Leading a horse from a pony?

[Jinx94]

I'm toying with the idea of teaching Tris to be led from and Arya to be led. I have ridden and lead previously while working at a polo yard, but all of the ponies were within a couple of inches of each other.

Tris is almost 14.2hh on his tiptoes (I think..) and Arya is quite a bit bigger. I haven't measured her, I'm not sure that I'm ready for the shock!!

Has anyone lead a behemoth from something smaller? What problems did you encounter? Did you have to do anything differently?

Am I completely bonkers? (The answer is probably yes!)

Photos of Thing 1 and Thing 2 to entertain the masses

 

[doodle]

I have led various heights from various heights. Biggest difference was a 12 hh pony from a 17hh hefalump. Pony had to do a bit more trotting but I have always found their temperaments made more of an issue. Sultan was boss over Minto. Ride Sultan and lead Minto went perfectly. The other way not so much!

 

[Brownmare]

You should be fine as long as your 14.2 has a decent walk and your lead horse is well mannered. I led my son's 10.2hh pony off my 16.1hh wb to get some blubber off him. Apart from having to trot to keep up with big horse's walk it was pretty straightforward.

 

[Jinx94]

Sorry guys, I don't think I wrote very clearly! It's bedtime and my brain is slowly giving up ? Edit: confusion may have been due to a daft spelling mistake, now fixed!

Arya is only 2 years old, I would be leading from the pony x

 

[JJS]

I love Tris - he’s so handsome!

The other way around, but I sometimes ride Mary and lead Six, and there's over two hands difference between them. I also used to lead him from my Thoroughbred mare, who was about a hand taller than Mary.

If it was me on Mary, I probably wouldn't worry too much about leading a horse who was taller than her - I'd certainly give it a try if it would make life easier

 

[Jinx94]

Thank you! He'll love you for that

Most of the time, he's pretty solid. He's not phased at all by ropes flapping around him (though I haven't yet tried it from up top) and is very good with anything that comes close beside or behind him. Hopefully he'll take to leading quite quickly.

She's also good as gold with ropes flapping around, and is close to being rock solid with voice commands to halt/walk on. We've got plenty of time to work on this as Tris is currently on box rest following a nasty knock to his leg and I want to make sure that he's solid with being ridden with one hand.

Fingers crossed we can get started BEFORE she hits 17hh!

@JJS will you be leading Flower from Mary any time soon? Love seeing the updates!

 

[JJS]

@JJS will you be leading Flower from Mary any time soon? Love seeing the updates!

No plans to try it just yet. Mary is fine to be led from, but I’m not entirely sure I’d trust Flower! Baby horse is a quirky little oddball who could go one of two ways: she’d either find it very reassuring and have great fun exploring the countryside with her mum, or spend the whole time pratting about, getting herself tangled, and being generally silly. She’s the sort of horse who requires your full attention ??

 

[Lurfy]

I used to lead a 17hh horse from a 15hh one. It worked fine except the big one was more forward so would almost lead lol.