I get why they’re called Shitlands now!

Kirstineridesagain

Kirstineridesagain

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My daughter is 11 and has a share pony - a Shetland. She’s ridden him for just over a year and she’s a tough cookie, otherwise she would have called it quits by now. He

- will be a monster when getting out of the field, so much so that not only did he once rear, he normally runs round you in circles with ears back as if ready to attack. Hence I have to let the owner do it now, I just got too scared after one particularly scary time!

-is a docile, slow angel when just out of the field, so all is forgiven.

- when tacking up he is fine until you try to put on the bridle. He then tears away when you take off the headcollar. Once he raided the other horses’ feed buckets in the stable, we finally managed to get the bridle on him and cleared up the mess he’d made.

- he is a good riding pony, well schooled and good for hacking too - unless the spring grass is coming in. Then he’ll dupe his rider to get off and then bolt a few meters to the nearest yummy patch.

When ridden he’s actually very good, my seven year old rides off the lead rein now and he never goes off. When bigger children ride him he can be more cheeky and also goes faster. My daughter is right on the weight limit but he’s as fast and forward with her as he could be. In the time we’ve known him we’ve introduced friends to him, thinking they could ride him once a week, but he misbehaved so much with them that they gave up after trying twice (with the owner there). A few other children have come and gone, but they probably don’t tolerate the changing moods and mayhem a proper Thelwell Shetland brings!

The other day we had a picnic with him grazing nicely next to us, before he decided to nearly trample us while trying out our food. I gave him a bit of my cider, which he seemed to like. 😂

My daughter falls off him regularly, but has never hurt herself - it’s not far to fall, thankfully!

His owner dotes on him and he has been very well looked after since he was tiny, so we have no idea where his bad moods come from - but when he’s going where he’s supposed to go and behaves himself we forget the bad times. 😜

Any other Shetland owners/riders have similar experiences?

Photo of said pony sleeping in my daughter’s arms.
 

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Our Shetland is normally a horror to ride off lead, in her over zealous intention to teach the child with no sparing of the rod. She never hurts them but will terrify a child intentionally and then dump them on the floor if they are not meeting her very exacting standards of riding - or if they are boring her. If she starts to behave, it is time to call the vet. Literally!
 
When i was a wee waif of a young teenager, a shetland companion to a retired TB was offered to me to ride by its owner in the village.
Unbeknownst to me the little ginger monster had ‘t been ridden much at all, and behaved impeccably, even walking off nicely until just out of eye-shot of owners watching us, then he proceeded to tear down the hilly field, buck me off into a mass of stinging nettles, and trotted innocently back to owners!!
I followed some moments later on foot itching everywhere, with them questioning ‘what happened’?!
“The little bugger!”
🤣
 
I used to ride a Shetland when I was 8 or 9 and take to pony club sometimes who sounds very similar. He never once damaged me but he would drag me about where ever the grass looked best, hide in hedges from me, inflate himself when tacking up and mounting to the point you could see daylight through his girth and you became paranoid about checking every 5 mins, he fooled us into thinking he couldn't canter for about a year, cantered off with me on when he heard a bucket forgetting his ruse, ditched me in puddles and ran off stopping at the next bit of green grass, trotted so fast I vomited from the motion sickness.... He was ace and only died last year at 34 after having taught countless children the ways of Shetlands.
 
The riding school I used to livery at as a teenager had one. All the small children loved him as he was so whizzy (& cheeky!)

He could fit under the field fences & if he didn’t want to be caught it could be an hour plus job involving 5 or so people trying to round him up (great if he was needed for an early morning lesson!)

He would happily boss all the bigger horses around (& then leg it under the fence if they tried to boss him back!)

He used to escape sometimes either from being tied or from stables… deffo had to run along with my arms around his neck trying to bring him to a stop as he marauded around the yard on more than one occasion!
 
My experience with them is that they live in a weird grey zone of being over coddled or put in situations you wouldn’t with another horse because they are small. It makes them really defensive then. Mine came terrified of vets and clipping because I suspect it’s been easy to jam her in a corner and just do it. It took some time but she is as good as gold now and has always been treated as a sport horse. She is very polite in most ways as always handled by knowledgeable adults so there is no grey for her which again I suspect happens with kids and less knowledgeable adults. They are super smart and observant so pick up on any weaknesses pretty quickly if it suits them.
 
Kirstineridesagain said:
My daughter is 11 and has a share pony - a Shetland. She’s ridden him for just over a year and she’s a tough cookie, otherwise she would have called it quits by now. He

- will be a monster when getting out of the field, so much so that not only did he once rear, he normally runs round you in circles with ears back as if ready to attack. Hence I have to let the owner do it now, I just got too scared after one particularly scary time!

-is a docile, slow angel when just out of the field, so all is forgiven.

- when tacking up he is fine until you try to put on the bridle. He then tears away when you take off the headcollar. Once he raided the other horses’ feed buckets in the stable, we finally managed to get the bridle on him and cleared up the mess he’d made.

- he is a good riding pony, well schooled and good for hacking too - unless the spring grass is coming in. Then he’ll dupe his rider to get off and then bolt a few meters to the nearest yummy patch.

