# Young Rider, Young horse



## Cowboy Ken (Oct 28, 2010)

I bought my kid her first pony about seven months ago, just days before the filly turned 4.
She has had about 2 months of classic dressage training, and the rest of her work, has been done at home in our round pen. 
Today we introduced her to a small gathering of gamers.
I have a video of images, and another of her workin her pony in the round pen.
Tell me what you think of the young rider, and her young horse.






I love photographing and filming them as they work together


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## ImagineThat (Sep 18, 2010)

How cute! I'll be honest, reading your post made me nervous to watch.... but I was impressed. That seems like a great little pony, and I am beyond thrilled to see you teaching your daughter good horsemanship at a young age.
I see so many kids ripping around on these saint ponies.... running them into the ground and yanking their mouth. Congrats on the new pony, and good luck! If your daughter keeps it up, she will be a great little horsewoman!


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## ShutUpJoe (Nov 10, 2009)

Is she a Haflinger? Very cute video : )


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## kolorisingstudio (Aug 13, 2010)

First, please take this as me being completely honest, and not trying to be mean in any way. I know it can be hard to hear someone critique your child. 

I haven't watched the entire first video, but from the first few minutes, I personally would not let your daughter on a young horse for these reasons:

She has very unsteady hands. See how she keeps lifting her hands everywhere to adjust her reins? That is not helpful in training a young horse. A young horse needs someone who has quiet, steady hands, who isn't accidentally jerking and pulling on their mouth. She also has a very unsteady seat, which can lead to a frustrated pony, because she can not give steady and correct cues as long as her seat is all over the place.

In posting the trot, your daughter is leaning on her saddle for balance. This puts awful pressure on the pony's shoulders. When she takes her hands off the saddle, every time she posts she catches the pony's mouth with the bit. 

For a young rider your daughter is definitely NOT a bad rider, she is actually quite good for her age. However, children at that age do not tend to have the necessarily motor skills to ride young horses, and I personally would find her a very well trained, push button, school master. I do not think she needs a dead-head, idiot trained horse at all. But I think before she steps up to a young, green horse she needs to ride a push-button, meaning a horse that is still sensitive enough to give her a challenge, meaning she would have to get her cues and seat right to achieve good results with the horse, but something that will also be forgiving of mistakes. 

While this pony may be good-natured, eventually, it is not going to be too fond of someone bouncing around and jerking on her mouth, and she will react to it. 

Perhaps finding a nice push button for your daughter to practice her own equitation on for a while would give her the skills she needs to bring a young horse around.


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## kevinshorses (Aug 15, 2009)

You may want to teach her to post on the correct diaganol. I noticed that she was using the same diaganol going both directions most of the time. Regarding the green horse and green rider there is an exception to every rule but don't be so sure that you have found it yet. I hope you have but many times with a green rider things go great for a while then the pony or horse gets smart about just how much it really has to do. At the very least you and your daughter will look back at this horse in ten years and wish you had been able to get him to his full potential.


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## Spastic_Dove (Oct 4, 2007)

Frankly I think she rides better than some adults. 
There are some obvious things wrong with her equitation, but I don't think there is anything that is going to ruin the pony.
I'm assuming the narrator is also working with the pony and it is not just the child training the horse (I could be wrong). Hopefully this is the case as there are some things that a child of her capabilities will not be able to teach or bring out in the horse. 
Ideally an adult would be the primary trainer, but letting this girl help right now seems to have worked so far. 


Sure it's a huge risk to put a young horse and young rider together, but I think if you are going to do it, this is the best example I've seen of it in awhile.

I do want to add just to make sure you're not treating the pony as a broke pony. I've ridden some that will trot around like that on a loose rein, and then when they start to learn and gain experience they just turn into monstrous things for a ride or two to see what they get away with. I'll admit I was a nervous wreck when she was desensitizing the pony to the jacket and had her hand on the buckle. If the horse would have decided something was going to eat it and taken off, I'd be concerned about how she would recover.


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## kolorisingstudio (Aug 13, 2010)

^ While I do agree that he has gone about the right way in letting his daughter ride ( THANK YOU O.P. for having her wear a helmet, and proper boots!!! You definitely deserve parent of the year award for that!), there are some fundamental issues that will cause problems with the pony. It isn't fair to the pony to have to learn what she is supposed to do on top of dealing with compensating for the rider's mistakes. 

