Hey everyone! I'm Safiyah Aayan, founder and artist of Chibi Ponies Life.
Not sure how many of you are wondering when I was gonna talk more about my horse and face of Chibi Ponies, Spirit, but here I'm gonna give you a little more info about him!
I've owned Spirit for about 2 years now. And let me tell you, our journey was ANYTHING but smooth. The first 6 months are basically negligible, he was staying at a stable an hour and a half away, hence I only got to see him once a week, sometimes not even that! And in that time period, his handlers were not exactly... nice. He went through a lot.
Finally, I got him to a stable in my neighbourhood, which was only 5 mins away by walk. and thats where I found out the endless amount of issues he had. He was super sensitive, not allowing anyone to touch him beyond his neck, super nippy, didnt allow anyone to pick his feet, didn't like grooming, hated lunging, and had a huge saddle sore (due to an ill-fitted saddle). Yeah, he was a full package. But the fact that we were closer to me meant I could start working with him now.
Ofcourse I had to give him about one month of rest for his saddle sore to heal. I took the time to deal with his behaviour issues. Spirit is my first horse, and while I always had an intrest to learn horse behaviour and training, I never actually got to learn anything about it. But you'd be surprised by how far a few Instagram reels and YT videos will take you! Within 2 months or so, his nipping came to a bare minimum, he was easy to groom and fine when cleaning his feet. I was quite happy when it came to our progress. I had also started some groundwork, taking him over trot poles and small cross jumps time to time, since my goal was to jump him.
After his saddle sore healed, I got started with riding him. And it was so odd, he wasnt like the other school horses despite being one his whole life. He was extremely stiff. And the fact that I underwent surgery somewhere along this timeline made it extremely difficult. But with the help of a few friends and trainers (In the time span of a year or so) He became quite the jumper! He could jump about one meter (100cm) quite easily. The highest being 1.15m! Sure, we still had problems, one being a urinary problem where I just couldn't find the root of the problem. But eventually we got that covered too. Turns out it was a bean :/
Shortly after accomplishing these milestones, we started competing. We had our downs, but plenty of ups. which consisted of several clear rounds and second-place ribbons! Our jumps kept getting bigger and bigger, but Spirit always took me over them with all the effort he could give.
But then it all disappeared.
If you didn't know, along with horse riding, I actively played several other sports, one of them being football, and going back to that game cost me my ACL.
It was rough. It felt like all our progress was crumbling down, especially when I got back and found Spirit refusing to cross just the poles, with a horrible, sweet itch.
So I took a break. Not deliberately, I'll admit that, but it was for the best. I got time to treat Spirit's itch (which has still got me running to the stables every day), and he got forget about jumping for a bit. Just a few days ago, I coached my sister as she rode him for the first time in three months (yes, we lunged him first), and while he isnt the jumper he used to be, I'm grateful he's not backing up at the sight of a pole.
It's been a long journey for just two years; to be honest, I still don't believe it's only been two years. But I'm lucky to have him, even though he quite literally BLEEDS money through vet bills. He has taught me just as much as I've taught him.
I don't know how long I'll be able to keep calling him mine. But what I do know is I'm going cherish every moment I have with him till then.