me vs the mini

I have never handled mini horses before. But I agreed to walk Pancake, the mini, in a local parade with Jaime and Kyle. Pancake was a pro, she did the parade last year. Should be easy. . .right?

Wrong. Pancake made it difficult for me from the get-go. I went to catch her in her little mini field with her mini buddies. She was worse than Shyloh at her worst! Pancake had all the horses tearing ass around the mini field.

zoom!

Funny thing about minis is that they are so small and funny, everything they do is cute. . .at first. Jaime  got some grain and we (she) finally managed to catch the little rascal. I walked her to the trailer and little Pancake refused to get in. She reared, holding the rear and sitting back on her legs. Cute and funny. Kyle said one time he just picked her up and put her in the trailer. Silly mini. We did not have to result to that and Pancake got in the trailer. 

Kyle was pulling the trailer with two minis and a horse. Me and Jaime would be driving Notch and Clutch to the parade in this:

Her brand new hitch wagon! It was awesome! And scary. It was the first time the boys were hooked to it. It was high (and I'm a bit afraid of heights). It was big. But Jaime and I climbed all the way up and off we went. 

So high!

After a while I relaxed way up there. The boys were amazing! I really can't say enough how great of a job Jaime did training Notch. We trotted pretty much the entire way. And we showed up to the parade in style!

At the parade start point, I put some antlers, bells, and a bow on Pancake. She was far from thrilled about the whole decorating thing. I began to wonder just how much it would hurt to get kicked by a mini, because I was sure that was going to happen. It didn't though. When I went to brush her front legs, she ripped my hat off my head and almost bit my head in the process. I was less than pleased. Jaime and Kyle out lights on the hitch wagon. It was so cool!

She sure is cute!

Itty bitty!

Poor Pancake acted like she had never been in a parade before. She spooked at everything. The eight shiny reindeer (mules) terrified her as they went past. 

They all had "anters" and pulled Santa!

And once the parade started, Pancake wanted to run like someone lit a firecracker under her! She was pulling me this way and that way. I held on tight right up at her halter and she pulled like she wanted to remove my arm from its' socket. I gave her slack on the lead rope and she was running back and forth in front of me. Little Pancake was literally dragging me down the street. Eventually, I got smart and let her run circles around me. At least this way I could guarantee that my arms would stay attached to my body. And she was screaming! Calling for other minis, since there were mostly big horses around. We were fighting the whole time and I think I was losing.

Of course, once the parade was over Pancake was a little better-ish. I would take a draft horse over a mini any day!

Sorry for the grainy photo