Bobthecob15
Well-Known Member
Hi, I posted about 9 months ago as we were having issues with my 9yr old daughters bucking pony…her confidence was through the floor after some horrible falls and after investigations and getting everything checked we decided to sell him on as there wasn’t anything obviously wrong with him and she didn’t want to ride him anymore. Anyway we sold him via sales livery and he’s happily plodding around the lanes of wales with no issues, he always preferred hacking to schooling which is what we mainly did.
Fast forward a few months and we bought a lovely mare for her, her confidence with her soared and they had a brilliant summer and autumn, her riding progressed loads, she was jumping small courses which I never thought she’d do and she was having the best time. She can occasionally spook in the school, she has learned how to stop her and until recently laughed it off most of the time. She’s been ridden around once a week by the girl on the yard too to keep her ticking over and jumping which she pony loves. She has come off a couple of times jumping as you might expect, had one nasty one where she got dragged along a fence too…but after that she wasn’t deterred she carried on with everything. I do wonder if that was the start of the change in confidence.
In November she unfortunately had a cut leg in the field and it was pretty bad, she was on box rest for a week and then had about another week where she wasn’t able to ride due to lost shoe and awful weather. Back in work now and she’s been riding her much less, we don’t currently have lights on the arena so we are restricted to weekends only and holidays…the weather has been SO bad she’s not even been able to ride much over Christmas. Her confidence has plummeted again, there is no obvious cause this time…she finds her more forward now than she was in summer/autumn which I think has been making her nervous. She doesn’t like strong winds and rain…it makes her more twitchy! She’s having regular lessons…we have changed instructors as I found the previous one very dismissive of her fears…”she doesn’t look fast so she’s fine”. Obviously doesn’t work like that for a 9yr old!
She’s generally more anxious the last 6 months in general and is having some help with that (professionally). We are moving yards in a fortnight to one with lights so she can ride more in the week plus they have an instructor on site and she can also school her for me. I’m hoping a change of location might help?! I feel the pony is a little sharp but she’s been managing her so well up to now, she’s an amazing horse and the two of them could be amazing together. I’m just a bit lost as to what to do. I don’t want to change ponies again but equally I’m not sure how to help her.
I’m hoping once winter is out of the way we can get back on track…has anyone experienced similar and able to offer any advice? Thanks
Fast forward a few months and we bought a lovely mare for her, her confidence with her soared and they had a brilliant summer and autumn, her riding progressed loads, she was jumping small courses which I never thought she’d do and she was having the best time. She can occasionally spook in the school, she has learned how to stop her and until recently laughed it off most of the time. She’s been ridden around once a week by the girl on the yard too to keep her ticking over and jumping which she pony loves. She has come off a couple of times jumping as you might expect, had one nasty one where she got dragged along a fence too…but after that she wasn’t deterred she carried on with everything. I do wonder if that was the start of the change in confidence.
In November she unfortunately had a cut leg in the field and it was pretty bad, she was on box rest for a week and then had about another week where she wasn’t able to ride due to lost shoe and awful weather. Back in work now and she’s been riding her much less, we don’t currently have lights on the arena so we are restricted to weekends only and holidays…the weather has been SO bad she’s not even been able to ride much over Christmas. Her confidence has plummeted again, there is no obvious cause this time…she finds her more forward now than she was in summer/autumn which I think has been making her nervous. She doesn’t like strong winds and rain…it makes her more twitchy! She’s having regular lessons…we have changed instructors as I found the previous one very dismissive of her fears…”she doesn’t look fast so she’s fine”. Obviously doesn’t work like that for a 9yr old!
She’s generally more anxious the last 6 months in general and is having some help with that (professionally). We are moving yards in a fortnight to one with lights so she can ride more in the week plus they have an instructor on site and she can also school her for me. I’m hoping a change of location might help?! I feel the pony is a little sharp but she’s been managing her so well up to now, she’s an amazing horse and the two of them could be amazing together. I’m just a bit lost as to what to do. I don’t want to change ponies again but equally I’m not sure how to help her.
I’m hoping once winter is out of the way we can get back on track…has anyone experienced similar and able to offer any advice? Thanks
they’ve been in 24hrs due to flooding so she had a lot of energy…i don’t think she’s had much education on lunging either to be honest! So after seeing her do that my daughter isn’t so keen!
she’s an ISH so not very hardy!
