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Blonde Lady, (not to be confused with Black Lady or Lady the "big butt" Belgian mare - some people have no imagination when it comes to naming their horses), [disclaimer: - we didn't name any of these girls, they were already tagged] came to us with a little baggage, namely, Scooter. Scooter, (the scamp of the title) is one of those inquisitive, brave little ponies. He was a 2 yr old stud colt when we got him, but the stud thing didn't last for long. Within a week or so he was gelded. (Poor Scooter).
The day after we brought him home, and kept him isolated in the round pen, I decided to groom and saddle him. He didn't like his ears played with, fixed that. He didn't like his feet picked up, fixed that. He tried to nip at me (took a little longer to fix that), and the most endearing of all, the striking with the forefeet, (fixed that). He was otherwise not bad with the grooming, so I decided to put the pony saddle on him and put the straight bit on and check him out.
I got on his back, he turned his head back, tried to bite my boot toe, (fixed that), then began to walk around. It didn't take long for me to steer him with direct reining. Our first session from grooming to post grooming lasted about 20 minutes (2 yr olds have short atention spans, especially studs - hormones, I think??), and especially, with the love of his life in the next corral with her son and Justin.
The next day, after cleaning the barn, I was letting the "big butts" (our Belgian team) out to pasture, and Big Lady, (not to be confused...but I digress...) stopped to sniff noses with the little fellow. This sent him into raptures! (Mental note: get that vet down here to shut off those raging hormones). He was almost impossible to work with that day, since Big Lady and Blonde Lady stayed in close to tease him. (Mental note number two: "short horse syndrome really does exist").
Finally, the big day arrived, and our vet came to geld my little pony. He laughed when he saw the Big Butt Lady tease the little fellow, and called him a dreamer. He checked him out, and pronounced that both stones were down and this was a healthy, nice little pony. The deed was done within about 5 minutes. I then gave him a tetanus shot, (his 3-way, actually,since we weren't sure if either him or Lady had been vaccinated) while the vet looked on and approved my technique. (I am an RN and have given thousands of "needles" but mostly to people, but horses..only a few).
Needless to say, Scooter was just a tad subdued for the next couple of days. When he was walking better, we put him in the corral with Blonde Lady (nevermind) and Dudley, a pudgy pinto, short, shetland (38" at the withers). He and Duds just didn't hit it off, so we upped Dud's oats just a tad, to give him more energy, and in almost no time, he was slimming down, trying to avoid the confrontations with my little blue-eyed, black, monster (whose [obviously]hormeone levels had not yet dropped.
Soon, it was time to let this cocky little gelding go out to pasture, and take his lumps from the rest of the herd. At the time that we got Scooter and Lady, we had a pair of appaloosa geldings in their mid-twenties, full brothers, who were always hanging out with the Big Girls, you know, Jess (fooled you) and Lady (nevermind!). Scooter went out that morning, got his drink of water, hung around with the Apps (!) and stayed with Cheyenne and Patches (the Apps) until we turned "the butts" out after we cleaned the barn.
He then proceeded to follow Lady everywhere, much to Patches' consternation. He also started "playing" (tormenting might be a better word) with Cheyenne, who was the toughest gelding in the herd. Whoever said ponies are dumb never ever observed a pony at work (or play). That smart little bugger made friends with the big bosses of the herd, and no one (with the exception of a rather ticked-off Dudley) would go near him to pick on him at risk of incurring the "butts" and Cheyenne's anger and retaliation.
Scooter is a fixture now, here at the ranch. He's virtually bombproof, a courageous litle pony who moves like a big horse. We still don't know what his breeding is, but I think there may be some American Shetland or Hackney in the woodpile. He's now 10 1/2 hands tall, coming 4 years old this spring, and still growing. He's the smoothest small pony that I've ever ridden, and just "my little pony".
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