Canter help

[teamsarazara]

A friend at the yard asked me if i could do some schooling with her daughters pony as they had been to a dressage pony club thing and the pony wasn't responding to the aids to go into canter. Her daughter is a lovely rider although she is quite small. So i did a bit with her pony today and he seemed to go into canter absolutely fine and school fine, could it be because he's only ever been ridden by lightweight adult riders and he doesn't understand a childs aids?

 

[Nollaig Shona]

That is a possibility, it might be an idea to ask the pony to canter with a vocal cue as well as the leg aids, then get the child to use the same cue (either clicking or making kiss kiss noises, something that doesn't rely on the tone or volume of your voice) and see how they get on doing that, until the pony is cantering for her, then 'wean' the pony off the vocal cue