Pony Trainers in Training

• February 11, 2016
• |
• By Ellie Dalton

Posted in: Horse Training, Ranch Life

The pony trainers from Shoshone never really intended to be pony trainers at all.
They were actually quite grumbled about the fact that they would be housing their cousin’s miniature ponies while he spent some time living in Texas. Ralph had bought these ponies for his little girls. They had done what all little girl usually do with a new pony; squeal really loud, play with them, look at them, then forget them…all in the course of about one week. So, cousin Ralph was quite relieved to be getting these little fur balls off his hands.
Ralph pulled into the Dalton’s and Seth, Waid and Luke Dalton came out and unloaded the ponies into the back pasture. Despite their unsurety, they couldn’t help but admit to themselves that “Sally” and “Suzie” were pretty darn cute little horses. But boys don’t say the word cute, so they figured the ponies were just really little, which made them interesting…not cute.
Over time they grew to like the little things, but they also recognized that the little fur balls had some pretty spoiled attitudes; no doubt they had gotten away with murder at their last home. The boys decided that if the ponies were going to stay then they would have to learn to mind their manners.
Luke is the youngest of the Dalton gang, he is also the littlest. Naturally, he was nominated as head pony trainer, but much to his chagrin. Luke didn’t think it sounded like much fun to hop on a fuzzy little pony with a bad attitude. He knew she would be stubborn and he would have to work with her every day to get her broke. That was not something he wanted to do. He would rather shoot hoops and build shelves.
Luke was right. She pulled her head back and forth, bucked every time he tried to get on and made little improvement, despite the fact that he worked with her every day.The thing that irked him the most was that he wasn’t getting time to shoot hoops because he was working with this little ornery pony. He kept working, but the pulling and the jumping continued and Luke felt like he wasn’t getting anywhere with Suzie. She was the littlest pony, but she definitely had the biggest attitude. He decided it was high time to enlist the help of his older brothers, Seth and Waid.
They got to talking about the best way to break this little girl of her buckin’ habit. Waid decided they should put her in the round pen and buck her out. Luke thought that was a fine idea as long as he wasn’t the one doing the riding.
So to the round pen they went. On went the saddle and on went the video camera. The boys thought it might be useful for them to record the ordeal in case they wanted to have a record of their very first pony training days. They figured it might be useful later on in life…just in case they ever became famous horse trainers or something.
Thank heavens they did. Some things are just better seen than told.

That was the horse trainers turned pony trainers first experience breaking Sally and Suzie in the round pen. Poor Waid decided that he didn’t like the fact that the little thing bucked him off. It just didn’t look right, a rough and tough horse trainer getting bucked off by a little fur ball named Suzie? Just plain embarrassing if you ask him. He was determined that the pony wouldn’t get the best of him so he took over the lead pony training position from Luke.
Luke decided the whole ordeal had worked out just fine for him. He hadn’t been the one to get bucked off, in fact he had thoroughly enjoyed watching Waid eat a little dirt.  And besides, now he had plenty of time to shoot hoops.

Posted in: Horse Training, Ranch Life

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