MOTHER'S CHILDREN

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HOUSING AND FEED
A pony needs at least two acres of pasture for spring, summer, and autumn grazing. You can fence it in with a good board enclosure, but don't use barbed wire, or the animal may cut itself. It will also need a roomy box stall—about 10 by 12 feet—to live in ... especially during the winter.

If the pony is exercised only once or twice a week, it can maintain itself during the growing seasons on good grassy pasture alone. If it's doing light work, though, it should also have about one-half pound of grain and one-quarter to one-half pound of hay per day per 100 pounds of body weight . . . plus one pound of protein supplement (linseed meal, soybean meal, cottonseed meal, or alfalfa pellets). An animal that has a moderate workload should get double those grain and hay rations. And if it's doing heavy work, you ought to make the daily rations 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 pounds of grain and one pound of hay per 100 pounds of body weight (plus the pound of protein supplement, of course).

In the winter, or whenever pasture grass is down, your pony should be fed a high-quality horse grain (you can get it at a local feed mill—as I do—if you don't grow your own), a good mixed grass-and-timothy hay, and maybe a bit of protein supplement.

YOUR PONY'S HEALTH
Proper shelter, food, water, and care will do a lot to help maintain your pony's health. In addition, avoid quick changes of its feed, activity level, or body temperature . . . and heavy stress of any kind.

If your pony begins to get sick, it'll show at least one of these symptoms: loss of appetite . . . cough . . . runny nose . . . watery eyes . . . unusual behavior . . . loss of weight . . . lack of vigor . . . dull coat . . . abnormal bowel or kidney function . . . uneasiness . . . restlessness ... or a tendency to sweat while at rest. Whenever one (or more) of these symptoms appears and persists for a while, call a vet.

PHOTOS SUPPLIED BY THE AUTHOR

STRAINING THE FOAL
It would take a thick book to tell you all about a young pony's education, so I'll just give you a few general tips and tell you some of my experiences with training Sunny, our yearling filly.

A pony can be taught to handle almost any chore a horse can do. The most important rule for you to remember, though, is this: Be patient. Never get angry at your pony. Don't push it into anything it's not ready to do. Wait until the animal's four or five years old before using it for any hard jobs. And when starting on its work training, or using it for labor after a long layoff, be sure to ease the pony into shape gradually.

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