I started Spring training with our pony. Working with her is the most relaxing thing I do for my mind (body, feels it!) -  you have to be ready in case 850 lbs. decides it wants to jump on your head. I can't think about anything but the pony when I am with her. 

Her baby picture is here; her grown-up photo, here.

I had very good safety training around horses as a child, and the rest comes from spending a good deal of time with them. For example, I never noticed how I am always aware of where a horse's feet are until I started showing that skill to my children.

Once you have a horse with children, you hear every horror story there is about kids getting killed by their horse. It's like when we got the tractor, although I do appreciate the love in all those warnings, and the fact remains the stories are true. We have cared for our pony since the day of her birth, but that does not make us any safer around her. So far, in every death story we've heard, we can pinpoint the safety rule that was broken. Still, accidents can happen.

You can never relax your guard in the presence of a horse. I don't mean you carry fear around: it's like the ocean- a healthy respect, and never turn your back. Most horses are not out to hurt people, but in any given situation they will still respond like a horse: run. This is not an appropriate response for an animal tied up or with a person mounted on its back. The horse picks up your feelings, so with horses you have to learn how to be calm no matter what. It helps you get ready for children!

When I am with the horse (she's a pony, 12.2 hands*) I cannot contemplate lessons, politics, what's for dinner, or anything under the sun. My mind can briefly capture a thought, but then it's back to the pony. I don't mean only while riding or round-penning (more on round penning another time). Yesterday after grooming her, I had her out grazing on a lead-line. I still had to be careful. 

Horses can be trained to be calm in the presence of a human, but it's not foolproof, and in a percieved crisis, the horse will still look to you for comfort- a good horse will. Our 7 year old pony is still not completely there yet. 7 is still an inexperienced age for a horse, and to confuse things more, we are somewhat of her herd to her (also coming up in another post).

She can't be worked until after the farrier comes this morning. We cut back her protein, and now her hoofs are chipped! I'm upping the protein again.

(I realize these posts belong on our homestead blog, but training Ebony our pony has a lot to do with me personally, and there might be some horse lovers here, so I thought I'd keep the thread here. There is a sidebar link to it on our Providence blog, entitled Training Our Pony.)

* a hand = 4 inches. It's a cowboy measurement, the average distance across a man's sideways hand. The measurement goes from the ground up to the wither (where the neck meets the back). Cowboys would just measure with their hands the size of a horse. The measurement is still used today. 12.2 hands means 12 x 4 inches plus 2 more inches, so 50" at the wither (a pony).

  Horse start at 14.2 hands ( I think). Average horses are 15.2  More large riding horses are 16-17 hands.