Ponying a Pony

One of my goals for Pixel, is that he will be a good companion for Gentry. Like it or not, Gentry hates our outdoor arena. It is in our park, and it is surrounded by mature Cottonwood trees and brush; forest if you like. It is far enough from home that he can't see our place, but not so far that he can't hear the other horses if they call. In addition, he is quite certain that a mountain lion will jump out and eat him. Every. Single. Time. He is fine in our arena if there is another horse present, and he is fine alone in every other arena I have hauled him to.

After several years of dealing with this non-sense, and spending 20 minutes of every ride "working through it", I have finally thrown in the towel. My plan at present is to pony Pixel to the arena with us and tie him up while I ride Gentry. Then I'll tie up Gentry and work with Pixel. The one caveat of that plan, is that I need to be able to pony Pixel.

Today was my first attempt at ponying off of Gentry.

Last time I ponied a horse, was 15 years ago, and it was three polo ponies at once! This was sure to be a piece of cake comparatively.

Both boys did great! Despite the fact that I haven't fully integrated Pixel into the herd yet, he and Gentry had been turned out together for an hour prior to our ride, and had been getting along well, so I wasn't too worried about fireworks. After mounting up and grabbing Pixel's lead, I could tell that Gentry hasn't ponied another horse before, but he figured it out quickly. It also helped that Pixel knew what was going on, even if he was a bit eager and wanted to be right up front with Gentry. I was happy to see that they swiftly settled into a nice rhythm, with Pixel walking politely alongside my leg. Since things were going well, we did a lap around our pasture and headed down the road for a nice 45 min ponying ride at the walk - trot.