So lazy in the school - any tricks?

Ravenwood

Ravenwood

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My daughter had a lesson in the menege this morning and the pony just turns into a donkey when she gets into the school. The instructor was trying to teach my daughter to ride a proper circle and we put out some poles but pony is so lazy she just stumbled over them. She tried a schooling whip today but it had absolutely no effect. The instructor got on her to gee her up a bit and she went very nicely but it was really hard work and as soon as my daughter got back on she went to sleep again.

Out hacking and hunting she is a really bright spark and sometimes quite hard to hold. She is about 15h, very welsh but my daughter is only 11 albeit quite tall.

Today I put her on my horse just to try and get the idea of positioning her lower leg to maneouvre a circle but she is far too big and strong for her so that didn't work either.

Has anybody got any ideas on how to wake the pony up? (or does anyone have any massive cowboy spurs I can borrow!!) Tust me to have two chestnut mares!
 
Aaah you have just answered the question. The orange one in my sig is immensley proud of herself. Having decided she couldnt possibly jump at shows, she then decided that she couldnt possibly canter a 20m circle in a dressage arena.
Funny that tonight I ride her in the menage and pop over 1.10m from a beautiful canter that she wont do on the flat! Grrrr bl**dy frustrating cow! Sorry thats no help but at least you know you are not on your own!
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To top it all - my daughter then went over to ride instructors small show pony and even that didn't want to play today!

Poor kid was absolutely knackered this evening!
 
Might work. Not sure. Years ago at a riding school (I know but it might work). The instructor told us to "think the next pace up". So if we were walking for us to "think trot, trot, trot" in our minds. So although the body was riding walk and the horse was actually walking it was amore active walk. The same worked with riding fizzy horses, thinking the next pace down. Other than that. Loads of transitions. I friend of mine at the yard had a really lazy horse. And I got her walking for 5 strides, then trotting for 5, than walking for 5 and trotting for 5. It really got the horse thinking cos it didn't know what the rider was going to ask for next. Oh and throw some halts in too. Horse was much more responsive for a time after that. Can also do walk 3, trot 3, canter 3, trot 3, walk 3, trot 3, canter 3, etc etc.
 
It so frustrating - if only I had more time, I would take her into the school myself and do some work on her, trouble is because I am always chasing the clock, during the week I just ride mine out leading the pony and because my horse is very fast, pony is perfectly capable of keeping up but if we are hacking together, unless my daughter is constantly nagging her she will lag behind until we have the first canter when she perks up or when we are heading for home.

But in the school, even if we have had a blast beforehand, she completely switches off.

Lots of transitions are definately a good idea, trouble is it takes a circle to get into the next one up!
 
Elaine (couldn't bring myself to call you fatarse!!) No haven't tried with a schooling whip in each hand - but I did wonder if putting her on a lunge with a lunge whip might help (have to confess that I have never lunged either horse) will have to borrow one of those from someone and try it.
 
You can still do the walk, trot, walk, trot thing on a circle or figures of 8. in fact will get them listening more cos not only do they have to concentrate on the direction being asked for but also the pace. As soon as you start the walk, you need to be in your mind preparing for the trot as 5 strides comes up on you before you know it (or even 7 strides) and then as soon as you are in the trot, you are thinking about the downward transition into walk and so on. Keep the rider awake too as you can see them counting in their mind!!!! Also halt to trot, trot to halt. Or even have a bit of fun in the school and play some gymkhana games.
 
Beau is like that sometimes, I can be egging him on for almost a complete circuit and nothing! But if I do lots of short walk/halt/walk/halt I've found that it frustrates him a little as i'm basically bugging him, so he wakes up and does eventually listen.
I also found that growling and vocal aids work
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. I had my little sis chasing me round the school the other day as we were jumping and so I didnt think I would need a stick as he usually see the wings and its instant excitement, but not this time as the jumps were only 2ft he felt they were beneath him - hehe.
 
My Welsh D is the same...put him in any school and the shutters come down and he switches off...he finds it pointless and boring no matter how interesting you make it with poles, cones, changes of direction everything. I did manage to spark some life into him by following mandy4727 type advice but you can't do transitions indeffinately for every lesson. Eventually I wanted to do other things but it would not work.
I stopped trying to fight him in the end because I was exhausted after every session, he was getting dead to the leg and whip and all very frustrating. So we do what we do best now...hack and endurance because he is a different horse then...and I school him out hacking and that works really well.
 
The pony needs to learn to respect your daughters leg. She needs to ask it to go forward with a very light aid and if the pony ignores her give it a massive pony club kick or a whack. let it go forward and give it a pat, if she goes off in a trot let her and then bring her back to halt and do it again until she works out then when you ask for her to go forward she should. Also don't nag her with your legs when she is moving, if she isn't going at the right speed ask once nicely then pony club kick. You need to be consistent and she will get better.
 
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