Pony Rides

She had matching antlers, but they wouldn't stay on.

A few days ago a couple of my friends brought their kids over to ride Morrissey. Of course, since the children are all young, the plan was to have me lead them around. I was confident enough doing this because her former owners used Morrissey for their small children pretty  often. When they brought her to me, they had the kids crawling all over her and sliding off of her backwards. As a very cautious person, I won't let anyone interact with her that way, but it did happen safely on at least one occasion.

Just to be safe, we had an adult walking next to the kids or riding with the kids the entire time. Everything went perfectly for the majority of the day. I led Morrissey around in wide circles in the arena for at least 45 minutes. The kids all got several turns, then of course there was a spooking incident. I can't imagine what it was that scared her. We were passing the same roping dummy we'd passed each time, but this time it was scary. She did two little fat-horse hops, one in each direction. One of the kids on her back was slipping so I grabbed her off and got her out of the hoof zone. The other kid held on like a champ. His father got him off quickly. I was really upset. One of my biggest fears is my horse hurting someone, especially a child. I didn't let the spook end the day. I lunged her without incident by the scary dummy several times and made sure the kids weren't too afraid to pet and interact with her. Both of them want to come back and ride again, so thank goodness they aren't scarred for life.  I know that no horse can ever be completely bomb-proof, but I really want Morrissey to be as close as possible.