Pony jogging in school - advice needed

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FinellaGlen

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Help! My pony is quite forward going and loves the faster paces but walk is not her best pace. I want to do some local showing so I thought I'd try to liven up her walk by doing some walk trot and trot walk transitions. The trouble is, I seem to have livened up her walk far too much and now she tries to jog everywhere. Any ideas please? She is the same when I lunge her i.e. she far prefers to trot and canter than to walk.

This problem only started last week but I would like to iron it out before it becomes a habit, albeit one that I have accidentally created!
 
Try trotting poles! walk over them and then stop when she feels tense, you can try trotting over a few and then into walk and then halt back into walk, so she is really thinking about where she is placing her feet rather than where she wants to head off. Circles help and halt when she really isnt listening and then proceed into walk and circle, alot of half halts and dont be too light into your seat because it can sometimes push you forward into a forward seat thus maing her want to take flight, also sit back in the saddle and ride more with your seat and voice and less of the leg..just some to start with iv got to go lol, sorry this was kind of rushed so forgive me if it doesnt make sense hehe!
 
Thank you. I haven't used trotting poles for a few weeks because our school was flooded and we could only use a tiny section and then I hurt my back so I didn't fancy dragging poles around. I will get the poles out tomorrow.
 
lol, i kno what you mean. Have a slave (joke, lol) to be on ground to move the poles for you:) its a huge help lol! also, try hacking more with her as it will relax her more and she wont be so up tight and tense on your every move. Dont feed her energy releasing feed, conditioning, slow releasing energy mix should do the trick! And never nag on the rein, just light 1-2 action give and take with the rein so that she learns to come to you and not run off with the bit or lean on you and fight so your not both pulling and shoving:):)
good luck..let me know how u both get on xxx
 
Thanks helenhorse. I'll let you know if things improve. She isn't getting a huge amount of hard feed and nothing especially heating. I think she is probably just full of the joys of Spring at the moment but I don't want to let her get into the habit of jogging. I can only really hack at weekends because of work commitments during the week and also I don't have anyone to hack out with in the week and I don't like going on my own. I have a few days off next week though so I should be able to get out and about more which will be nice for both of us.
 
i also had the same problem - mine would jog everywhere - bless he only had little legs. I found circles really helped..bought his concentration back down to earth. Good luck and let us know how you get on!
 
JOgging is also a way of avading your leg aid. Keep your leg at work not on but at least on her side. Also make walk work intersting! POle, lateral work, rein back all things that keeps her mind active instead
 
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