Love in Spite of

In 2009, I had my 1st experience with Leg Up in Ooty. At that point, there were only 3 ponies; Lily, Hercules, and Orion. And only one of those ponies was truly ride-able. Orion was still too young, and Hercules just hadn't had a lot of work. Hercules became one of my projects that year, because I was just lightweight enough to ride him, but big enough to sort of control him. Sort of.

Hercules had this trick he liked to pull when he didn't want to go where he was asked to go. He would pull his head down and to the left as hard as he possibly could, trying to pull his rider over off balance so they would let go of the reins. The biggest problem with this was that Hercules was not concerned by the fact that this pulled him off balance just as badly as it did his rider. So we would be standing on the edge of a road right by a drop-off, and he would be thrashing around, making himself stumble all over the place. The possibility that we would hurtle to our deaths did not deter him in the least. Of course, he is half-blind, so perhaps he was just unaware. Suffice it to say though, that he was not very pleasant to ride.

And he really didn't improve a lot over the next few years. Oh, he was ridden, but it was never a case of someone saying, "Oh my! I want to ride Hercules!" And he never seemed to be terribly keen on being ridden, whether for therapy, or just for pleasure. It just wasn't his thing. Some horses enjoy being ridden, while some aren't too interested.

But there seemed to be nothing that he really enjoyed. Unless it was hanging out in the pasture and chasing anything smaller than him. He really needed something to do. Horses, in spite of the fact that they sometimes try to convince us otherwise, are actually happier when they have something useful to do.

Somehow though, I found myself absolutely loving Hercules. He was a pain, and acted like a brat half the time, but I felt drawn to him. I really wanted him to enjoy work, and I wanted to be able to enjoy working with him. But we just weren't sure what to do.But still, any time I needed a pony to just cuddle with, he was my choice.

Suddenly though, we had a new option given to us. While Mala was in the States, she got a pony harness. Hercules was the logical candidate to learn to drive. He was the only one that wasn't useful as a riding horse (At the time, we thought Orion was dead), and he was in desperate need of something to do. We did not have the harness yet (it was on it's way. Mala didn't have room to bring it back with her), but I used that month while we waited for the harness to ground drive and lunge him, teaching him the basics, and teaching him to respond to voice commands. I was pleasantly surprised to find that he picked up quickly on what I was teaching him. It was especially nice as I was making up half of it as I went along. I knew the basic idea of what I was trying to do, but had never taught a horse to drive. I was praying I didn't completely fail. It was a little nerve wracking. Of course, I went into it saying, "Oh yeah, I can do this." and hoped I was telling the truth :~)
To be quite honest, I was a little shocked by how quickly Herc picked up on what I was teaching him. Especially since we were learning together. And he seemed to be enjoying himself. That was the really cool part.
I took a couple of trips down the mountain to find a cart that would fit Hercules. We needed something that was within our price range, and as lightweight as we could find since it will mostly be used on hills. The successful trip ended up being lasting from about 9:30 am til about 2:30 am the next morning. But we had our cart! And it looked amazing. And we got the harness that same day. Things were coming together.
I put the harness on Herc, and he was adorable, but then we went to camp before I had a chance to hitch him to the cart. I was a little concerned that he would be scared of the cart, and all of my work would be for nothing. I was super excited to hitch him to the cart, but a little apprehensive at the same time.
And finally, the day came. With Mala's help, I got Hercules hitched to the cart, and he acted like it was nothing. I ground drove him around the ring with the cart attached, and he barely even seemed to notice it. Then I got in the cart. And he acted like he had been pulling the cart for ages rather than just a few seconds. I drove him around for a while, and he seemed very eager and excited and not at all nervous. He stumbled a couple of times as he got used to pulling the cart, and the way that it felt when a wheel hit a rock, but he quickly found his stride again. I was crazy proud of him. It was incredible. Mala drove him, then went up to get Abbi so that she had a chance to drive. He listened so well no matter who was driving him, and pulled Abbi and me together without any problem.

And he has progressed since then. We drive out on the road, and though he still is a bit frightened of buses and huge trucks (the boy is half blind, and they make terrible noises as they come hurtling toward us. He probably thinks they're dragons coming to eat him or something), we are working on getting him over that, and he is doing better. I was a little concerned that he would decide he didn't like me as I am the one who made him do all of this work, but he is even friendlier toward me than he has ever been. He whickers at me, and comes to me just to cuddle for a little while. It's really neat, because now, that affection I felt for him is joined by pride I feel for the progress he has made, and the work we have done together. It is so nice to see him being useful, and enjoying himself as he is useful.

I was telling Mala the other day that it is ironic that Hercules would be the one I worked with so much this trip considering the fact that I liked him even when there was really no reason to like him. And now there are reasons to like him, and I like him all the more for it. But I still love the little knock-kneed, half blind pony that is a complete stinker when he wants to be. Useful or useless, I love him in spite of all the reasons I shouldn't.