# Training Ponies



## Jubilee (Dec 15, 2008)

Hey Everyone,

Here I am going to risk sounding very ignorant, but here is my question: How do you train a small pony to be ridden? 

Now, I don't have a particular pony in mind, I'm talking about ponies in general. I am working towards becoming a horse trainer and riding instructor and I have a real fondness for ponies and I want to train them for use as lesson ponies for kids. I'm short enough to ride taller ponies (I'm only 5'1'') so I would not have trouble training 14hh ponies. But what about shorter ponies? I see kids riding the very little ponies that I would never be able to practically ride. Certainly the trainers didn't just throw little kids on top of the pony for it's first ride in order to train it. How do people properly train small ponies?

This is something I really want to do, I have a real passion for teaching kids so I want to be able to train ponies the right way so that I can have a good chain of lesson ponies that I trust to use with kids.

Thanks for you help,

Jubilee


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## lovemyponies (Jul 26, 2008)

you can ride smaller ponies depending on the build of the pony most ponies can handle 150 lbs pretty easily


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## Burgundian Mercenary (Jul 1, 2008)

Good question!

I've never done this myself, but the owner of the stables where I keep my horse somtimes breaks and schools ponies for use in the riding school side of the business. She usually enlists some of the experienced children when backing the ponies - there are some very dinky but very competent riders amongst the junior crowd. She starts them off (the ponies that is) on lead rein in one of the schools, before accustoming them to hacking out (walking in hand first with other horses on/off road, then ridden with other horses off road only, then ridden on/off road). Seems to work pretty well, and the kids love it.

Of course, if you don't know any small children (or, I suppose, petite adults) who can ride well, this approach may not be of much use....

Good luck!


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## Jubilee (Dec 15, 2008)

lovemyponies said:


> you can ride smaller ponies depending on the build of the pony most ponies can handle 150 lbs pretty easily


Even the small 11hh and 12hh ponies? What about the 10% weight rule (I think it's 10%) that says they can only carry so much? I know that some breeds of horses and ponies can handle carrying more weight then others, but I wouldn't want to risk hurting their backs.

Jubilee


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## iridehorses (Oct 22, 2007)

20% of their weight (otherwise a 1,000lb horse could only handle 65lb rider and a western saddle)- and your question is a good one. I'm 200lb and I've got a well built 13h green broke pony that I'd like to bring along. I don't have access to small riders so I'm stuck as to what to do. 

I'll watch the thread to see how it develops.


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## Jubilee (Dec 15, 2008)

Oh right, 20%... that's what I meant, haha  Silly me.

How much does your average 12hh or 13hh pony weigh? I calculated the minimum weight of pony that would be able to carry me and that would be about a 700lb pony (I'm working on loosing some weight so it may be even less then that with time). About how tall would that be, would you think?

Thanks,

Jubilee


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## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

I've always wondered this too... Thanks for asking! =D


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## LauraB (Nov 11, 2008)

Unfortunately I have seen ponies that people just throw little kids on. That always bothers me because the ponies are not broke. You should be able to ride most ponies and if you think you are too big I agree with the others, find a kid that can really ride to work with you.


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## upnover (Jan 17, 2008)

Training ponies is my focus, particularly because of my size. I'm a petite 5"2 (on a tall day ). You're right, there aren't many trainers out there who are small enough to ride ponies (in fact, I am the shortest trainer in my area) or kids who are experienced enough to train them. Thus my niche was found! The smallest pony I've broken is 11.3. It wasn't the easiest job because of her size and I don't think I could do anything smaller. I think anything that is too small for me to ride weight-wise would be too small for me ride properly. Very rarely do I get anything in that's less then 13 h. 

Once the ponies are solid enough for a kid to hack around safely I do take advantage of the experienced kids around the barn to help. I've never tried it, but I'm not opposed to having a kid help me break a pony. One of my friends (who is an amazing rider) did that growing up. She starting riding at 3 and went to pony finals like every year until she was too old. When she was around 7 or 8 people were paying her to break ponies (with her mom's help). She's broken/trained some of the top ponies in the nation! People like her don't come along every day though....


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## Jubilee (Dec 15, 2008)

Thanks for sharing upnover. That's kind of one reason why I want to work with ponies, because I'm so short (5'1''). I like working with the big guys, but the ponies are just so fun and not many adults can ride them. I wouldn't be looking to train anything much smaller than 12hh. I'll just be honest and tell you my weight, I'm 140lb, but that's after a Christmas holiday full of chocolates, haha. On my good months I'm about 130-135 lb. Do you think a pony of about 12hh would have trouble carrying me?

I'm all for the idea of having an experienced child help me, but I would not want to put a minor on a pony that has nver been ridden before. I would want to do the inital training myself. 

Thanks again for sharing,

Jubilee


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## upnover (Jan 17, 2008)

There are definitely benefits to being our size! I may not have the leg to ride some of the giant warmbloods effectively but at least I get to ride some pretty cute ponies! I don't think there's necessarily a strict size limit of what you could or could not ride. So much of it depends on their build. As I said, it's actually difficult to ride something that is too small. I tried a pony to buy last week that was 13h but he was an absolute TANK! He felt like a 15.2 horse I ride just closer to the ground! But I worked with a 13 h pony that was narrow as a board and there was nothing to put my leg on. The first time he started his rearing and whirling "trick" I fell off. A pony I have currently in training is 12.2 and not too hard to ride. He's a pretty round guy. As far as if he would be able to physically carry you... he might be, esp if he had a more sturdy build. I know a trainer about your size who does training rides on her small ponies and they are all fine! Plus, you see all those giant cowboys riding around on their tiny cowhorses. So if you follow the 20% weight rule, at your heaviest you could ride something around 700 lbs. 

