ponies are literally the fightiest of all horses. they're like, tiny fluffy balls of Pure Rage on hooves. even when they're not angry they're angry. a pony managed to drag me halfway across the stableyard bc he thought it was Field Time while all the giant draft-crosses just stand there and fart idly while i tack them up.
the lil fat pony at the therapy barn i worked at was the most terrifying animal in the entire fucking barn
OH boy. The first barn I rode at had a pasture pony miniature horse and he was a demon. one time he bit me on the stomach for feeding my horse before him, and he developed a habit of nipping at my horse's shoulder whenever I was trying to catch him so that I couldn't take him away from the pasture cause he'd keep running. Appropriately his name was Bandit.
...i mean, not really, in my experience? Especially lesson ponies. They're more content to be stubbornly immovable and put in as little energy as possible.
to be fair, i didn't meet many ponies in my life. but all the miniatures and shetlands i know of (which are about five in total) have been fuzzy, adorable demons. they also all belonged to the Rickety Stable, which, in hindsight, could have something to do with their behavior. i was in a reputable stable exactly once, for a week, on holidays, and there in encountered the sweetest welsh pony ever, a walking sofa who probably found the zen in his life. the stable where i was the longest (the horsmanship-like one where everyone had bitless bridles) also had a very friendly icelandic pony for lessons but sadly i only got to ride with him once. i swear that pony was made of patience, and also responded super amazingly to every tiny cue. a good boy. fakeedit: one of the minis was actually ok, i just remembered. peggy was a shetland with dwarfism, and never ran anyone over, or escaped. she did like to go veeeery slow, but all in all also a good hoers.
Yeah I've been wondering if people thinking horses are always demons came from meeting horses that were mistreated. Or just backlash from them not being perfect fairy angels but actual living animals.
that's very possible! it's probably similar to when people call cats selfish and uncaring, because they aren't used to living beings expressing affection and warnings and dislikes in ways that are unusual to the average neurotypical human. (also, i should probably clarify that i used "fuzzy demon" etc jokingly, no matter how much a pony runs me over or breaks out i'll still love it because all horses are awesome in my book.)
It also may have something to do with the really high strung energetic breeds being more popular than the chill low key we-get-there-when-we-get-there patient ones.
HORSES I was definitely That Horse Kid as a smol but just started to learn to ride this spring. My university offers horsemanship among its various outdoor activity courses, but only in fall and spring terms, so this winter I will be without hnorse :c The one I'm currently riding is Ace, a big (about 16 hands) bay gelding. My first interaction with Ace was holding him for someone and he immediately wiped snot/drool on my hand. I just switched from Western to English because the instructor said it would be good for me (i.e. fix my seat and stop me from relying on the saddle to keep me in place. I almost went over Ace's neck a couple of times last time I rode so I probably do need to work on that :P ) Other lesson horses include: Shiloh, a cute flaxen chestnut mare, about 14.2 hands, the horse I rode when I started lessons; Chief, an elderly and very chill chestnut sabino gelding; Auzzie, a buckskin gelding who I rode for a few weeks -- a bit lazy but still a good boy, never farted in my face; and Butters, a flaxen chestnut pony who has a very cute face and is an escape artist (but also a friendly sweetheart). Ace and Butters are BFFs. Big horse / smol pony friendships are so cute and good.
his name's quintain and he was parked in a whole row of temporary stalls in the stables i ride at with his other film star horse friends he was super majestic and beautiful and i gave him a pony treat and he proceeded to drool on me and nose at my sleeves demanding more
I am not a Horse Fan, I'm actually kinda scared of them, but like spiders I also think they're cool and want to be ok with them so I hope you don't mind me hanging out here. I've had a few experiences, from the Initial Trauma (not that traumatic, I was just a scaredy cat kid and it left an impression on me), my on-again-off-again moirail's worked with horses most of her life and tried to cure me of my fear, I took riding lessons (no idea what kind though) for a while during Hell Year that got cut short because Hell Year. So. Ponies. I'm kinda glad to hear that they're evil it's not just me. That's what got me scared initially. One of my neighbors growing up had a pony named Monster. I was assured it was an ironic nickname, and her extended family's kids would come by and ride. So one day she offered to let me ride, and Monster took off with little ~7-year-old me clinging for dear life. She was very apologetic once she got him to stop and got me off, swore that it never happened before, I still went over to her place sometimes just not when she was taking care of Monster. But it did kinda scar me and I couldn't be around horses for a long time without getting real nervous. I think what got me to stop being so scared ALL the time was Muffin. One time visiting my batshit Nana she decided we were taking a horse trail. I'm fairly certain I'd told her I was uncomfortable around horses and in typical fashion instead of my sometimes-moirial's "well I'll just take you to be around them for a while" when she brought me to the ranch Nana just went "TOO BAD, HAPPY FAMILY TIME. I ALREADY PAID WE'RE DOING IT." But I told the guy doing the trail that I was really nervous about horses and he was probably pretty used to it and gave me Muffin to ride. She was their "for tiny kids and scared people" horse, was a rescue and probably the sweetest horse in existence. She was an old racehorse. They found out she'd been pumped full of steroids and abused in other ways which is apparently Not Uncommon in racing, removed her, somehow she ended up in Trail Guy's care. Doing trails really agreed with her, she loved kids and people in general. He said that every morning she was Super Excite to get ready but also always so, so mellow. I was just so blessed by this horse who put up with me being an anxious wreck and eventually eased up a lot. Apparently because of Things she had a weakened pain response, so my tendency to tense up (which makes me dig my heels in and Makes Horse Go Fast) didn't really bother her at all (which on other horses led to a feedback loop because I'd also Worry about hurting the horse, get anxious, tense up...) and she was trained to just follow the trail in the group so accidentally sending other messages got ignored because she was like "nope, we're walking the trail. That's what I do." Aaaaand that's how a retired racehorse made me stop freezing in terror around horses. Enough that I managed to take lessons for a short while later, though I don't remember much because of other things happening at the time and it was pretty slow going because my instructor had to work through my discomfort and things got cut off by Other Things.
Yeah, counter-pony to Bandit would be Mocha, one of the children's birthday ride ponies at the barn I volunteered at, and the sweetest, gentlest horse I've ever met. Calm in every situation and so, so patient. She's lovely and I love her. In my experience the tendency towards jerk ponies is in a lot of minis especially being pasture ponies and not getting any proper training beyond 'tolerate a halter'. Or, if they are riding ponies, he difficulty of getting someone both experienced enough to train a pony and small enough to ride them. My fiend in college was always heavily in demand to ride the barn's misbehaving ponies because she was under 5 feet tall and weighed like a hundred pounds.
