Novice pony and novice kid? Am I mad?

honetpot said:
When my children were small I couldn't afford made ponies so most were bought either unbroken or just sat on, and I was too big to ride them. As long as you are not expecting the child to have any real control, they are just really sitting on a walking sofa, and you are going to control by voice aids or on lead rein it can work.
I always bought for temperament, at about three or four, and the majority I had for all their life, and the temperament IME never changes. As they get older they get smarter at avoiding things, but they were never nasty and when it came to teaching them something like jumping or leg aids I paid a pro for a couple of weeks, just so the lesson was well learned.
I wouldn't get an older child to ride it because most of them are doing it for their amusement and they will not be thinking that the pony must be suitable for a novice child when they get off, and the pony soon learns bad habits.
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You make some good points there.
 
honetpot said:
When my children were small I couldn't afford made ponies so most were bought either unbroken or just sat on, and I was too big to ride them. As long as you are not expecting the child to have any real control, they are just really sitting on a walking sofa, and you are going to control by voice aids or on lead rein it can work.
I always bought for temperament, at about three or four, and the majority I had for all their life, and the temperament IME never changes. As they get older they get smarter at avoiding things, but they were never nasty and when it came to teaching them something like jumping or leg aids I paid a pro for a couple of weeks, just so the lesson was well learned.
I wouldn't get an older child to ride it because most of them are doing it for their amusement and they will not be thinking that the pony must be suitable for a novice child when they get off, and the pony soon learns bad habits.
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I would disagree that children training ponies tends to give them bad habits, but would agree that if a child is riding a pony to improve it, that child needs adult supervision and should have both experience and some form of reward for the service they are providing. Offering a pony to an older child just for fun won’t give the same results.

Child riders are important as a young 12hh pony cannot physically carry an adult. Most small pony producers use very light teens or their own children under supervision.

My son has been backing ponies since he was 7, and producing them into safe sweet rides for younger children to enjoy. My daughter, wafty though she can be, did two last summer who were too small for my son to ride. Both went on to do well for smaller children and we rode them with that in mind. They can both play on their own ponies, if they are asked to help produce one that’s a different way of riding and a different responsibility.
 
I bought a green horse for my daughter. It has been a long road but it’s turning a corner. With hindsight she might not have been the right horse to buy as our first horse but, she’s the kindest most gentle mare and we just fell in love.

What’s worked for us has definitely been time. My daughter is not in a rush to canter and leap about so she’s been taking things slow and developing a bond on the ground, walking and trotting. I ride the horse too and we have a trainer. The trainer does a lesson a week where she spends half the time teaching my daughter and the other half teaching the horse. I then spend time to reinforce the lessons that the trainer has taught the horse. My daughter also does some hacking/trekking other places to keep her confidence up and to have some cantering fun!

For us it is working, but it’s been a long road. It depends on how much support you have and how patient you can all be on bringing the horse and rider on together and independently.
 
I've had a very young pony (<4, although we didn't know that when we bought him) who was a saint - as a lead rein pony. When he became a 'first ridden' he remained a saint - but was too green, unschooled and unbalanced to teach a child to canter. Having been lucky enough to be given an older pony at this stage (she was then 16 and is now 25) I would choose an older one - as much as anything because I could focus on the child and less on what the pony needed. She's still teaching two small children to canter (the child I 'bought' her for is now 6'3!). Not saying a younger pony can't work but it's a bit of a gamble (but then, what horse isn't...)
 
If you decide to go for it, in addition to the recommendation of having an experienced child or small adult ride to help the pony, I would keep the kid going in a riding school to get balanced in the canter. Wobbly kid and wobbly pony in canter would not be a good plan.
 
maya2008 said:
I would disagree that children training ponies tends to give them bad habits, but would agree that if a child is riding a pony to improve it, that child needs adult supervision and should have both experience and some form of reward for the service they are providing. Offering a pony to an older child just for fun won’t give the same results.

Child riders are important as a young 12hh pony cannot physically carry an adult. Most small pony producers use very light teens or their own children under supervision.

My son has been backing ponies since he was 7, and producing them into safe sweet rides for younger children to enjoy. My daughter, wafty though she can be, did two last summer who were too small for my son to ride. Both went on to do well for smaller children and we rode them with that in mind. They can both play on their own ponies, if they are asked to help produce one that’s a different way of riding and a different responsibility.
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Thing is you are supervising your child, like I supervised my daughters,who were often mounted on very young ponies. I have had older children to help but I watch them lik a hawk, indeed when I was a young teenager I 'broke' ponies for a dealer and I made mistakes, but fortunately didn't have to pay for the consequences. Most older children still learning themselves and even some adults have no idea how quickly a pony or horse mind learns how to evade. Its far easier for avoid making a problem, it can start as something as always cantering in the same place, the pony get hot anticipating, an older child thinks that’s fun, but a young child will get run off with or just unseated.
The most back handed compliment my daughter ever received was at PC, 'it's all right for you, you always have nice ponies', on 14 hand pony she had ridden since she was eight and it was four, and I just used to hack out at occasionally, but she had done 98% of the work, knowing she would be passing down to her more novice sister.
If you are training young animals you should always be thinking about their future. An easy equine is easy to find a home for, I loaned out some of them and the average time a pony stays with a rider is two years, each time they have to be checked and reset because kids do not think a head. One of the ponies I sold I bought back as an old pony, when I sold him he was a saint at four, he had obviously picked up a few tricks, and had four homes in two years.
When I have sent away a small pony to a pro, the only thing I would be wary of, is they make them more off the leg, and the rider has better balance, and the pony can soon unsettle a novice small rider.
I had a LR out on loan that the child had fallen off a couple of times and it had got nervy, sent it to the pro who thought there was not an issue, put a child on it, and it got tense straight away. When its a child its just not worth the risk, so now he is a very pretty baby sitter.
 
In a perfect world all novice riders child/adult would have a nice steady been there done that pony/horse.Lets face it, quite a lot of us would like that too.It is finding one.My cob is very laid back, a wobbly rider or confused signals jjust wouldn't bother her.Thats why I bought her.She is green though and I had to factur in the money for training.Perpaps what I am trying to say is better a genuine nice natured youngster, providing you have good back up than a sharp and possibly screwed up older horse or pony.
 
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