Quick facts
The short version
Shetland pony
First pony
2016
To be added
To be added
Going fast
Small, quick, and entirely unbothered by the fact that he was a pony.
A Shetland pony who was convinced he was a full-size horse. Audrey's first ride, and the reason she learned to hold on.
Small, quick, and entirely unbothered by the fact that he was a pony.
Elvis was a Shetland pony, and he was Audrey's first experience of learning how to ride. He was also a character. He loved to run, and he was completely convinced he was a full-size horse — nobody had told him otherwise, and he would not have listened anyway.
Which is how Audrey learned the first real lesson in riding: hold on tight, or come off while he's moving quick. Elvis did not wait for anyone to be ready. Everything that came later — position, balance, an independent seat, the nerve to sit still over a fence — started with a small brown pony in a round pen going faster than anyone expected.
Before the channel, before the shows — the round pen, the lead line and a very fast pony.
Elvis was not a show pony, and that is the point.
Walk, trot, steering, stopping — and a great deal of going faster than planned.
You cannot teach balance from the ground. Elvis taught it the direct way.
Once holding on was no longer the hard part, the next horse raised the bar.