Question regarding horse people and dog people? - Page 4

My grandpa gave me a yearling shetland pony gelding when I was five.  I was soooo excited until I was next to him. (Mystere I can relate.  I was terrified!) He was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.  He looked like someone had put a saddle on a white pony, stood him not quite knee deep in water then spray-painted him chocolate brown.  He had a perfect white saddle and four white stockings, a narrow blaze and a diamond on his left hip.  His mane & tail had just about every color you can imagine on a horse, both were extremely thick and shaggy.  Grandpa put an emerald green blanket & a child's western saddle on him, lifted me up and led us around the yard.  When the pony shook like a dog I squalled like a baby and wanted off.  I had him until he died of old age several years ago and he is still my favorite equine.  Despite the fact that he bit me when I fed him sugar, drug me off under trees and ran to the barn when he couldn't shake me.  He always came, like a dog when called.  He would slip out an open gate if given the chance and run for the alfalfa fields. 

I gruaduated to a 3/4 QH / 1/4 Standardbred mare in my teens.  She was a bitch to catch, a dream to ride as far as a smooth mover and easily spooked.  I rode her bareback most days often from sun up to sun down in the summer.  My favorite ride was a one time  night ride with no tack at all.  She was easy to catch that night and I just swung up and off we went into the 40 acre pasture we both knew well.  It started off great, just like a teenage girl's dream until she suddenly decided she wanted to run full out.  It was the most exhilerating ride of my life, also the most terrifying.  It was pitch black dark and all I could do was hunker down over her neck and twist my hands into her long mane.  It was like space mountain at Disney World until she finally pulled up at the barn.  I'm sure it lasted only minutes but it seemed to go on forever!  I didn't try that stunt again.  I was crazy confident when horseback and had a lot of close calls with that crazy mare but I loved her.  

My family had several QH's after that including a very, very gentle dapple gray stud.  They are all gone now.  Either sold, or dead.  I haven't been on a horse for close to twenty years.  Of all the horseflesh in my life, if I were able to start over and own horses again I would choose shetland ponies.  Not miniature horses...shetland ponies.  They own a special spot in my heart. 

Deb