The other day there was a thread on a POA history page that I am a member of about how everyone got started in POA. I didn't participate because most of the people who were participating had been members of the POA organization practically their whole lives. They were sharing memories of when they were a kid, showing in the POA breed and growing up together with their ponies. It was so fun to read and hear how close knit this organization was of people from all across the United States. I feel blessed to be a part of the POA family, but our story doesn't span decades. It all began quite recently in the grand scheme of things. So I thought I'd write and document a little history of our POA story.
When I was finally able to get a horse again, after selling my horses to go to college in 1995, I wanted to take my daughter and try this horse showing thing. The first year we showed was when Libby was 6. I'll never forget because her pony was recovering from an abcess one weekend so we had her show my old Arab in lead line instead. When the judge asked her how old she was, just making conversation with the littles, she panicked. She thought she was too old for lead line since she usually rode her pony by herself. Her response was "I'm 6, but I was only 5 when the show season started so it's okay." The judge just smiled and reassured her that it was indeed okay.
That first "show" pony was an overweight POA/Haflinger/Standardbred mutt cross of a thing, but definitely safe. We used to joke that, while Libby was in the walk/trot classes, she really had a walk/walk pony. At the end of that first season we sold Lieba and bought her a new pony. A flashy little welsh type pony, all black with a half blue eye, named Shadow.
Shadow was definitely more than a walk/walk pony. She had a lot of attitude and quite a bit of sass. It's a good thing Libby had built up confidence on Lieba or Shadow might have cured her of wanting to ride horses for good. We knew we had to do something else, but what? We had been showing against these little spotted ponies all year called POA's and watching how good, quiet and cute they were, I knew we wanted to find a POA.
With the help of a local trainer and friend, we found a whale of a pony eating off a round bale with some calves just down the road from us. She hadn't been ridden much in a few years, but she was started right originally and just needed a little polishing. In no time we were going everywhere on that pony, who came to us with the name Miss Piggy, but we gave her back her original name, Giggles. Giggles and Libby became a team and a force to be reckoned with. They crushed it in walk/trot and were loping the next year. At Champ Show they even made a call back in the English classes against the big horses. Giggles showed us what a POA can truly do, which is a little bit of everything. Libby showed her successfully in all the judged events, then added timed events, took her trail riding and eventually they added reining, western riding and even jumping to their skills. Giggles never let us down in any of them.
Giggles was our first POA, but she would not be our last. Giggles drew us in and hooked us forever. Since Giggles there has been Taz, Dolly, Susie, Licorice, Kid, Saam, Sammy, Daisy, Sally, Chevy, Vegas, Cutie, Rye, Quincy, Gretchen, Pearl, Bling, Cash, Bibble, Meg, Noel, Shadow, Razzle, Jenny, Cotton, Cooper, Buddy, Hope, Kuzco, Remi, Hot Wheels, Peach, Joker, Sully, and our current ponies; Mercy, Cher, Fiona, Charlie, Invy, and Pepper. You could say we are addicted to spots and you wouldn't be far from the truth. In love with POA, all the way.
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