Final update on Bella:
Bella has been sold and now has 2 little girls that ADORE her! We enjoyed working with Bella, and we will be searching for our next "project pony" soon. Thank you for you interest!
UPDATE: As of 8/7/11, a deposit has been made toward the purchase of Bella, and we will be delivering Bella to her new home soon. If the sale falls through for some reason, we will re post her for sale again. We'd like to thank all the folks who inquired about Bella, and ask that you check back in a few months, because we fully intend to find another "project pony" or "project horse" to work with. Thank you!
Meet Bella.
Bella has been sold and now has 2 little girls that ADORE her! We enjoyed working with Bella, and we will be searching for our next "project pony" soon. Thank you for you interest!
UPDATE: As of 8/7/11, a deposit has been made toward the purchase of Bella, and we will be delivering Bella to her new home soon. If the sale falls through for some reason, we will re post her for sale again. We'd like to thank all the folks who inquired about Bella, and ask that you check back in a few months, because we fully intend to find another "project pony" or "project horse" to work with. Thank you!
Meet Bella.
Bella is a nine year old mare. She stands 12 hands high. When we bought Bella, she was barely green broke, and we have spent MANY hours working with her. She was also a little on the thin side when we got her, but she's put on weight now and looks much better!
She loads in the trailer (alone or with other horses) willingly and quietly. It doesn't matter to her whether it is a slant load or a straight load trailer. We've had her in both types of trailers. Unloading goes well also. She stands calmly to be untied, then backs out of the trailers well. No panic, no fuss.
She also stands quietly for saddling, willingly accepts the bit, and enjoys grooming time. Giving Bella a bath is not difficult at all...just spray her, rub in some shampoo (or don't), and then rinse her off. She enjoys it, especially on hot days after trail rides or schooling sessions!
Bella picks up her feet for us to clean them out with the hoof pick, although she will sometimes pull her foot away. She hasn't kicked at us or raised too much of a fuss, but we are continually working with her on this issue. We want her to stand and not pull her hoof away when we're picking it out or examining it. She stood for the farrier without fussing. Bella's hooves are strong, and for the trail riding we've done with her, she hasn't needed shoes on or acted ouchy on gravel roads or pavement.
Bella is a fantastic pony on the trail. She crosses water without any problems. In fact, she seems to really like riding across some of the bigger creeks that we've taken her through! Here is a video of Bella going over a small little stream. One of the horses we had on this particular trail ride was not happy about crossing it because of the mud that surrounded the stream. But Bella marched right through without any problem!
We've encountered deer, sounds of gunshots, scary looking signs, and have ridden through thick, short brushy trees that rubbed against her sides and belly on trail rides. She hasn't been bothered once by these normal trail issues. She rides well when a dog comes along on the trail ride. She also doesn't get all worked up when other horses or ponies throw a tantrum on the trail. She does great as the lead horse on a trail, and she also rides just as well in the back of the pack, or in the middle. One of the horses that we ride with tends to "tailgate" other horses. Another horse we ride with is an aggressive mare who pins her ears, flashes her tail, and threatens to kick other horses who invade her space. We're ok with having Bella behind this mare, because Bella doesn't feel the need to tailgate other horses, and keeps a proper distance without trouble. We're happy to say that Bella isn't bothered by tailgaters...and has never kicked or even pinned her ears back on the trail when another horses gets too close to her back end.
Here's a video of Bella being saddled:
And unsaddled:
Here is a video of Bella eating some treats. She can be grabby about treats and hand feeding. When we first got her, she was nipping some, so we would suggest caution and supervision IF a child is hand feeding her. However, we can proudly say that Bella has improved and become a little more polite as far as treats go.:
Sometimes we can be a little lazy, so we lead Bella with the golf cart from place to place instead of walking her. Bella is also familiar with tractors and 4 wheelers, although we haven't lead her from either of those.
Here's Bella standing sensibly, with her rider on her back, while the golf cart goes by.
