To Move or Not To Move (That Stormy!)

"To teach a pony to lie down on command requires many steps," Roomie said, "the first, in my experience, is having a book out of the library about it." The student's parent looked amused rather than panicked so she continued "and from there, it's not much different than teaching a dog. In fact, the horses learn the pattern much faster than a dog. But, because the pony is so big, you need ropes to pull and gently push him down, cleverly engingeered like, when you say DOWN."

Roomie remembered the 10 camp kids leaning on that pig of a pony named Stormy with her. With a lunge line rigged the way the book said and they gently pulled a foot up and pushed down. Slowly... a little more and a little more, day after day.

"Mostly because we couldn't do anything ELSE with him, he was so lazy and stubborn. We decided to follow the steps in the book and by the end of the summer we got him to do it. Once." Jill ended the story with a smile

Those camp kids were the same "lifers" that she'd learned other things with. Like, how to be the boss of people who can do things you can't. There were a few kids that seemed to sign up to come every session all summer every year, and so they'd get inventive. Some of the kids in those good old days could canter standing on a horse's butt, with their arms in the air like an air plane. And they invented lots of groovy dismounts in those vaultage days too.

"That pony, by the way, used to buck me off in front of all those camp kids/students every once in a while too. Like they'd be trying to get him across the creek or something and get bucked off one by and one and so then I'd get on him to school him for once and for all and he'd buck me off into the same heap as all them!

With no additional energy expended on his part whatsoever i assure you. he had a quite a practiced knack to my recollection... but back then i considered those episodes my opportunity to demonstrate the "you get back up and get back on" principle.  That stormy!"

Stormy had come to the Top Notch Riding Academy by mistake. He was an apoolosa/shetland pony cross that NOBODY expected, as in he was the accident that they didn't know had happened until the little pony named Mini was just about ready to pop him out!  She was the smallest pony in the whole barn, who lived in standing stall, and, was obviously, accidentally bred one night that renegade Rocky broke of his stall!
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Jill had an offer to move.  So, the landlord horse i could to start riding or hanging out with does tricks on VERBAL command! She had never ever taught a horse to B O W before.,She wondered what shenanigins she could get up to on non-riding school private property, ha.