Teaching children to ride - sloppy reins!

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billylula

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My daughter just will not shorten her reins. She is much worse with her new pony and consequently has very little steering and control. He does snatch sometimes if she tries to pick up contact. She's off for proper lessons at the weekend but just wondered if anyone had any tips? Apart from constantly nagging reins reins reins the whole time? She's been riding for sometime and is 10. She jumps 2'3 very nicely but there seems to be very little communication between her and pony.
 
Coloured reins. so you say hands on the red bit or the blue bit etc

OR put elastic bands round the reins where her hands should be so she has a visual (cheaper than the coloured reins) so you can say hands to the bands!
 
ditto coloured reins, or (if you're a cheapskate like me) a bit of tape.

Is she secure in the saddle? Sounds as if the pony leans or isn't 100% balanced, pulling her forwards, so she's slipping her reins to avoid it. Are her heels creeping up? Is she sensitive to "hurting his mouth"?? Maybe being drilled into her so she's over compensating?
 
Also if he is very snatchy you could put a daisy rein (some call it a grass rein) or loose-ish side reins on him (depending which way he is snatching his head) so she isn't being yanked about? Little ponies can be the very devil sometimes

I'm sure that will be considered controversial by some but my Mother was old school enough to think side reins on a childs pony were sometimes useful and I have to agree, it helped me out a lot with one of mine!
 
If she's 10 I think she's old enough to have it explained to her and understand why it's important to maintain a contact. That may keep it more in her mind to watch what she's doing with her reins. Other than that I agree with everyone else - a piece of tape on each rein where her hands should be should teach her to correct herself.
 
Knot her reins at the right length you ideally want them, and tell her that you won't let her undo them until she learns to keep her hands there. She has to have her hands just under the knot, where they should be. She'll learn pretty quickly!
Good luck
 
Great ideas thank you. I think he does lean. He came with a 'magic bit' but we tried him in a Fulmer snaffle for extra steering and he seems to lean more with it.
 
knoting reins, colourd reins etc etc are fine if the child is confident enough to pick up a contact and still be balanced when pony is a little devil!

however if the pony is a bit quick to snatch for grass or throws its head around sharply and the child has been pulled about and made unbalanced then they may feel worried about having a contact with the mouth as i doubt they have the strength to get the head back up/central....side reins/daisy rein may just give the confidence your daughter needs to shorten the reins, have a good contact without the worry she will be pulled out of the saddle and down the neck!
 
My daughter is 10 and does the reins in loops thing. It is partly my fault as I encouraged her to ride on a loose contact when she had an unbalanced seat to protect the ponies mouth.

What helped was when she went to camp they had a lesson and a dressage competition - just a Prelim test. The movements come up quickly when your reins are like washing lines so she started having to take up a contact herself in order to get the movements accurate.
 
I had exact same problem with my ten year old daughter, and her pony can buck so long reins don't help! After all this time she finally said she found the rubber reins hard to grip so I got her some webbed continental reins and hey presto! Problem solved :)
 
Kimblewick keeps coming up. He's not strong generally though, more a kick on than a pull. He's very on the forehand though and she's not really strong enough to work him properly. Might get my teenage daughter on him tomorrow and see how she gets on.
 
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