Here's Bella, being ponied from an older mare: She does well when being led from another horse. We even took her along on a trail ride one day, where she didn't have a rider and was ponied the whole time. ***We would, of course, like to remind you that the horse you see her being ponied from is a very mild mannered, calm horse. Don't try ponying any horse if you're unsure of the temperament of either!
Bella (trying) to pony this older mare. "Allie" was not cooperating, and was walking VERY slow, so this isn't the greatest example, but it does show that Bella tries and is tolerant.
One night, my family camped out in the yard. We had a bonfire, and a tent set up. We took Bella over to the campfire to see what she thought of that. She didn't mind the fire (We didn't take her too close,) and we also took her over to the tent. Dusty's little brother got in the tent, and Bella reacted to the movement in the tent. She didn't try to bolt, but was very wary of it all. So we tied her up a little ways away and just let her observe all the stuff happening that night. She settled down and wasn't leery of the tent after a while. When we led her over to it, she even stuck her head down and looked in the unzipped door. She's curious and tries to make sense of things.
Trotting with rider on:
A little ground work when we first got Bella, to get her paying attention and leading well:
Line driving w/halter on. She did good. We did this before getting on her back.
Just riding and playing with her to see what we can get her to do:
We started Bella over jumps, but can not say that she is jumping well. We will continue to work with her over small jumps and build her confidence. Bella looks very attractive in english tack, and we believe that she's a great size for a younger rider, so we'd like to get her consistent over small jumps.
We have worked hard to get Bella off to a good start for her future owner. If you have any questions, feel free to email us at welltrainedponies@gmail.com and we will happily try to answer all questions in a timely manner. We are willing to trailer Bella over to some of our local trails, if someone wants to try her out!
Bella is offered for sale for$800.00. $700.00. (We've reduced the price.) We believe that she would make a good pony for a beginner (under close supervision of an instructor,) or she would be good for an intermediate rider who wants to trail ride with parents. At any rate, Bella is a fantastic pony on the trail!
*****UPDATE: Bella got a visit from the vet on 6/18/11. She is now up to date on ALL shots, and a new coggins test! Also, we're happy to be able to state that Bella stood calmly for the vet.
*****UPDATE: We just received Bella's Coggins Test papers in the mail. For some reason, the vet must have put her age down wrong...because the papers say she's 6 years old, when she's 9. I just noticed this, and figured I'd mention it on here, so that no one that comes and looks at the papers think that something fishy's going on. :) Because Bella has no registered papers, I don't guess this is really a problem...just making sure we state that the coggins says she's younger than she actually is.
*****UPDATE: Bella's price has been reduced to $700.00. The kids would like to get this mare sold and complete their project! We're hoping to find the right home for Bella soon! Thank you to all who have called and inquired about Bella! Come and try her out!
Here's a few new videos of some of the things we've been working with Bella on:
Bella Jumping:
Bella is getting better about jumping. However, we would not say that she's great. She's just getting comfortable with the movements, and the concept of going over (instead of around) obstacles. She's much more willing to cooperate now than she was even 2 weeks ago.
We really wish that we had access to a pony cart and a harness, because we think that Bella would be easy to train to pull a cart! *** However, because we've never seen her do it, we are NOT saying she would.
Here's a clip of us, getting her to back up on the long lines.
One of the reasons we posted the above video is to show how much Bella WANTS to listen and do what's asked of her. The second her handler's attention is taken away from her, she seems to become unsure of what to do. Bella wants to please.
Here's a video of Bella being ridden down the ramp in the barn. The ramp is really there for the wheelbarrow, but if the horses will go up and down it, why not?
Here's a video of Bella being saddled:
And unsaddled:
Here is a video of Bella eating some treats. She can be grabby about treats and hand feeding. When we first got her, she was nipping some, so we would suggest caution and supervision IF a child is hand feeding her. However, we can proudly say that Bella has improved and become a little more polite as far as treats go.:
Sometimes we can be a little lazy, so we lead Bella with the golf cart from place to place instead of walking her. Bella is also familiar with tractors and 4 wheelers, although we haven't lead her from either of those.
