Exercises for a young, unbalanced pony?

[jess.hewlett]

I have a young pony who although has the scope to jump just doesn't have enough balance around corners, he rushes on the flat in canter etc, was wondering if anyone could suggest any excercises that help with balance, including jumps, poles etc, i do a lot of transitions with him but he just gets very bored of them which makes him not listen as much and think he would enjoy it if i switched it up and had a look if there was anything else i could do! Thank you

 

[Casey76]

Get him using his body correctly. Lots of circles, serpentines etc with both correct and counter bend. Lots of lateral work, especially leg yielding will encourage correct push from behind. Keep the canters short and balanced. Transition back to trot before he loses balance and falls onto the forehend.

 

[tda]

And use lots of pole and cavaletti work to keep him interested. Also what about some le l trec type stuff or gymkhana games for fun

 

[tristar]

as he is a YOUNG pony he needs time and not too much dressaging, give him a few hacks a week over interesting terrain, hills if poss, and allow him to go forwards and canter on, the main thing with canter is to endure the early unbalancedness in order to preserve the bound in canter, then a couple of sessions in the school, not too demanding, large curves and a few circles, do what he is capable of, he will get tired so don`t worry too much if he gets the right leading leg each time and goes on forwards a bit the main things are there, the canter can become more balanced when he gets to the stage of better transitions up and down from trot and can do decent circles in canter trot canter, as the circles will force him to re balance, but it must be done quietly, calmly with lots of rewards and praise.

the canter, if not forced can become wonderfully balanced with gears within the canter and the bounding steps of medium canter down the long side can become something really special to ride, working canter into medium canter back to working canter, this is where your pony and rider can find the control to re balance without disturbing the flow when jumping, almost half halt,

don`t worry what he is doing with his head freedom at the front will allow him to sort himself out to start with, he will put himself in self carriage when he is longitudinally supple which will come from changing the pace within the pace, the gathering up and lengthening will supple his back and develop the muscles.

a horses canter can change from totally uninspiring and flat to flowing and light, this is where the horse and rider become united and the rider can control the direction and balance with tiny aids that help the horse to do what is being asked.

 

[jess.hewlett]

Have done all this and has seemed to work

 

[jess.hewlett]

Thank you!!