{"id":4347,"date":"2014-01-29T11:00:42","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T16:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paintingpony.com\/blog\/?p=4347"},"modified":"2019-11-09T03:46:48","modified_gmt":"2019-11-09T08:46:48","slug":"the-chincoteague-ponies-take-to-sledding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paintingpony.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/29\/the-chincoteague-ponies-take-to-sledding\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chincoteague Ponies take to Sledding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finally this past weekend I got a chance to do something I’ve been waiting to do for a while now! With some snow that stuck around long enough for me to enjoy it I lugged one of my snow tubes to the farm to go sledding with the ponies!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

We rigged up a make-shift harness with an old breast plate and an elastic wrap to keep it tied around their middle. Now if your horse is already accustomed to pulling a cart than pulling a sled isn’t much different, however none of our ponies have ever pulled a cart.<\/p>\n

Having already exposed all three of our chincoteagues to dragging objects behind them (old grain bags, tarps, etc) we figured they’d probably take to pulling a sled too. Boomerang was the first pony we brought out because he’s probably the most laid back and willing.<\/p>\n

All it took were a few clicks and rewards to reinforce him for pulling the sled (which I did by walking on the ground with him first) and he pretty much knew the drill. I went another round and placed the Humber Sport Ice Fishing<\/a> equipment on the sled and he did just fine.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Eventually I hopped on him bareback and asked him for more. Pretty soon he was cantering around happily – in fact he was so ok with it that we eventually broke out the snowboard too!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

I love how the clicker training I use with my ponies has prepared Boomer so well to try anything. When I reward him for his efforts he’s so willing to give me all he can – positive reinforcement goes a long way!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Minnow was next and despite being a little cautious about the sled at first he was very willing to pull along a passenger. Minnow will always try his heart out for me, and I had no doubt he’d be willing to pull the sled if I asked him.<\/p>\n

Blitz took a turn with the sled too, and my mom even hopped on him bareback (something she hadn’t done since she had her accident while riding bareback with him several years ago).<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

We had so much fun that now we have something to look forward to the next time it snows!<\/p>\n

Have you ever been sledding with your horses?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finally this past weekend I got a chance to do something I’ve been waiting to do for a while now! With some snow that stuck around long enough for me to enjoy it I lugged one of my snow tubes to the farm to go sledding with the ponies! We rigged up a make-shift harness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Chincoteague Ponies take to Sledding! Watch the fun video! http:\/\/wp.me\/p1Zr2J-187","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[43,65,107,108,948,114,115,125,156,164,204,226,227,839,261,273,292,345,382,406,838,836,837,480,841,840,537,546,549,560,579],"class_list":["post-4347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clicker-training-inspiration","category-farm-life","tag-assateague","tag-bitless-bridle","tag-chesapeake-boomerang","tag-chesapeake-lightning","tag-chincoteague","tag-chincoteague-minnow","tag-chincoteague-pony","tag-clicker-training","tag-dachshund","tag-dog","tag-farm","tag-fun","tag-funny","tag-harness","tag-horse","tag-iron-horse-farm","tag-kyley-diluigi","tag-natural-horsemanship","tag-painting-pony","tag-pony","tag-pull","tag-sled","tag-sledding","tag-snow","tag-snowboard","tag-snowboarding","tag-training","tag-trick-pony","tag-trooper","tag-video","tag-winter"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1Zr2J-187","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paintingpony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paintingpony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paintingpony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paintingpony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paintingpony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4347"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.paintingpony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35393,"href":"https:\/\/www.paintingpony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347\/revisions\/35393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paintingpony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paintingpony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paintingpony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}