From a pony who couldn't walk to a sassy lady!

Dora my first pony, my first everything with a horse. She helped me over come my biggest fear, riding. This is our story. I ride horses since my fifth. And once i felt so extremely hard on my fifth that I ended with a concussion. For a five year old girl that had so many impact on me that I was scared to ride again, I never stopped loving horses. When I turned eight my mom took to me to look for a pony. A black Shetlander, mare from 7 years old. Because I wanted to start riding again, we already owned Ian but Ian was to big and strong for me to ride at that moment. And there she was, my little naughty lady; Dora! I felt completely in love and she came home with us. Dora learned me everything, every scary thing she helped me over it. Even falling because I can't even tell you how many times I felt from her. She bucked, reared or just ran me of. But that made me the rider I am today. And I thank her for that. I grew out of her, Dora was to small to ride and we didn't have the time to have three horses. I wanted to learn more in dressage and jumping so I needed to make a decision for keeping her or looking for a bigger pony/horse that could help me grew in horseriding. On my eleventh birthday we got Eastern and Dora went to the man where we bought her from with the promise that she would taken care of. I was heartbroken when I heard her neigh for the last time. Since that moment I missed her everyday, hoping that we had enough time, space and money to get her back and take care of her again. Everyday I thought of her. We got news every month or so that's she was doing ok. Four years later I was standing in a horse shop buying a halter for Eastern. My mom came to me and told me that I need to search for a Shetland pony halter too because; "Dora is going to return in three days, she's going to be with us again." I cried my eyeballs out, pure happiness that my favorite little one was coming back and our herd was going to be complete. Three days later she arrived. She came out of the trailer and I immediately saw that she wasn't doing ok. She was in pain. She suffered from laminitis. She couldn't walk because of the pain. Eating was a problem too, her teeth were extremely bad. We didn't know at that time if she was going to make it. In the first week we treated her teeth, got her on painkillers and I walked her one to two hours a day to beat her laminitis. I worked on her condition when she showed me that she wasn't in pain anymore. I lunged her, fed her the good food, walked her, brushed her everyday and made sure that she wasn't in pain. A month later we shaved her because her fur was extremely thick and long, you couldn't even brush her. We still worked on her condition. And her laminitis was beaten, she was healthy again. Dora showed me how happy see was. But she started to get so much energy that she started to show some dangerous things. Bucking towards me, rearing towards me that started as a joke and being stubborn. I never stopped working with her, starting all over and over. Everything I went back to the basics. Groundwork, tricktraining, walking her, lunging her. But Dora just didn't want to work. The rearing problem was getting dangerous because she hit a couple of times. I tried to figure out how I could change that energy to something positive. Tricktraining and groundwork became our light. I learned her some tricks, did groundwork exercises and I walked her. I did this 3 times a week with sometimes a week of. She always her free days and started to admire the work days. Dora is a hard pony to work with, understanding her is a whole edication. Now she's already 4 years with me again, she's never going away anymore. We still enjoy our walks and session together. And she's the most happy pony now I ever seen. Thanks for reading if you did! - Owner of five horses, The lucky five! Eastern, Ian, Topshot, Dora & Yakari. You can call me Romy. Instagram horse related: instagram.com/equinemotions Instagram photography related: instagram.com/romy.delange Contact: equinemotions@outlook.com / info@exposeyourvision.nl