Adult rider humiliated by child's pony - tell me I'm not alone!!

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dorito

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So, went to try a nice sounding 13.2hh pony and, as safety is important to me, was quite pleased that she'd been a kid's pony up to now.
That is, until I tried riding her.

Won't go into too much detail but basically, could not steer, could not get a canter (unless I was prepared to aim it at the jump set up in the school) and if I picked up the reins to take a contact she went backwards.

Pretty sure I'm not as bad a rider as that all makes me sound. Not great but am fairly competent, least I thought so...!

Please tell me I'm not the only grown-up person who's been put in their place by a hairy short-a**e :o
 
I seem to recognise this syndrome lol. In my case it wasn't exactly small but it went left when I tried going right . Right when I asked for left and stopped with its head in the corner of the school as if I'd asked it to go through the ****** wall. As for canter! I was well and truly humbled! And all to comments of " oh, I've never seen him do that before" :o
 
When I was a teenager I once took two children on a ride with me. One fell off her very naughty 11.2 dartmoor pony (aptly named Toady) and refused to get back on. I put her on my horse and got on Toady myself. Next thing I knew she bucked me off too and I had a bruise the size of a dinner plate on my behind!
 
In my early 20's when I was 6 stone wet through, I offered to back my friends 11.2hh pony. Somehow managed to bronc me off and I almost completely tore my crutiate ligament!
 
your not alone - i too have been peed off with when i was very slim by a 12hh pony who was as slippery as an eel. And once i rode a naughty pony for a friends neice, and yup she was just as naughty with me, in fact she backed up on the yard with me into and over a wheelbarrow and carried on going until she reversed into the gate, then napped all the way to the field, when asked for canter dropped her shoulder and bronced!
 
When I was a teenager I had a fantastic 14.2hh jumping pony who was an armchair ride to hack out (usually) one day I persuaded my mum to swap horses on the way home from a nice ride out, as soon as she got on him he decided to start trotting and when she tried to stop him he got faster and faster resulting in him cantering for home bucking all the way when I managed to catch up with them about a mile and a half up the road back at our yard lets just say she was less than pleased, of course I thought it was highly amusing and was given a good telling off, but fair play I don't know how she stayed on!
 
There is nothing harder than coming off horses and getting onto ponies! You forget just how much more of a "meet me half way" relationship you have with them most of the time. When I went away to college to do my AI my pony hadn't yet been sold. When I came home at half term I got on him (all full of myself) to do some "schooling" with him. I was promptly ditched!
 
I would wonder if kids ride in much stronger bit and pony is expecting a jab in the chops, why it is so sensitive and reluctant to go forward.

Went to vault on shettie years ago being short and a lot lighter then, when I was in the air pony moved, leaving me to land on my feet the other side of her. Swear she was giggling!
 
I remember teaching one time and the girl was having so many problems with the pony, I couldn't work out what was going on because he was usually so well behaved. I ended up getting so exasperated I got on him to see what was going on.
Couldn't for the life of me get him to canter a 20m circle! He kept tanking off up the school, dropping the shoulder and twisting his head and neck the way ponies do. The client got back on him and she happily cantered a 20m circle. I swear that flippin pony was smirking at me!!
 
If its a child pony the chances are you were confusing it maybe? Maybe is hadnt been schooled very well?

Anyway enough sympathy .. man up and get a horse :p
 
Yes, was riding the resident shetland bareback a few years ago in the field in a bit cordoned off by electric fence. He took off full pelt and galloped at the strand of wire. The wire hit me in the stomach and I was catapulted backwards whilst Sammy galloped off up the field with an evil look in his eye! :D
 
My daughter worked for an Olympic event rider for a year as a working pupil, riding all sorts and the only one she fell off was a little pony in for breaking.
 
When I was going to a Riding School there was this one pony I hated riding as I swear he was pure evil, he had 2 gears full gallop or moonwalk but my god was he a great jumper, point and hang on!! As usual about 10 minutes in and I was flat on my face after 3 laps of the school at full gallop finished off with a head between the knees bronc session.

After the payment of a mars bar was made to my instructor for falling off she told me how I needed to be the boss of him and not let his head get down and to keep on at him. She got on to give me a demo and only managed 1 lap of the school at full gallop before losing her balance and falling off, pony then got down for a good roll and broke the saddle (told you he was a demon). Pony was aptly named Domino.

I also once swapped with a friend on a hack, she clambered onto my 17.3 and I squashed her 14hh New Forest. I fell off 3 times in quick succession all over grass eating, that pony had a neck like a weightlifter! I always wondered why she rode like a cowboy on the buckle!
 
