Polo pony help

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Sarah6

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Have got 10yr old polo pony - came to yard at weekend, have got 3 weeks with it to see if we can get it any better else it is curtains for it.
she has been abused and now panics all the time, have started to get her 2 go conventionaly in order to get her to stretch but she panics when asked to stand rears or runs off and mounting is the hardest part, wil not stand and as soon as on canters off in panic, had back, teeth etc done think just worried whats going 2 happen, ne suggestions?
thank you
 
3 weeks is NOT long enough to change the habit of a lifetime. BUT she will get better in time. I have an ex-polo mare and she still is not the best at standing still but has improved tremedously and I can now mount without help and she is going alot better.

I took her to a dressage on Sunday which is a mark of how much she has improved (see my post yesterday for pictures http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/4588430/an/0/page/2#4588430). Why have you only got 3 weeks?? Surely someone can take her on??!!
 
we had an ex polo mare ... it will take alot longer than 3 weeks to sort her issues out but she will improve with time and paitence

why does she have to be PTS is she that bad... dangerous?? poor lil ponio
 
Cantering off when mounting is likely to be training rather than panic. Certainly high goal polo ponies are expected to be on the pitch and cantering before their player has even got their reins and stirrups. Mine was like this and we never did manage to get her to stand still completely - she would always walk off as you tried to find your right stirrup
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That will take time to sort out, but I wouldn't consider it dangerous exactly, as long as you know she's going to do it.

Stretching is one of the most difficult things to retrain a polo pony to do - it's so alien to them. Remember she's probably not used to a contact either - on exercise, they are usually ridden with "washing line" reins, so to her, a contact means she's playing and she will tense and go into playing mode (head up, run fast!). Try riding her on 2 hands with no contact, then gradually picking up your contact. This took years with my mare, and even when I retired her, you couldn't take a "normal" hold and I would always ride her with long-ish reins (to the annoyance of my intructor - but it worked and she went in a beautiful outline).

You say she rears/runs off when asked to stand - is this when you're on the ground, or when you're riding? This is the only thing from your post that would "worry" me - the rest sounds like a typical polo pony.

I'm happy to chat via PM if you'd prefer. Have retrained 2 polo ponies to be "normal" horses and spent 8 seasons as a polo groom
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FWIW - Zoomy occassionally rears when asked to stand. Usually when circumstances are exciting, never at home. She also has done it a couple of times when I've been getting on and someone is holding her. She still sometimes walks forward the moment I get on and I usually let her as she can sometimes explode if you hang on to her.
 
montyandzoom - yep, same with Rana - if you hold her, she'll rear, and she'll sometimes rear in a tantrum (usually when asked to work into a contact). I think I've only ever had 2 other polo ponies do this though, so I wouldn't say it's necessarily a typical polo pony thing. That said, I usually didn't have help getting on, so I just had to deal with them walking off. Maybe they would have been the same if they'd been held.

I'd still have another one though
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Try walking the pony round in a circle to begin with when you get on so the pony thinks its going somewhere make the circle smaller over time, hold the martingale/breast plate not the mouth. Having been in polo for twenty years and some of that with the Black bears i promise you it will take more like a year, if at all. Such a shame but some horses like people are stressy other are layed back. Good luck keep us posted.
 
Thank you so much!
so much better today - used advice got her working using 2 hands, she worked long and low and really stretched, also when mounted her walked her in a circle and she didnt try and run, she also halted nicely and stayed there for good 10 secs, using martingale strap to stop, fingers crossed! thanx every1
 
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