MissSBird
Well-Known Member
I have found myself in a tricky situation.
A friend of mine for many years bought a very young pony for her daughter. Her daughter is extremely nervous, and myself and my younger sister were immediatly concerned over pony choice.
As we expected, pony is too much for the nervous daughter. Daughter will happily canter on a different calm oldie belonging to another person, but is frightened of her own pony. She has to be persuaded to ride it by an instructor, and often has panic attacks when on or when about to ride it. She mainly walks, does a little trotting and refuses point blank to canter.
My sister is petite for her age (late teens) so friend asked her to ride pony in order to keep his schooling continueing. My sister was happy enough to do this. But today the pony started bolting off whenever she asked for canter. This isn't a huge concern with my little sister; she's a competent rider and if it was her own pony we'd work through it and get over it. However she only has time to school the pony once a week as she has her own to deal with.
Our main concern is that this pony is totally wrong for the daughter; she's shattering her already low confidence and could get hurt. The pony needs a more experienced rider.
But the pony is a stunner, and the mother has county level show ambitions. The pony has placed in the top three inhand every time out this season and this has made mother very happy.
Now she wants my little sister to take pony for his first ridden class at a show next week; in return she's going to take my sister and her pony to a show she could not get to otherwise. But last time my sister rode the pony at a show (tack and turnout class) the pony was very uptight and reared a few times. I was in the same class and was getting concerned for my sisters safety; I spent more time watching her than paying attention to my own riding. This experience plus the riding today has left my sister very reluctant to ride the pony next weekend.
Sorry for the long story, and thankyou for getting this far. Basically my sister and I have no idea how to approach this one, especially since she's still at school and I'm not 20 yet and the lady is a mature woman with a child who's older than me. We don't want to make enemies of a good friend. Has anyone any advice on how to approach this situation?
A friend of mine for many years bought a very young pony for her daughter. Her daughter is extremely nervous, and myself and my younger sister were immediatly concerned over pony choice.
As we expected, pony is too much for the nervous daughter. Daughter will happily canter on a different calm oldie belonging to another person, but is frightened of her own pony. She has to be persuaded to ride it by an instructor, and often has panic attacks when on or when about to ride it. She mainly walks, does a little trotting and refuses point blank to canter.
My sister is petite for her age (late teens) so friend asked her to ride pony in order to keep his schooling continueing. My sister was happy enough to do this. But today the pony started bolting off whenever she asked for canter. This isn't a huge concern with my little sister; she's a competent rider and if it was her own pony we'd work through it and get over it. However she only has time to school the pony once a week as she has her own to deal with.
Our main concern is that this pony is totally wrong for the daughter; she's shattering her already low confidence and could get hurt. The pony needs a more experienced rider.
But the pony is a stunner, and the mother has county level show ambitions. The pony has placed in the top three inhand every time out this season and this has made mother very happy.
Now she wants my little sister to take pony for his first ridden class at a show next week; in return she's going to take my sister and her pony to a show she could not get to otherwise. But last time my sister rode the pony at a show (tack and turnout class) the pony was very uptight and reared a few times. I was in the same class and was getting concerned for my sisters safety; I spent more time watching her than paying attention to my own riding. This experience plus the riding today has left my sister very reluctant to ride the pony next weekend.
Sorry for the long story, and thankyou for getting this far. Basically my sister and I have no idea how to approach this one, especially since she's still at school and I'm not 20 yet and the lady is a mature woman with a child who's older than me. We don't want to make enemies of a good friend. Has anyone any advice on how to approach this situation?
