From his adopter: “We adopted Poco – otherwise famously known as Tony the Pony – on August 4, 2021. Poco is the consummate joker and has quite a list of favorite activities – he packs the most personality in a tiny body I’ve ever seen. He is always into something. Mostly, he cannot understand why his herd-mates, Rosie and Tango, don’t want to play with him every second of the day.
He spends his days standing and splashing in the water trough (much to his mom’s chagrin), running in the field, chasing the dog, and carrying around his food dishes and anything else he can get his mouth on – as well as occasionally putting said objects on top of his brother’s bum, which is unwelcome at best. He’s fearless and enjoys trying new obstacles and playing with his people at liberty – we even did our first versatility show in July – he ate one of the obstacles and got us in trouble! He likes to be sprayed down during the hot weather; when the hose comes out, he can’t help but bite onto the end, soaking the rest of us in the vicinity. He plays hard and rests just as hard, enjoying several naps a day in the sunshine.
He is working towards becoming a trail horse and has been lightly started under the saddle and ponied through the trails.
Poco lives with Rosie, a 7-year-old Quarter Horse mare (I think they both think she is his mom), and Tango, a 19-year-old Tennessee Walking Horse gelding. His heart belongs to Rosie – they are attached at the hip and are frequently found sharing space and sharing food. Secretly, I think Poco aspires to be like his big brother, Tango. He’ll follow him around and copy what he’s doing, which apparently is super annoying younger brother behavior, no matter the species!
There are so many things we love about Poco. He has an innate curiosity that means he’s willing to try just about anything. He lives his life with gusto, that’s for sure – he has brought so much light and humor to our farm. He is such a comedian; we couldn’t imagine our little herd without him.
If I had to choose just ONE thing, I would say that I love and admire how much he loves people. Given his past, it wouldn’t be surprising if he ran for the hills (maybe literally) every time someone came along with their agenda to do this or that thing with him. But he doesn’t. He’s the first to greet you at the gate, often with a cheerful whinny that the entire neighborhood can hear. He plunges his head right into his halter, ready for any adventure we can think up. Given the epic ways in which people have failed him in his young life already, his capacity for trust and forgiveness is pretty remarkable and something we can all learn from and aspire to.”
