The title of an article about some new research read “Fat Ponies Will Work for Food.”  Ponies being in the title certainly caught my attention.  And I’m thrilled that ponies are meriting the attention of researchers.  I was, though, disappointed at the implied surprise that ponies are willing to work.  Ponies of course have a long and storied working history.  Nonetheless, I read the article to learn what the researchers had found.

Researchers in Australia constructed a feeder that had two sides with sliding doors.  Overweight ponies were given access to the feeder, and after consuming a small amount of hay, the door was automatically closed on one side and opened on the other.  The ponies had to walk around the feeder to access the other door.  The feeder design resulted in 3.7 times more distance traveled per day.  It also resulted in a decrease in body condition score, a decrease in cresty neck score, and a decrease in body fat percentage.  That’s all obviously really good news.  For those ponies that were food motivated, the feeder design also resulted in improved insulin sensitivity, also good news. (1)

Keeping weight off ponies who aren’t in regular work is a challenge for all of us.  Melody de Laat, PhD, BVSc, of the Queensland University of Technology, in Brisbane, said, “Low-intensity exercise of enough duration can be difficult to achieve in ponies that are not ridden regularly, if at all. The dynamic feeder enables a pony owner to exercise their pony without longeing or walking the pony.”  de Laat added, “If owners don’t have access to a dynamic feeding system they could consider walking their pony by hand—just bring him along on the daily dog walk.”  (2)

A quick internet search suggests that a dynamic feeding system isn’t readily available, but there are other ways to get ponies to do low-intensity exercise on their own.  I have had great success feeding on a track system (click here and here for articles on the subject.)  In the Australian study, they got the ponies to walk for two hours twice daily.  My track feeding system has the ponies walking one hour four times a day.  And while the researchers found benefits to physical health, I have also found that the increased movement has benefits for mental health.

Although the title of the article wasn’t entirely accurate – the ponies walked for their food, they didn’t work for it - the title did do the job of enticing me to read further.  And the research expanded my appreciation for the benefits of getting ponies to move on their own.  It is so important for both physical and mental health that ponies move in the course of their day, either through work or being encouraged to do so otherwise.  Anything that can help owners help their ponies with that objective is helpful indeed.

1. Janicki, Kristin M. “Study:  Fat Ponies Will Work for Food,” thehorse.com article #136575, 9/18/17.  And de Laat et al, “Sustained, Low‐Intensity Exercise Achieved by a Dynamic Feeding System Decreases Body Fat in Ponies,” Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, Sep-Oct 2016, at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5032883/
2. Same as #1.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2018

More stories about sharing life with ponies can be found in my book The Partnered Pony:  What's Possible, Practical, and Powerful with Small Equines, available internationally by clicking  here or on the book cover.

The sheriff’s office called just as I was starting chores before sunset.  The dispatcher said my husband had broken down in the back country.  His message had been scratchy, so there wasn’t much detail except that he was getting a ride back to the shop where his truck was parked.  It had been a nice day, and the ponies were all still sunbathing, so I decided marital duty could take precedence over pony feeding, and I headed out to help restore some order to my husband’s day.

When I returned, it was just dark, but the nearly full moon was up and brightly shining.  I fetched my chore pony Rose for our normal ride down the driveway, but it really wasn’t normal since I didn’t remember ever having ridden her after dark before.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it turned out that I got exactly what I needed.

I was still on edge from having my chore routine disrupted and potentially the next day’s plans disrupted too by the need to get parts for the machine.  Rose is very perceptive of my moods, so I tried to calm myself while putting on her tack before our ride.  The ride down the driveway was uneventful, her fast walk taking us to our destination in good time.  I thanked her for not playing games or being uppity about the late hour. 

As I fed the ponies at the far paddock to which we’d ridden, the familiar routine further calmed me, so that when I mounted to go back up the driveway, I was able to take in the beauty of the moment.  Rose was well-behaved about getting back up the hill to her own dinner.  We were riding towards the rising moon, its light reflecting off the snow-covered landscape.  I was finally able to take a deep breath and realize how lucky I was to be doing what I was doing:  riding a pony of my own breeding, out on a beautiful winter’s night under the nearly full moon. 

When we arrived back at Rose’s paddock, I dismounted and thanked her for our outing.  I hadn’t known what to expect when I asked her to head out after dark, but her gift of a perfect ride was exactly what I needed.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2018

My first Moonlight Ride story is in the book A Humbling Experience, available internationally by clicking here or by clicking on the book cover.

