Teaching canter from the ground

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Auburnalia

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I have just (6weeks a go) bought a very sweet NFx pony for my young children to move on to from their FYFR. She’s pretty unfit as has had the winter off so I’ve been bringing her back into work slowly and she’s really wonderful.

However, I should like to improve her canter transitions and her balance in canter but I need to do this from the ground as I’m too big to ride her and my children are too inexperienced to cope with the rushing she does at present. I figured I might as well try and do what I can with her whilst the girls aren't riding as much.

What would people recommend as groundwork type exercises? I can lunge using the whole school, but when I’ve done that before she just zooms off.... maybe pole work? Or just free school and let her find her balance? What do people think? Thank you! ?
 
Lunging if she is responsive to your voice/body language. Or long reining (obviously you can walk/run a smaller circle than pony) then you can use a bit of outside rein to control the speed a bit.

Try not to do to much though. From experience children find it easier to gain confidence on a slightly less fit pony than a very fit pony.
 
Lunge with 2 reins :) Once she gets it’s not exciting you should be able to progress to normal lunging but while she’s whizzing off won’t be much help. If she’s strong enough you can try walk-canter (I bet she does it in the field?!) to keep the ground speed down.
 
Thank you guys.?

I’m going to do some long lining and two rein lunging, (if I don’t get in a complete muddle!!!) ? I did lunge her the other day and she was much better, finding canter as I asked with only a stride or two of zooming but a few leg kicks to balance and falling back to trot quickly, even when using the whole school. I’m exaggerating the asking, and training using large movements too, and voice, obviously. She’s a quick learner but I think has just been used to straight line hammerings as her trot is unbalanced too, although so much better in the short time we’ve had her and it’s lovely as the girls are teaching her to trot evenly, and keep the trot around the bends (albeit she and them can’t bend!! ?) they’ve come into their own now they’re the teachers!! ?

I’m not worried about her getting too fit, she’s very honest, it’s more that at nearly 4 stone the girls get bumped around in that horrid racing trot, so it’s not ideal for them or the pony, they can stop her, but pushing her into canter when they’re wobbling around is too hard and risky, esp as I don’t 100% trust what will happen, and I don’t want to lunge them just yet until she’s stopped zooming off!! Maybe after lockdown I’ll be braver, but at the moment there’s no hurry for them to canter her, I just thought I could practise. They still have their unicorn to canter around on!!!

I’ll have some fun in the meantime getting her more responsive and balanced. Thank you. ?

Sorry, that turned into an essay!! ?
 
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