Training ponies

There are 2 little ponies that are around 12 hands high (Their backs come up to my ribcage). It has been a long held, and much confirmed theory of mine, that the smaller the horse or pony, the meaner and sneakier it is. There are some exceptions to this rule but usually it is the case. I reckon this is mainly because people see a miniature pony or similar and they go "awwww, what a cute little boy. Does oo want a carrot?" and they treat a dangerous intelligent animal like it is a dog. Dogs are naturally friendly, horses naturally indulge in self preservation.

These two ponies put a considerable amount of their intellect into making up tricks to get out of doing things they don't want. This means that if I teach them tricks their intellect will be used to find out what I want so I will stop bugging them. At the moment I want to teach them to jump over a jump without a rider or a lead rope. I got Arakei to jump one twice this evening without a lead rope by teaching him to follow me then leading him over a much lowered version of the jump. Once he worked out what I wanted he was more then happy to comply and trotted and jumped beautifully. Next I hope to teach him to jump without me having to lead him.