Lady pushing a bigger pony away from me.

I prefer to run my ponies in herds whenever possible because it’s so much better for their mental health.  There are challenges with that practice, though.  For instance, when I give feed buckets, each one customized to an individual pony, in my largest paddock I have to tie the ponies to a fence to make sure each pony gets the bucket meant for them.  I’ve been doing this long enough that the ponies present themselves in the proper order when I appear with an armload of halters and lead ropes which definitely makes the job easier.

Recently, though, the ‘proper order’ for tying has been disrupted.  The ‘proper order’ is to tie the most dominant pony first and then to tie the next most dominant pony, and then the next most dominant pony, etc., working my way through the herd.  This ‘proper order’ ensures the safety of the tied ponies because dominant ponies will take advantage of other restrained ponies and attempt to kick, bite, or otherwise hassle them.  It’s my responsibility to make sure everyone stays safe and feels safe.

Willowtrail Moonlit Lady is six months old and is in the largest paddock with four mares.  She has thoroughly disrupted my tying routine.  Before I understood her ‘position’ in the herd, I caught her backing into and trying to kick a tied pony who was much bigger and older and that I mistakenly thought was therefore more dominant.  So now I tie Lady second, after the lead mare.  But then often when I move to tie mare #2, I’ve caught mare #3 approaching Lady with threatening postures.  So far I’ve been able to intervene before Lady gets hurt.

Obviously tying ponies to the fence has become quite complicated in that paddock.  Instead of relying on an inherent order to keep things safe, I have to have eyes in the back of my head to make sure no one is getting hassled by an untied pony!  Fortunately with only five in that paddock, I can get the haltering and tying done quickly enough that I don’t have to run interference too much.  I judge the location of mares #2 and #3 after tying Lady, often tying #3 before #2. 

I never realized how lucky I was previously to have a clear dominance order for tying.  Life is certainly more interesting now that my tying order is disordered!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2018

There are lots of stories like this one in the book The Partnered Pony:  What's Possible, Practical and Powerful with Small Equines, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover..

Each year during the holidays we take time out to thank the ponies for their presence in our lives.  We had planned to express our gratitude on Christmas Day, but we had the kind of white Christmas when snow blows sideways and no one was really in the mood for that kind of interaction.  It was much more enjoyable the day after Christmas!

Because we feed apples and carrots to the ponies during this ritual, we call it wassailing.  One pony will take carrots and not apples, and three ponies this year didn’t want either treat.  That didn’t stop us from expressing our appreciation for them!  Enjoy the pictures!

Guards Apollo

Kinniside Asi

Willowtrail Mountain Honey

Willowtrail Moonlit Lady

Restar Lucky Joe

Willowtrail Spring Maiden

Bowthorne Matty

Mya the Wonder Pony

Willowtrail Wild Rose

Restar Mountain Shelley III

Old Hickory Torrin (Fjord)

The Wassailing Basket

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2017

There are more stories about how ponies enrich our lives at the holidays and at other times of the year in the books What an Honor:  A Dozen Years with Fell Ponies and The Partnered Pony:  What's Possible, Practical, and Powerful with Small Equines, available by clicking on the book covers or titles.  Happy New Year!

We were arriving home from taking a filly to town for her pre-travel health check.  I was looking forward to a few moments to relax and celebrate how well the four-month-old had done on her journey.  I was especially impressed because the wind had been buffeting the trailer mightily on the trip.  I was only slightly surprised, then, to see a tree blown down in one of the pony paddocks as we came up the driveway.  Sight was faster than thought – it took a moment to realize that there were no ponies in the paddock because the fallen tree had taken out the fence.  So much for the few moments of peace I’d been looking forward to!

As we pulled in to park, I scanned the landscape for the two missing geldings.  I figured they were somewhere eating, since geldings rarely have anything else on their minds.  As I unloaded the filly and started taking her to the mare paddock, sure enough my prediction proved accurate.  Torrin, my nineteen-year-old, had found his way around a fence into a haystack!  I knew then that I needn’t rush to catch him since he wasn’t likely to go anywhere.  And just as predictably, his paddock-mate was parked at that hay stack when I arrived with halters.  In situations like that, you gotta love a gelding.  So predictable!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2017

You can find more stories like this one in the book The Partnered Pony:  What's Possible, Practical, and Powerful with Small Equines, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

I’ve just put the finishing touches on a new book on equine draft harness, so I’m facing the term teamster quite often.  In the past, I’ve done significant draft work with my ponies, and there are a number of photos of my ponies at work (or as models for harness) in the book.  This year, though, I’ve spent a lot more time thinking about packing with my ponies than working them in harness.  Which got me thinking about words.  When someone puts their draft horses to work, they’re called a teamster.  But when someone puts their ponies to work, what are they called? 

