the first to come (even if I don't want him). When they come into the barn as a group, he's out with a mini mare and a mini gelding, he goes right into his own stall. The mare heads for the cat food and the old gelding goes for the hay pile.
We just got 2" of new snowfall yesterday. Hubby feels sorry for the mini boys who are too lazy to run thru the snow so he takes a trip around the pasture with the snowblower. He hadn't done that after this last snow. I like to get the horses in before the temperatures start to fall (hey our high was 19) and so I was out in the barn calling and calling them. It's only a 2 acre pasture -not like they can't see nor hear me. The pony has become my "round up" partner. He gets all excited to come in and gets the others to run so they will come in too. Otherwise the minis stay with their noses buried in the snow and ignore me. Today I call and banged buckets and whistled and made all sorts of noise but the only one that would pay attention was Magic. He ran at the mare and got her going. She took off to one side of the pasture but not into the barn. He ran at the old gelding and even reared like a stallion until the gelding ran - in a little circle and went back to eating. Magic then gave up and stayed with them.
Unhappy with the fact that no one would listen and I'm standing in tennis shoes looking at hiking out thru several inches of cold wet snow, I came up with the idea to take the tractor out with a couple of LONG lead ropes. If I could get the mare and old gelding then Magic would just follow. I figured as long as I'm going out there might as snowblow along the way. Out I go chugging and blowing snow. The minis who are usually unflappable when we mow etc. got all excited and started running around so Magic circled them and headed them into the barn. It was glorious to watch. Except now I'm sitting in the middle of the field on a tractor in the snow (low traction!) with 3 horses loose in the barn! I got there as fast as I could get the machine to move and just in time to head them off as the minis started back toward the door. They could squeeze by the tractor and Magic couldn't. I hollered at him to get back in his stall and he did. I had to catch the other two who both ran into the same stall.
It brought back memories of my younger days when we did things like rounding up the horses that broke through the fence at scout camp. Only now, at my age, wrangling with a tractor is much safer than trying to stay on top of a cutting horse.
We've had minis for several years. They are loves of my life but they can and do have a mind of their own as I'm sure everyone knows. Just last year we bought a double registered ASPC/AMHR gelding. He can be sweet and he can be stubborn (learning things) but he's nearly always obedient. When I go out in the pasture he is the first to come (even if I don't want him). When they come into the barn as a group, he's out with a mini mare and a mini gelding, he goes right into his own stall. The mare heads for the cat food and the old gelding goes for the hay pile.
We just got 2" of new snowfall yesterday. Hubby feels sorry for the mini boys who are too lazy to run thru the snow so he takes a trip around the pasture with the snowblower. He hadn't done that after this last snow. I like to get the horses in before the temperatures start to fall (hey our high was 19) and so I was out in the barn calling and calling them. It's only a 2 acre pasture -not like they can't see nor hear me. The pony has become my "round up" partner. He gets all excited to come in and gets the others to run so they will come in too. Otherwise the minis stay with their noses buried in the snow and ignore me. Today I call and banged buckets and whistled and made all sorts of noise but the only one that would pay attention was Magic. He ran at the mare and got her going. She took off to one side of the pasture but not into the barn. He ran at the old gelding and even reared like a stallion until the gelding ran - in a little circle and went back to eating. Magic then gave up and stayed with them.
Unhappy with the fact that no one would listen and I'm standing in tennis shoes looking at hiking out thru several inches of cold wet snow, I came up with the idea to take the tractor out with a couple of LONG lead ropes. If I could get the mare and old gelding then Magic would just follow. I figured as long as I'm going out there might as snowblow along the way. Out I go chugging and blowing snow. The minis who are usually unflappable when we mow etc. got all excited and started running around so Magic circled them and headed them into the barn. It was glorious to watch. Except now I'm sitting in the middle of the field on a tractor in the snow (low traction!) with 3 horses loose in the barn! I got there as fast as I could get the machine to move and just in time to head them off as the minis started back toward the door. They could squeeze by the tractor and Magic couldn't. I hollered at him to get back in his stall and he did. I had to catch the other two who both ran into the same stall.
It brought back memories of my younger days when we did things like rounding up the horses that broke through the fence at scout camp. Only now, at my age, wrangling with a tractor is much safer than trying to stay on top of a cutting horse.