I have two exmoors. The second one I'm backing in earnest, now, as the first is approaching retirement. She decided two weeks ago that she didn't want to go through the hay field (started doing small hacks out) and without warning bucked me clean over her head, splatting me onto the rocky track. She's 12 hh... Thankfully no one saw, but I do think people on the yard think I'm not a serious horsey person because I have ponies. Funnily enough, none have volunteered to ride either of them...
 
Did you see the pony go for a kid? I've seen some really nice, safe kids ponies that just did not 'do' adults. :) Equally I've seen some ponies started by adults that looked the business but never really went for an appropriately sized child.

I think every adult/teenager has been humiliated by a pony at some point. I think it's in their contract.
 
It is for this reason I am dreading getting on my daughter's 13.2 ! Am almost glad for much current bad back so I don't have to yet !!
 
Oh my goodness I have lost count of how many times I have been in this situation.

A couple of examples for your amusement!

Hacking back to boxes after a days hunting, one of the children wanted to ride my horse back - think 16.3hh IDX - the childs pony was extremely small and there was no way I was going to fit my trotter in the tiny iron. In my wisdom I thought I would step on said pony, I am extremely tall but light in weight, of course I did a comedy mount and dismount. I never lived that one down.

Many a time I have got on my children's ponies to sort out an issue, its fair to say I haven't chosen to stay on for long, and I have got off questioning my daughter how on earth she manages to ride the pony that has no steering, or mouth!

Luckily my daughter is now old enough to ride my horses so it's been "bye bye" ponies!
 
You gotta love ponies :)

I have found ( more often than not, and this does not include our pony !!!)

Mostly they seem to know when they have to suck it up, and when they can let go and have a yey hah moment!!!!

Give me a pony every time :D
 
I was dumped unceremoniously by a pony. oh yes in front of a crowd to. the little sod just put one huge buck i flew he then stood looking at me. mmmmmm red faced? Yep lol
 
I nearly got bucked off a flippin' RDA pony once! He was supposed to be used that day but the client hadn't turned up so I was offered the ride. He spent the whole time cantering sideways then bucking, I was alternating between swearing and laughing hysterically, determined not to fall off in front of everyone. He then carefully carried a young autistic boy around. His owner had warned us that he was great with learners/insecure riders but nutty with anyone else.
 
I was teaching a lesson once when the 14hh-ish git of the ride stopped dead at a jump and floored the kid riding him. I got on him afterwards to get him over it - and he did exactly the same to me and I ended up in the jump... :)
 
A friend's small daughter was having trouble with their elderly Shetland mare doing as she pleased instead of as asked by little girl. So friend got the Shetland to practise 'doing as you are told'. Friend landed on the ground, Shetland had a smug look on her face.
 
I REALLY learned to ride on a 12.2 Bodmin Moor pony (they are Dartmoors really I think). Anyone who thought they could ride would last 15 minutes if they were really lucky. He knew every trick in the book, but his favourite was the dropped shoulder. The first time I rode him I didn't even feel the buck which got rid of me and just watched his backside vanish around the corner wondering why I was sat on the grass. In mitigation all my previous riding had been done bareback and this was the first time I'd ridden in a nasty slippery saddle! As soon as you learned to stay put with one of his tricks he swapped it for another. But I have to say it was just his way of testing people out and he was never nasty. You just got back on and carried on for the next 15 minutes! He would certainly never rear or be truely sneaky, apart from the time he took me under a rotary washing line. You could put a total novice on him and he wouldn't put a foot wrong. The owners had a little boy who was brain damaged and he would ride that pony around the field in a steady walk with no leader perfectly safely. I think the most spectacular departure I ever made from an equine back though was a double somersault into a bush - off an 11.2hh. I was 16 at the time.
 
I used to tell my children that when they gave the aids until the pony learned got used to them they where talking to the pony like they were speaking English in a very think accent. Fortunately most ponies are really quick to learn but when a bigger sized rider gets on the smallest shift in weight is magnified, your loose rein may fell like a firm contact and the leg aids are happening in a completely different place. Some childrens feet only just scrap the saddle flap where as a bigger child or adult they may be below the belly. As to being run off with, the pony gets faster and more on the forehand and its a bit like a pushing a wheel barrow down hill the momentum increases so unless you stiffen you back any put your centre of balance further back your extra weight add to the problem. It once happened to be trialling a new saddle the pony cantered gathered speed and the saddle tipped me forward and the poor pony thought I was asking to go faster so we ended in a flat out gallop up a hill. When I break in a pony I progress the voice aids into the ridden work so the rider can always fall back on them.
I have 12hand pony that loves to make people look foolish, if they are not paying attention you will end up somewhere you didn't expect.
 
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