A lot of parents want to bubble wrap their kids, buy them the perfect pony, and watch them trot around at horse shows and win blue ribbons. But that’s not real life for most of us.

Real life is spending 45 minutes trying to catch said pony in the grass field. It’s about getting bucked off now and again for no good reason at all, missing every cross-rail distance the pony doesn’t pick for himself, and learning everything—and I mean everything—the hard way. It’s the stuff that doesn’t always win you blue ribbons, but it does make you a lifelong rider. Oh, and it’s fun. Really, really fun.

But don’t take our word for it… Mathilde and Taffy are so much cuter.