Hi guys, some help needed!
I have been teaching for the last 2 years a lovely girl who is now 13 and her mum has recently bought her her own cob mare about 14.2hh. Her mum has a Friesan that the girl rides also. She is a novice rider but carries herself well and has a sympathetic hand but is not overly confident.
The pony has settled in but after a couple of weeks has demonstrated a brilliant ability to cart Polly off in the direction home at the flick on a switch. She just sets her neck low and takes off with a mouth of iron. Polly unfortunately freezes and is unable to process how to stop her as well as staying on.
I have ridden the pony a few times myself and she has gone to take off with me twice and I have 'handbraked' her. She's in a full cheek snaffle so as soon as she goes to trot off and resists a halt through my seat and breath and a closure of my fingers round the reins I have just sat over my chosen hand brake side and pulled her head right round so shes looking at me and kept her turning until she stops. Whilst she is turning I am breathing down, asking her to 'woah' whilst obviously not letting her proceed. I've done this twice with her and she now will not take off with me on board as she knows the score however poor old Polly cannot think about it quick enough before the pony gets into her rhythm. I have taught Polly this technique but do you think I am right? I also plan to teach her some ground work tricks to actually get some respect on the ground which I know will translate to the saddle eventually.
Trouble I have is now the pony has done this to the girl 5/6 times and her confidence is shot as she has fallen off every time. I have asked mum to switch horses and ride the pony herself as she is a competant horse woman and her own freisan is has a LOT more rider respect. Mum does not quite... get the seriousness of this and sort of lumps it into 'horses for courses' with some rose tinted spectacles. The pony took off with Polly Saturday whilst we were hacking and I swapped horses with her and when she had been safely dispatched at her yard I took the pony back out for 10 minutes and did lots of firm halts. The pony does halt practice from trot to halt and walk to halt perfectly with Polly it is just when we turn for home, and any single spook/ slippy ground/ ANYTHING (even going round a corner in front) will send her bombing off.... HELP?!
p.s I have done some serious analysis of this myself and there is no fear factoring in the pony's bolting, I think her previous teenage owner used her as a go-cart so obviously this will have had a big impact.
I have been teaching for the last 2 years a lovely girl who is now 13 and her mum has recently bought her her own cob mare about 14.2hh. Her mum has a Friesan that the girl rides also. She is a novice rider but carries herself well and has a sympathetic hand but is not overly confident.
The pony has settled in but after a couple of weeks has demonstrated a brilliant ability to cart Polly off in the direction home at the flick on a switch. She just sets her neck low and takes off with a mouth of iron. Polly unfortunately freezes and is unable to process how to stop her as well as staying on.
I have ridden the pony a few times myself and she has gone to take off with me twice and I have 'handbraked' her. She's in a full cheek snaffle so as soon as she goes to trot off and resists a halt through my seat and breath and a closure of my fingers round the reins I have just sat over my chosen hand brake side and pulled her head right round so shes looking at me and kept her turning until she stops. Whilst she is turning I am breathing down, asking her to 'woah' whilst obviously not letting her proceed. I've done this twice with her and she now will not take off with me on board as she knows the score however poor old Polly cannot think about it quick enough before the pony gets into her rhythm. I have taught Polly this technique but do you think I am right? I also plan to teach her some ground work tricks to actually get some respect on the ground which I know will translate to the saddle eventually.
Trouble I have is now the pony has done this to the girl 5/6 times and her confidence is shot as she has fallen off every time. I have asked mum to switch horses and ride the pony herself as she is a competant horse woman and her own freisan is has a LOT more rider respect. Mum does not quite... get the seriousness of this and sort of lumps it into 'horses for courses' with some rose tinted spectacles. The pony took off with Polly Saturday whilst we were hacking and I swapped horses with her and when she had been safely dispatched at her yard I took the pony back out for 10 minutes and did lots of firm halts. The pony does halt practice from trot to halt and walk to halt perfectly with Polly it is just when we turn for home, and any single spook/ slippy ground/ ANYTHING (even going round a corner in front) will send her bombing off.... HELP?!
p.s I have done some serious analysis of this myself and there is no fear factoring in the pony's bolting, I think her previous teenage owner used her as a go-cart so obviously this will have had a big impact.
