Naughty pony

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warrior_pony

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We have a section A that can be very naughty at times! He will put his head right up and run off, he is very strong when he gets it into his head that he wants to go somewhere! However other times he will be fine and work nicely, has anyone got any ideas of what to do to help stop these naughty moments? (He is ridden by a confident 9 year old and has had more experienced riders on and still does the same thing!)
 
Get a small, preferably professional, rider on him and school him. The likelihood is that he will revert to naughty mode when a small person gets on though.....
 
What do you do after he has done it, I would be tempted to always follow the behaviour with the same thing, something he finds very difficult eg v small canter circles so he has to work at his hardest, side steps, anything which makes him refocus. Maybe doing this consistently will make him think better of his tricks.
 
Standing martingale and teach the child the one rein stop. If pony doesn't get away with it then chances are he'll give up.
 
Is this the same animal as in your topline post? Might you be asking more of him than he is able to give so he is taking off out of protest? You might want to check tack, back & teeth before strapping his head down or otherwise penalising him.
 
Hiya, after he has done it he is always ridden in small circles normally in trot. And no different pony, he is my sisters. Has teeth etc done regularly. And he does not have his head strapped down. He is ridden with just saddle and bridle, no martingale or anything. However we may have to try standing martingale if he carries on as there is not discomfort that we are aware of just him being naughty at times!
 
Most ponies are smart, smarter than most children that ride them and can usually tell straight away what sort of rider they have on them and I find putting a better rider never solves the problem long term.
There is usually a trigger or a set of circumstance that sets them off and for an adult supervising to watch and work out what that is and work out how to avoid the problem.
Usual triggers are boredom, trying to avoid something difficult, being asked to the same thing over and over again and not getting it, doing the same thing in the same place on each ride, not wanting to leave a friend.
I would do lots of slow hacking until you have worked why he is doing this, no matter what kit you put him he will always be stronger than the child, the fact he good most of the time makes me think there is a trigger.
 
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