The Ultimate Horseman's Digest ... naturally!

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This story takes place back in 1981, when my husband bought my first horse, Lady. We started working at Brandywine Stables, running their hack line to pay for her board. I ran the office and John selected the horses for the people to ride. At that time John's children (Michael age 6 and Kelly age 10) came to see us on the weekends. They would help us roundup the horses in the morning; brush and saddle them and get them tied to the line ready for riding.

Finally, the inevitable happened, the kids started bugging us about horses for them to ride. So, one weekend after everyone was saddled and tied to the line, we caught two Shetland ponies (for those of you who don't know, Shetland ponies are probably the most stubborn creatures on the face of the earth) brushed and saddled them for Kelly and Michael to ride. We put the kids on their ponies and then let them ride inside a 20-acre field next to the lot where we could keep an eye on them.

Now, Kelly and Michael really knew nothing about riding. We told them that when they could make the ponies do what they wanted them to do when they wanted them to do it, we would discuss riding the horses. Needless to say, neither child was very happy with that condition, but they agreed to live with it.

John and I went on with the business of opening the line, getting people on horses, etc., all the while keeping an eye towards the field to see what was going on with the kids and their ponies. Kelly's pony would walk from the gate to the water, to the feed trough (which was on the ground), put both feet in the trough and eat, then turn around and go back to the gate and start all over again. Michael and Peppermint weren't doing much better. Peppermint would go from the gate, to the water, and back to the gate.

Finally, after about an hour of this activity, Michael came to the gate saying that Peppermint wouldn't do what he wanted him to do. John reiterated, "I told you, when you can make Peppermint do what you want, then we will talk. Now I'm busy; go work with your pony." The last time we looked, Michael was leading Peppermint over the hill in the field. Kelly and her pony just looked at them and kept making their triangles.

About 30 to 45 minutes later, I started getting worried about Michael and Peppermint and asked John if we should go looking for him. John said, "No. If something was wrong someone would have told us." You see, the field ran right along side the lane that took the riders in and out of the lot for their rides. Not five minutes later I looked up and saw Michael on Peppermint's back, flying up and over the crest of the hill. Peppermint was running so hard that his belly was almost touching the ground. As they neared the gate, I began to wonder if I should open it. Just as I was going to open the gate I heard Michael yell "Whoa!" Peppermint slid to the prettiest quarter horse stop that you would ever want to see, stopping with his nose right at the gate,.

We walked over to the gate and John said, "What happened Michael?" Well, Michael just looked up at his dad grinning and said, "I got his attention Dad." John said, "How'd you do that?" Michael then produced a stick about 2 inches in diameter and 2 feet long that he had been holding out of sight and said, "I hit him between his knobby ears." At which point John and I couldn't keep a straight face any longer, we just burst out laughing.

Michael rode Peppermint over to his sister and offered her the stick, but she refused. It took several weekends, but Kelly and her pony finally came to an understanding. All the while Michael and Peppermint were running all over that 20-acre field. Michael would ride along the fence when riders were going out and say, "If you don't know how to ride that horse, get off and I'll show you." Once or twice he actually got off Peppermint, tied him to the fence, jumped on a rider’s horse and showed the rider that the horse could be ridden.

About a year later, we came to work one Saturday morning, and the owner's wife pulled me and John aside. She asked if we remembered that they were digging a trench in the front field for the water system. We said, "Yes, we knew that." She then said, "I have some bad news. Last week we had the ponies in the front field, and you will remember that it rained. We went out after the rain and found Peppermint upside down in the trench, dead. Apparently he had fallen head first into the water in the trench. Since he couldn't get turned over onto his feet (the trench was not very wide), he drowned."

We had to break this news to Michael. He cried and cried and we hurt so much for him. We tried to get him interested in another pony, but he didn't want anything to do with them. So, we started letting him ride horses. But, he never did really form an attachment to any of them like he had with Peppermint, until we bought him his own horse. However, the story of Michael and Sugar is for another time.

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