MTrewhella1
Member
So this lockdown has been able to give me the time needed to start our home bred pony, he will be 4 in May.
This is my first time backing a pony myself, although I have helped my mum on numerous occasions to break. It’s been great having support and advice to hand when needed but I would like different opinions of what you would do next.
Because we have had him since birth he has been handled from a really early age. I had no rush to break him in so have taken my time to ensure all the basics are covered (positive response to voice commands, successfully long reining and lunging, a ton of ground work, taking out for lots of walks inhand around are regular hacking route etc). For the past 3 weeks he has been working with a rider on his back (3-4 times a week, 15-20 mins each time) , we started out with schooling and covering the basics to gage if he would be safe out on the roads which he was
. My partner has been walking out with us as due to the lockdown I have no other horses to take him out with.
Question is, where do I go from here? He’s mostly happy hacking out on his own, gets a tad excited when seeing other horses out and about but we’re working on that. Do I ideally need to start taking him out with other horses now? If that’s the case am I best to go back to groundwork and long reining until I have someone to ride with? I don’t want him getting bored or pushing him with something so new!
Sorry for the long winded post, I’m sure I’ve forgotten to mention something but I look forward to hearing your advice
This is my first time backing a pony myself, although I have helped my mum on numerous occasions to break. It’s been great having support and advice to hand when needed but I would like different opinions of what you would do next.
Because we have had him since birth he has been handled from a really early age. I had no rush to break him in so have taken my time to ensure all the basics are covered (positive response to voice commands, successfully long reining and lunging, a ton of ground work, taking out for lots of walks inhand around are regular hacking route etc). For the past 3 weeks he has been working with a rider on his back (3-4 times a week, 15-20 mins each time) , we started out with schooling and covering the basics to gage if he would be safe out on the roads which he was
. My partner has been walking out with us as due to the lockdown I have no other horses to take him out with.Question is, where do I go from here? He’s mostly happy hacking out on his own, gets a tad excited when seeing other horses out and about but we’re working on that. Do I ideally need to start taking him out with other horses now? If that’s the case am I best to go back to groundwork and long reining until I have someone to ride with? I don’t want him getting bored or pushing him with something so new!
Sorry for the long winded post, I’m sure I’ve forgotten to mention something but I look forward to hearing your advice