Here's Bella standing sensibly, with her rider on her back, while the golf cart goes by.
Here's Bella, being ponied from an older mare: She does well when being led from another horse. We even took her along on a trail ride one day, where she didn't have a rider and was ponied the whole time. ***We would, of course, like to remind you that the horse you see her being ponied from is a very mild mannered, calm horse. Don't try ponying any horse if you're unsure of the temperament of either!
Bella (trying) to pony this older mare. "Allie" was not cooperating, and was walking VERY slow, so this isn't the greatest example, but it does show that Bella tries and is tolerant.
One night, my family camped out in the yard. We had a bonfire, and a tent set up. We took Bella over to the campfire to see what she thought of that. She didn't mind the fire (We didn't take her too close,) and we also took her over to the tent. Dusty's little brother got in the tent, and Bella reacted to the movement in the tent. She didn't try to bolt, but was very wary of it all. So we tied her up a little ways away and just let her observe all the stuff happening that night. She settled down and wasn't leery of the tent after a while. When we led her over to it, she even stuck her head down and looked in the unzipped door. She's curious and tries to make sense of things.
Here's Bella on the move. She has a long, pretty trot. We think she may have some Hackney pony in her, although she doesn't appear to be a full breed.
Trotting with rider on:
A little ground work when we first got Bella, to get her paying attention and leading well:
We started Bella over jumps, but can not say that she is jumping well. We will continue to work with her over small jumps and build her confidence. Bella looks very attractive in english tack, and we believe that she's a great size for a younger rider, so we'd like to get her consistent over small jumps.
We have worked hard to get Bella off to a good start for her future owner. If you have any questions, feel free to email us at welltrainedponies@gmail.com and we will happily try to answer all questions in a timely manner. We are willing to trailer Bella over to some of our local trails, if someone wants to try her out!
Bella is offered for sale for
*****UPDATE: Bella got a visit from the vet on 6/18/11. She is now up to date on ALL shots, and a new coggins test! Also, we're happy to be able to state that Bella stood calmly for the vet.
*****UPDATE: We just received Bella's Coggins Test papers in the mail. For some reason, the vet must have put her age down wrong...because the papers say she's 6 years old, when she's 9. I just noticed this, and figured I'd mention it on here, so that no one that comes and looks at the papers think that something fishy's going on. :) Because Bella has no registered papers, I don't guess this is really a problem...just making sure we state that the coggins says she's younger than she actually is.
*****UPDATE: Bella's price has been reduced to $700.00. The kids would like to get this mare sold and complete their project! We're hoping to find the right home for Bella soon! Thank you to all who have called and inquired about Bella! Come and try her out!
Here's a few new videos of some of the things we've been working with Bella on:
Bella Jumping:
Bella is getting better about jumping. However, we would not say that she's great. She's just getting comfortable with the movements, and the concept of going over (instead of around) obstacles. She's much more willing to cooperate now than she was even 2 weeks ago.
We decided that we would like Bella to be more comfortable around ropes, so we have taught her to pull items. We've pulled several different things with Bella, including pallets, big tree branches, construction cones, an old swimming pool cover (basically a huge tarp), etc. She's comfortable being line driven while pulling these items, and we've also ridden her and pulled items at the same time. Unfortunately, those videos did not save to our camera, so we'll do it again and post those later. Here's Bella pulling a pallet, being line driven:
And here is a video of us, showing how we made sure that Bella would be ok with Ansley riding her AND pulling a branch. (Like we mentioned before, the video of her actually pulling the branch while riding Bella didn't save on the camera.)
Here's a clip of us, getting her to back up on the long lines.
One of the reasons we posted the above video is to show how much Bella WANTS to listen and do what's asked of her. The second her handler's attention is taken away from her, she seems to become unsure of what to do. Bella wants to please.
Here's a video of Bella being ridden down the ramp in the barn. The ramp is really there for the wheelbarrow, but if the horses will go up and down it, why not?
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