When ridden he’s actually very good, my seven year old rides off the lead rein now and he never goes off. When bigger children ride him he can be more cheeky and also goes faster. My daughter is right on the weight limit but he’s as fast and forward with her as he could be. In the time we’ve known him we’ve introduced friends to him, thinking they could ride him once a week, but he misbehaved so much with them that they gave up after trying twice (with the owner there). A few other children have come and gone, but they probably don’t tolerate the changing moods and mayhem a proper Thelwell Shetland brings!

The other day we had a picnic with him grazing nicely next to us, before he decided to nearly trample us while trying out our food. I gave him a bit of my cider, which he seemed to like. 😂

My daughter falls off him regularly, but has never hurt herself - it’s not far to fall, thankfully!

His owner dotes on him and he has been very well looked after since he was tiny, so we have no idea where his bad moods come from - but when he’s going where he’s supposed to go and behaves himself we forget the bad times. 😜

Any other Shetland owners/riders have similar experiences?

Photo of said pony sleeping in my daughter’s arms.
Click to expand...
Trick for putting the bridle on ponies. Buy a head collar that has a buckle at the front of the nose band, they are rarer now and you may have to buy one online.
gsequestrian.co.uk

Shires ARMA Adjustable Headcollar

The Shires ARMA Adjustable Headcollar benefits buckle fastenings at the head and nose and a convenient clip-on throatlash. Made with double layer durable polypropylene webbing and trimmed with high shine gold colour fittings and an ARMA plate.
gsequestrian.co.uk gsequestrian.co.uk

To tack up leave the head collar on and keep the pony tied up, until you are full tacked up and ready to go. Put the bridle on over the head collar you can twist the reins on themselves and thread the throat latch so they do not trail down. You now have control with the bridle when you are ready, and you just undo the head collar and slip it out from underneath. It may be a fiddle but its a lot easier than the pony trying to bog off when you are trying to put the bridle on.
My daughters could tack up on their own from about seven with this method, and if the pony is clever they often give up messing around because they are never going to win. Its also a lot safer when you are not in an enclosed space.
The smaller ponies are usually super smart, think of them as a seven year old boy, always looking to get out of doing something. They use all their brain power on getting what they want, and they have a lot of body weight with a low centre of gravity, so you need your full adult brain to out smart them, and be one step ahead.
 
This thread is amazing, Shetlands are just so brilliant, they teach us something every day - even if it's just that we're not as clever as we think we are 🤣. Reading all these posts has made me realise how much I miss having one around.
 
We had one on loan as my daughters first pony. He was wiley and clever and affectionate and naughty.

He regularly tanked off with her then stopped dead and put his head down so he would go straight over his shoulder. Another pony specialising in landing kids in nettles whenever possible.

He once went round the "minimus" jumping at a local show - backwards!! Daughter wouldn't give up so she sat on him and he literally backed into every jump. He demolished some and just stepped backwards over others. He was the entertainment of the day!

He pulled her friends dad over and broke his hand (he was a big guy and thought he could drag the pony out of the field when he didn't want to come).

He would roll under the bottom rail of the post and rail to get into the next field with more grass.

He broke into the feed room and ate unsoaked sugar beet. He was fine.

He was black and fluffy and super cute. He was loved by many children and went on loan countless times. He died in his late 30s.

He taught my daughter perseverance and stickability and bravery. She loved him to pieces regardless of his terrible ways..
 
My friend has 3 Shetlands and I often question her sanity when I hear of what they get up to 🤣

My favourite story was when Cheeky (the perfect name for her!) decided that she'd had enough of being pampered and preened by the small children, untied herself from the wall and waltzed over to the field gate where she noisily banged her hooves against till once of the children let her through (into a big 5 acre field full of fresh grass that was supposed to be for the poor doing horses - not a Shetland who you could roll around like a giant snowball at the best of times!).

The children then came and told us what they had proudly done..... 4 and a half hours later and 6 adults, we finally managed to wrangle Cheeky back into the stable block much to the amusement of the children present.

I remember walking Cheeky back up the field and muttering to her how she had no idea how close she'd come to death with all the lush grass and although she is a massive pain in the butt, she's my favourite pain in the butt and I'd miss her terribly if anything happened to her - Cheeky actually stopped for a moment, looked me in the eyes (I thought it was such a sweet moment) and then proceeded to hurl herself into me and send me flying down the hill and letting go of her in the process! Oh how I cursed as I frantically got up and tried to catch her before the other adults could see she was a free Cheeky and the trouble would have to start all over again. Thankfully Cheeky was on my side this time and let me catch her no problems.....

She sadly passed away from old age a few months ago and I miss her terribly - but whenever I talk about her, I always tell the above story as it was my fave memory of all time with her :)
 
Friend's little monster's favourite trick was pulling things off his back. He was really quick with the saddle when you reached for the girth. He needed tying up very short to avoid it. He could do the same with riders if not watched like a hawk. Grap a foot and pull them off. He was in my bad books due to biting the tip off my pony's ear in a scrap.
 
I thought that I had my own sh1tland tale, but am I right - are these sh1tlands? They are very, very dinky.

I had parked up to the wooden fence in a designated visitor parking spot and the chestnut started to bite at the back of my car while I was still in it! Breakfast was late that day and pony wasn’t pleased.

Tooth marks. I am going to be recompensed for the bodywork repair, and the wooden fence by the visitor parking is now backed up by leccie fencing 🙃.

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