Yes, Jim, no matter how good EZ Rider is with kids, Molly is still the best of the best!
For those who don’t know the whole story, here is a short version. When my daughter in law was pregnant with my first grandchild, I told Jim to start looking for a really good gaited large pony. I figured it would take several years to find this perfect horse. However, Jim found her in just a few weeks, before the grandchild was even born. Molly is not a Rainmaker baby, but still she is the epitome of everything a Mountain Horse is supposed to be. She belonged to a friend of Jim’s, who was in hospice and dying of cancer. He asked Jim to find Molly a good home...Molly had been used for the dying mans grandson.
After many emails and conversations, it did seem that Molly was what I wanted, so I bought her.
She came off the shipping trailer at 9 pm one night in June. The next day she gave three hours of pony rides to neighbor children. Two weeks later, she gave a ride to a handicapped child. I cried when I watched Molly scoot sideways to keep this child balanced. My grandkids have grown up with Molly. The oldest is 10 now, and will show Molly in 4-H for the 3rd year. Molly is also the perfect guest horse. I cannot tell you how many scared kids and adults have learned to ride on Molly.
As of two weeks ago, she became an official lesson horse. I now have a resident instructor at my barn, and she has been using Molly. She tells me Molly is the best lesson horse of her career. That is fine...but she can only use Molly in lessons when my grandkids are not riding her. That is still the priority.