X Halt and Salute

Zani being a five year old is anything but the push-button pony that every young rider dreams of in the few first years of riding school. Having lived all around the world I started riding in m'asia, not very known for producing olympic golds in the equine disciplines i must admit.
in those years of riding ponies and being introduced to the life in in the showring i never rode one of those push-button ponies. and now i am glad. sure at the time i bit the dust of the arenas plenty of times and cursed why i couldn't have those pretty, pristine, pampered push-button ponies. my experiences with difficult horses and ponies started early. ofcourse, i learned the basics on well trained and safe ponies and horses but once i got past the walk, trot, canter phase and staying in balance i moved onto the more difficult cases. my first favorite was lady, a little mare with lots of attitude. she was my first pony that i jumped with. i don't have too many memories of the first time besides that lady saved me a couple of times. she was notorious for taking off towards the jump as she loved jumping so she took off and would jump when i was not nearly ready so i flew onto her neck but she wouldn't put her head down or buck.
my next favorite was picnic. he was the gentlest pony but he had had some bad experiences in his days before the poloclub i rode at. he taught me how to ride with my seat.
the stories of picnic, lady, mico, tootsie, faldo, romerius, romantico, kimi and limppu will be told. but not in one post.
Now back to the point of this post. Zani is like i stated a 5 year old now. i bought him when he was still 3 so theoretically i bought a very young horse. He is no where near grown up yet, but he has grown in leaps and bounds since my first ride on him. The fact that he isn't a push-button pony (or horse) or a show ready package gives me so much gratification when i see his development because i have brought him this far.
my passion for riding comes from the work that i put into it. i think showing a horse is wonderful but if i would just sit on a push-button horse and look stunning in the show ring it would not be as fufilling as riding my own horse that i've trained in the ring even if it would take a few years longer to get into the ring.
so no push-button ponies for me, please