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Ponies smarter than horses?

Dear Jessica, I love your newsletters!!! Now here's a question I always wonder about.

Now my instructor has a lot of ponies and not as many horses and the ponies like always act up and horses never really do. Why is that??? Is it because the ponies are smarter or something?????? Thank you


Hi -- no, I don't think that the ponies are necessarily more intelligent than the horses. It's probably something much simpler than that!

All horses and ponies need to have their training kept up and their good habits kept up. With horses, even if they are school horses that don't get good riders, there's usually someone in the barn who can be asked to school a horse on occasion. An educated, experienced rider can get on the horses and remind them of their schooling, keep them in line, and keep them in the habit of doing what they've been trained to do.

Ponies don't always get very good riders either, because they're often used to teach very small children who are just learning to ride. But sometimes, on the barn's list of good riders, there's no small adult or small, older child who can ride and school the ponies, particularly the smaller ponies. And when ponies are ridden ONLY by novice riders, their level of training can't rise, and it's unlikely to hold steady -- and VERY likely to drop. Add to this the fact that many ponies manage to stay sound longer than many larger horses, and you'll see why there is often a large selection of intelligent, experienced, older (and sometimes badly-behaved) ponies at a good many riding schools. ;-)

Jessica

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