Whenever a horse bolts as you have described, they enter into the flight mode emotionally, and the more times that this happens, the easier it is for them to jump into this mindset the next time. It seems to be an adrenaline rush for them and they can get hooked on the chemistry.
My suggestion to you would be to start the pony over again with re-training, spending most of your time on the ground to establish a relationship and a leadership on your part. You must establish a positive situation for the horse that outways the horses` desire to bolt into its own leadership takeover mode. There are many ways that you might begin this process. Look back on the forum for some of the commentary about starting young horses and building relationship. There is a treasure chest full of ideas with much discussion that follows.
I would strongly recommend that you do not allow that young girl back on the horse until a big change has taken place in his behavior. Horses will always give you signs when their mind is somewhere else other than focused on the human. It is our job, as trainers, to set up a situation that a horse might enter into that the answers he must come up with are within his ability to understand. WE MUST HAVE THEIR FOCUS.
I would also not attempt to ride this guy at the canter if you do get back on his back. There might be too much adrenaline produced at the canter with this horse at this stage of his development.
See what the others might suggest on this forum and please stay safe.
Good luck and thank you for coming here.
Bud
I am with Bud on this!
No matter how adorable this pony is, that girl should not be riding it again until it is safe. At least not outdoors.
I'm actually quite fascinated that the mother isn't more protective of her own daughter as she must know the risks involved when falling off at speed. Broken confidences can be mended; broken necks... not so easily!
Ponies are so quick on the take up, and cobs are not as docile as they might look. There is a lot of energy in them, and they are also quite strong as you have firsthand experience of!
Regardless of whether it's been taught to race, esp towards home, or not, this guy has found that it is OK to do so now and in my opinion it needs to be retrained from the very beginning so that behavior will be extinguished in it, and then the girl and the pony needs to train this together, which might fail if she still lacks the confidence to take charge.
Then, once all that has been accomplished, it's likely that pony can never ever be allowed to move at a fast pace towards home again, unless a more experienced rider is riding it, or it is back to square one, so that begs the question if they want to take the time and money for that, or simply look for a pony the girl can rebuild trust and joy with right now?
I do hope you can get the mother to see the seriousness in this situation. Horse and rider are clearly not compatible at this point, and a change is needed for both their sakes.
If I was to have this talk with a parent, I would also press the possibility of being stuck with a pony no one wants to buy if they persist in keeping it, as things clearly isn't taking a turn for the better.
Kids are so different in their approach to tackling naughty ponies/horses. Some are just laughing and having fun with it, others will - as your student - lose confidence and might eventually get really scared of any horse.
Very few of them has overcome this by being forced into the same, frightening situation over and over again.
Fingers crossed for you!
QUESTION: Has there been any discussion about the daughter riding a well trained horse, so that she might improve her seat and over-all skills?
Then if the mother and daughter wanted to keep the pony with the idea of re-training the pony from the ground up, the daughter would have project for a year or so. She could learn from square one about what goes into a well trained pony.
Just sayin`
Bud
Everything above is sound advice and I echo it all - this is a ridiculous situation and must not continue but I won't go on about it as it's all been said from the horses and family point of view except to say that thid girl is a NOVICE. Novices do not need to learn how to sit on a bolting horse - this is for later when they are much more experienced !
However, I am going to offer another angle.
:
You are a teacher. As a teacher you have a professional and ethical duty of care, even more so if you are acting in a paid capacity. Any continuation on your part to put a child on a horse that is dangerous is at best a breach of those ethics and professionalism and at worst leaves you open to a charge of manslaughter. Am I being too dramatic? I think not. Think about it for a minute. Child gets killed because horse bolted. Judge asks, "Did you know the risks involved?" You answer "Yes I did". You are liable.
:
Please don't think I am being hard here Becky, this is about your protection as well as the girl's. You may have liability insurance but it will not cover you if you knowingly proceed beyond what is reasonable.
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Bud