Yes, when we put our ponies to draft work, we can be called teamsters.  And when we pack our ponies, we’re packmen or packwomen.  And when we drive or ride, we’re drivers or riders.  But I wondered, what would the word be to encompass all the ways that a single pony and person can work together?

Ponies seem to me to be unique in this regard.  They are so versatile – ride/drive/draft/pack and maybe more – that a single person-pony pair can do many things together.   On the other hand, there don’t seem to be many people doing this range of work with their ponies, or maybe they’re too busy working together to make their accomplishments public!

We were talking to a rancher the other day, and he told us about a wonderful horse he’d owned until it died of old age.  “The worst thing about a horse like that,” he said, “is you spend the rest of your life trying to find another one as good.”  We commiserated about the truth of that statement and shared a few stories back and forth about our once-in-a-lifetime partners.  Mya the Wonder Pony is the one I shared about; she still sets the standard in terms of heart when it comes to work and also willingness to do just about anything I’ve asked her to do.  The story about her helping me move a rattlesnake when I lived in southern Colorado made the rancher squirm.  Like my husband, he lives here in North Park because we don’t have snakes!

I hope someone someday will tell me a word like teamster that encompasses all the ways that a single pony and person can work together.  After talking to the rancher, though, I’ve come up with a stand-in:  lucky.  When we have a pony that is willing to do a wide range of work with us including those occasional odd jobs like moving a rattlesnake, we are lucky indeed!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2017

My book The Partnered Pony celebrates the many ways that my ponies have worked with me.  It is available internationally by clicking here or on the cover.

The book about harness that I mention here is available by clicking here or on the cover.

Klibbers are the traditional pack saddles of the Shetland Isles and Shetland ponies.  In the September 2017 issue of Fell Pony News from Willowtrail Farm, adapting klibbers to larger ponies was described.  Highlights:

• As anyone who has tried to do real work with ponies knows, sizing tack is often the first challenge, followed closely by keeping things economical.  Pony teamsters learn to be resourceful, and of course that resourcefulness has been going on for centuries.  One example of that resourcefulness is the klibber.

• Traditional klibbers are very simple in construction, assembled from driftwood found on the shore since the isles are nearly treeless.

•  It occurred to my friend Eddie McDonough that the klibber design could be easily scaled to fit his Fell Pony to provide an economical pack saddle.  The klibber design could also be adapted to use other found materials, in keeping with the resourceful Shetland tradition.

To request the complete article, click here.

Each morning when I tie the mares to the fence to give them their feed buckets, I can’t let the opportunity pass to make some small bit of progress in their training before releasing them to their morning hay.  They have had the summer off from these short lessons, and I have had the summer off, too, from creating lesson plans.

As we’ve gotten back into this routine, I started with refresher lessons.  Do they know to back away when I shake their lead rope?  Do they know to laterally flex their heads when I apply pressure on the side of their halter nose band?  All the mares remembered the backing away request.  A few needed an extra session or two on lateral flexion.  The others progressed to another task.  Some tasks are mounted.  A good one for a windy morning is to ask them to stand still after being mounted.  Since I began riding the last of the mares in this herd, all of them can now do mounted work.  The tasks must be kept short, though, since I’m asking them to cooperate on an empty stomach!

I heard about some human research that suggests that playing games together can lower our social anxiety level. (1) If we are introduced to someone new, commonly our anxiety goes up, but if we then are asked to play a game with them (depending on the game), our anxiety goes down.  I think of my morning lessons with my ponies in similar terms; while the lessons do help progress their training, perhaps the more important outcome is a familiarity with each other that helps our relationship be more enjoyable and less stressful.

I will admit there are days when a snow storm makes all of us just want to get on with things and skip lessons entirely.  Usually, though, the mares will stick around wanting their lesson if I forget to do it with them before they leave for their first meal of the day.  Even my two little filly foals line up when I’m putting halters on, even though they aren’t required to stand tied at their age.  Nonetheless it is a compliment to have all of the pones ask.  It is a blessing to share my life with these ponies.

1. “Press Play,” Ted Radio Hour, 10/20/17, at http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/?showDate=2017-10-20

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2017