My friends decided to get their children a pony for Christmas. They already own 2 horses, have a huge field, and a 3 stall barn. I'm sure, as a horseperson, you know that all stalls in a barn must be filled. It's a crime to waste a perfectly good stall! The children are 3,4 and 9, so the pony had to be bombproof. This is an interesting term "bombproof". What does it really mean? Can you always trust the term/description? The first pony looked at was one that was about 100 years old. It was definately bombproof. The ad said free to a good home. It was a wonderful pony for small children. It really was!!! Plans were made to get the pony, until the owner happened to mention that it took 2 hours for the pony to eat. This might not be a problem for some people, but in a herd-type situation it meant the pony would get no food, and probably starve to death. She probably would be best as an only pony. The next pony to be considered was a cute little white pony at a dealers farm in Western MA. Now, I don't like this place, but its not going to be my pony. My friends asked me to check out the pony before they made the purchase. As we were walking through the main barn, I noticed 2 horses standing in a stanction with a man. The horses were just standing there doing nothing. For no reason the man picked up a leadrope and whipped one horse in the face with the end of the leadrope, and proceeded to whip the other horse in the face with the snap end of the leadrope. Well, being who I am, I marched right up to the man and said "What the f*** are you doing to these horses?" Since there were fresh hoof trimmings on the ground, I assumed it was the farrier, and said "Are you the farrier"? He said "No, I own these horses. What are you doing here?" I replied " I came to buy a horse, but I certainly won't be buying one now!", and walked away. My friends had heard the entire conversation, but were oblivious to the actual incident. They informed me I had just confronted the owner of the farm. Too bad! I don't know about any of my readers, but in my opinion, if he's striking horses on the face, for no reason, and doing it in public, I hate to think what he is doing behind closed doors!!!
I was fuming, but continued-on to check-out the pony. My friend went into the stall with the pony, touched it on its side, and it proceeded to bite, and try to kick her. She said "Maybe this is why they had it on crossties when we looked at it before!" Additionally, it had greenish mucous on its eyes, which apparently wasn't there the first time they saw the pony. Needless to say, it was decided to not get the little white pony. Now--we had driven almost 2 hours to look at the pony, and my friend was on a mission to buy a pony. I put my "thinking cap" on, and remembered a farm called Strain Family Farm in Granby, CT. It was just an hour away, so we made a call and inquired if they had any "bombproof" ponies. They had one, so off we went. Strain Family Farm is also a dealer, but I had seen some of his horses at the UCONN auction, and knew they were nice. Pricely, but nice. We arrive, see the pony, do all kinds of crazy things to the pony--it definately seemed "bombproof", and my friend purchased the pony on the spot. Ginger, will be delivered to my friends house on Dec. 23rd. I am providing the big red bow, a saddle, and I'm sure the kids will take one look at the pony and say "wheres my Barbi bike, Star Wars gun, and computer game?" Oh, well, such is life with kids! My friend is now on a mission to get a dog. I advised her to wait at least until Spring. This is way too stressful for me-----I just hope the pony is really bombproof!!!!!