While this girl may ride better than some adults (and I agree, she definitely does!), she still does not have the basic skills down, and does not have the balance or equitation needed to start a young horse.


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## Cowboy Ken (Oct 28, 2010)

We appreciate the Feedback keep it coming!
Lots of mixed emotions associated with your child and horsemanship!
and as well, I am finding there can be lots of mixed opinions of it as well.
Being teachable and open to suggestions will do us both alot of good!


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## riccil0ve (Mar 28, 2009)

I think they are adorable!! And I really don't think your daughter is going to ruin this pony. I do agree about the jacket thing though, I did cringe at that. =\
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## kolorisingstudio (Aug 13, 2010)

Cowboy Ken, do you have any lesson instructors in your area? Her taking a lesson once or twice a week on a good school horse would help her brush up her skills, so that she would be better off working with her pony. I love how patient she seems, and she isn't doing a "bad" job persay, but I feel like she would be much better off taking a few lessons as well.


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## ImagineThat (Sep 18, 2010)

I did not watch the entire video, and missed the jacket thing. I just went back and watched that part, and agree that should have been done differently.
I think I heard you mention Clinton Anderson? And I see she flexes the pony... I would do those desensitizing things with the pony's nose partially flexed, that way if she decides to spook, you can bring her around in a one rein stop.

I also agree lessons will help further her skills, but I feel you are on the right track. 

Good luck, and you'll have to post more videos of their progress together!


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## Cowboy Ken (Oct 28, 2010)

Yes, we have lesson instructors, but I want to see my kid learn to ride her pony, not some finished old lesson horse! If its sound logic that a horse will take advantage of a less experienced rider, than having the horse ridden by an experienced rider will only tend to harm the child/horse relationship. So, I am willing to have the instructor work with them as a team, to insure correct diagonals, use of the hands, seat, etc...
Good videos, forum feedback, and many books continue to help in our training as a father and daughter as well. Much like the school system, great teachers are wonderful, but parental involvement, can not be beat!

imagine, I have tons of videos!
I am a DAD

www.kenserratt.blogspot.com has video, of our 7 months progression with this pony!


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## Spastic_Dove (Oct 4, 2007)

I really like the idea of lessons.

This way she can solidify her own skills without having to train at the same time. This will not only help her as a rider, but help make things clear for her pony. 
And believe me when I say not every lesson horse is a push button dead broke ol' thing. I think you could get away with a few lessons on another horse and then having the instructor work with the horse and rider team. 
I think it would be very very beneficial. She has the foundation which will make everything much easier. 

I really like the suggestion for lessons because the thing I think would really help her would be a lunge lesson or two. It's a great way to learn diagonals, a deep seat, and quiet body without having to worry about training at the same time. 

Like I said before, I think she is doing a good job. I do think it's important though to not get caught up in the whole "bond" and "relationship" romanticism. Her ability to lead her pony will only be helped by lessons.


Ultimately it's up to you but I wanted to elaborate on that a bit more. Too often the mentality of the horse and child growing up together and learning together gets in the way of being effective and solid in your riding. All beginners make mistakes but the main concern so far seems to be those mistakes affecting the pony in a negative manner.


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## Cowboy Ken (Oct 28, 2010)

Dove, thats exactly what we were doing this past summer. And probably will continue in the spring. I like the way you put that suggestion, a lesson for the child without the concerns of training. It seems time, money, and expectations get in the way of this path.
Winter begins to wrap its chilly and wet arms around us and our horses, and the English trainer we were workin with has a covered arena! This thread has motivated me towards getting back in touch with her for perhaps weekly lessons until spring!
I have two quarterhorses, that will lunge her until the cows come home as well!!!


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## Spastic_Dove (Oct 4, 2007)

It may be good then to have a lunge lesson with the instructor, and you can see what sort of exercises to do, what to look for, etc (and people on here would have many suggestions I'm sure) and then you could take that home and apply it to using it on your horses. Lessons are expensive so that may be a good way to get the same effect without having to spend as much money on lessons. I'm not sure what your riding experience is and if you would be able to spot what she needs to fix while riding, but if you could I think this would really help. 

I think by spring if you kept up what you've been doing and strengthened her equitation you'd have an awesome little team on your hands!


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