Breaking a Potential Show Pony

[mcnaughty]

OK - we just want to have fun with him really but breeding-wise he has the potential to be something rather special under saddle - Section A - M&M leadrein....

I have broken and brought on a couple of babies in my time up to riding club level and both were 16hh TB x WB types. We hacked, jumped, dressage, local show jump and ODE up to 2ft 9in etc etc

However, I have never....ever.... broken a pony..... Um - I am certainly not a lightweight adult and my daughter is 4... OK, so how on earth do I do the backing bit? I do have a good friend who is about a size 6 (cow ;-)) I suppose I could ask her to do the sitting on and riding off bit.

I was just going to get my daughter to sort of crawl all over him until he was so bored with the whole process that he would just sort of take to it all naturally and very slowly. Oh and the pony is 2.5 yrs so we have all winter of grooming him within an inch of his life and tacking up, untacking, tacking up etc - leading round - long reining and round the world practice....

Thoughts please....

 

[BigRed]

I think you will find that after a winter of all that playing around, he will hardly notice someone actually sitting on him. That is pretty much what I did with my Shetland. One day my nephew actually sat on him and we went for a nice walk and he didn't bat an eyelid and he hasn't done since.

 

[itsme123]

de sensitise him to everything. Lead him out in traffic take him to big busy shows. Let your child handle him as much as possible, so he becomes a true child's pony.
Please don't just plonk a kid on him and break him to lead rein. Break him OFF lead rein first, with a small adult. If broken correctly he will respond to voice commands and thus be able to do the lead rein job. It's so hard to get them going off lead rein once they've been broken to lead rein only. He'll have a longer time with you and a more promising future as a result.

If he's really something special it might be worth sending him to a breaking / producing yard that specialises in ponies.

 

[Walrus]

de sensitise him to everything. Lead him out in traffic take him to big busy shows. Let your child handle him as much as possible, so he becomes a true child's pony.
Please don't just plonk a kid on him and break him to lead rein. Break him OFF lead rein first, with a small adult. If broken correctly he will respond to voice commands and thus be able to do the lead rein job. It's so hard to get them going off lead rein once they've been broken to lead rein only. He'll have a longer time with you and a more promising future as a result.

If he's really something special it might be worth sending him to a breaking / producing yard that specialises in ponies.

Ditto this, you may be able to use your child to get him used to being on the lead but unfortunately it wont get him broken to actually being ridden. Then you'll have a problem when your daughter wants to go off the lead. I would echo if he is really special consider sending him to a specialist yard who can get him going on and off the lead. Also, even if he is dead quiet and well desensitised unless your daughter is a very competant 4 year old it could be quite difficult to do county level lead rein and busy shows with a novice pony and novice jockey (not impossible tho!). A producer may be able to find a more experienced lead rein jockey for the first few outings etc. If you're looking for someone I can recommend a specialist pony producer in the north who are excellent and really lovely people.

 

[mcnaughty]

Thanks everyone for your advice - I do have a very knowledgeable and able tiny adult friend so she could do the work off the leadrein but not until the pony is at least 4 and physically strong enough to take a larger body up top.

I'm going to do the desensitising work all winter and hopefully when the times comes for my daughter to get up there the pony won't blink.

If it does look like he is going to be as good as his dad, mum, aunties, uncles and half brother (Olympia and HOYS qualifiers and placed) then I might have to send him away for a while to a professional but at the moment I just want my daughter to have a bit of fun - roll on next summer...

Thanks for the advice on LR vs off LR - didn't consider that one at all.

Longreining round the lanes here I come....