My Little Pony part 2

Yesterday my post was about the little pony that came into my life via one of my goddaughters. I talked a bit about her size and tried to show how tiny she really was by comparing her to another goddaughter and finally to my Shazam/Niki. But I didn't tell you much about her and how much I came to love her.

Here is Candy by herself on the lawn at the first place where we lived together, me and two dogs, can't remember how many cats, and three mares - one of them this little gal. She often had to be on my lawn and not out in the big field with the other two mares because at one time she had foundered. This meant that her feet were really sore a lot of the time, and if she ate any delicious fresh spring hay, it would make it much worse. I used to find her curled up on the hay in the snow like a big dog some days that first winter we were together. But I learned it was she loved to snooze curled up.

And while I worried when she first came and the big mares drove her away, they adopted her after about a week and then she never minded being on her own in my garden. She knew by then she was getting a privilege that the others were only allowed once in a while when my lawn needing trimming.

As I limited her diet she became more comfortable. When we moved to another farm near Port Hope, Ontario she went with me (my promise to all my horses has been they would never know another owner and the pain of being separated from companions. Candy became quite a bossy boots with the two equestrian centre rescues Mr. B and Commander (Coco) who eventually landed in my barn. She would chase them around, seeming to be glad that someone else was at the bottom of the pecking order.

I have seen mini horses the same size as her - she was that tiny - and she had a pony mind-set which is quite different from horses. She was often stubborn, crochety and always hungry. She would boss the big boys out of the way to get at me for carrots or apples which I often carried in my pockets. It was funny to see this little animal chasing away the geldings, who always ran at the sight of her bared teeth or when she turned around to try to kick them. Courageous and adorable - that was my little Pony.

My Little Pony

Recently I posted the story of Shazam or Niki as I called her, my Arab mare who came as a companion to Dixie and Dundee  - one my big black mare and the other a delightful bay gelding who left after a few months. So then came the pony.

Her name was Candy - but I often called her just plain Pony. She was a stubborn little gal but when she first came I felt so sorry for her. The two big mares picked on her I thought - they would not accept her for the longest time and I often saw her walking  down the fence line, head down away from her tormentors. I really don't like this about animals, but it's not only an animal trait - sorting out the pecking order, is it? Eventually that changed and the pony became the best friend of one or the other big mare, depending I think on those moody gals' feelings on any given day.

Anyway, one of my goddaughters had given Candy to me as a companion for the two mares. She became a favourite of another of my goddaughters - and I've used her here to show how fast children grow and yet don't seem to change. This youngster is now a young woman working in social media for the internet. She's still slender, tall and attractive.

When she first met Candy, she fell in love. As you can see in the first picture she groomed her and tied ribbons in her tail. The next picture was taken a year or two later, and she's grown a lot as kids do. Niki is in the background. I think it was that year that my goddaughter decided she wanted to ride horseback and got on Dixie's back.

These images take me back - I think I'm going to be doing a lot of reminiscing as I sort through my photos in the coming weeks. With it being a new year, I feel the need to "get organized." However the stories that go along with all the photographs - some of them beg me to tell them... and as you know if you've followed this blog - I do love to tell stories.

Do you have a story to tell?