Just wondering, what discipline are you interested in working in?


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## Jubilee (Dec 15, 2008)

My main Discipline is Dressage, but I also enjoy quite a bit of trail riding and I plan to teach me future students trail riding skills. I've never done any jumping before but I'm keen on learning. But primarily I'm a student of Dressage so any horse I train would have it's base there.

Jubilee


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## upnover (Jan 17, 2008)

Are ponies popular in the dressage world? I've heard no but I guess kids need to start with something!

The reason I ask is that if you decide to buy/sell retraining projects that will eventually be hunter ponies you will want to take notice of size. They are catagorized into small (up to 12.2), medium (12.3-13.2), and large (13.3-14.2) and the ponies that are on the smaller end of their category don't resell well. So generally a 13.2 (large medium) pony is much more easily resold then a 12.3 (small medium).


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## Jubilee (Dec 15, 2008)

You don't generally see small ponies go too far in Dressage, but some of the larger ones do very well (14hh range). Kids show ponies in Dressage though so that's one reason I want to have them. Kids do have to start somewhere so I want some really well trained ponies so they can learn right at a young age and not have to wait until they are big enough to ride a horse. Does that make sense?

Jubilee


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## brookelovesparelli (Jan 21, 2009)

Im a really treat animals how you want to be treated & well... I love Parelli  its great with lil ponies, you can get up to levels were you can teach them trick sort of stuff. google it just type in Parelli or parelli natural horsemanship


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## upnover (Jan 17, 2008)

Actually it makes a lot of sense! Of all of my students about 75% are little girls from 8-13 years old. All able to ride ponies. There SHOULD be more ponies out there if you think about it! (or am I biased to think so?  ) The reason I was asking about dressage is because I showed one of my ponies dressage for a season and while he got tons and tons of compliments no one wanted to buy him. They all said that dressage ponies aren't very popular here and that most kids want to buy a horse. But the dressage world around here is largely made up of women in their more elder years.


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## Jubilee (Dec 15, 2008)

Not meaning to sound like a stocker, but where do you live (don't tell me what town, just the state or region). I think a lot of it has to do with the area you are in. I'm actually really new to Dressage and haven't shown in it yet, but I will this coming year. I haven't been around Dressage long enough to see what is popular and what's not. 

I'm slightly more inclined towards the larger cob type ponies, though you don't see them a lot in my area. They are just so versatile and hardy. Many can even carry full grown adults, they are my favorites to ride. They don't really relate to this topic though because really I would have no trouble at all training a pony like that, they are just my perfect size. But still, people do still want and need ponies, and I think that if I could really train GOOD ponies and work to promote them I wouldn't have trouble selling them.

Jubilee


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## upnover (Jan 17, 2008)

lol, it's ok, i don't think you're a stalker.  i'm in northeast oklahoma and yes, location completely matters! i've been told by a lot of people that dressage just isn't that popular around here, esp with kids. most of the english barns we have are huge hunter/jumper barns with tons of kids who all hang out. most of the dressage barns are smaller privately owned with a bunch of older women who, i don't know, drink tea?


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## upnover (Jan 17, 2008)

i agree, larger cob types are very cute!! I don't see a lot of them either but i think it's more that i'm completely immersed in the hunter world and most cobs don't have the hunter type movement. i don't know if i'm being naive, but i think that there should always be some sort of need for good ponies since our sport is so saturated in little girls! plus the good ones are hard to find!


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## lovemyponies (Jul 26, 2008)

When I was a teenager I helped my instructor break ponies. I was small and light but a very good rider at the time. I think most sturdy welsh/cross. etc are about 700-800 lbs which means they can carry 150 lbs. I think that is a pretty good stopping point (150 lbs) It does very much depend on the build of the pony, their age, bone structure, etc. But I am 5'4 137 lbs and ride a 13 hand pony on a regular basis. he is a morgan cross, very stout and sturdy and its not issue at all. I am also trying to retrain a 12 hand welsh mare and she doesn't seem to have any issue carrying me. 

For the really little ones (under 12 hands) it would be good to have an advanced kid rider to assist.


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## FGRanch (Feb 9, 2008)

I was joking around with my sister once and said that we could hire a dwarf (My cousin) to come train a pony with us and we would train it to be the best little reining pony around.


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## Jubilee (Dec 15, 2008)

Does your cousin ride horses? Hey if he/she does then that's awesome, he/she could ride the pony all the way up through its training. But it would probably be unnecessary to actually hire a little person otherwise. If your cousin want to help train a pony, all the power to them! 

Jubilee


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## FGRanch (Feb 9, 2008)

I actually don't really know my cousin! I met her once when I was really little. I just thought it would be a cool idea!


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## Jubilee (Dec 15, 2008)

Hey I found this video and I thought it was really cute. I would love to be able to train ponies so that my kids (my students) could show like this.






Jubilee


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## Pinto Pony (Jul 28, 2008)

In Australia we have Pony Dressage. Officially you have to be under 21 years to compete but I compete in unofficial pony dressage with my boy Comanche. it makes it fairer for the ponies because it is hard to score a pony as a horse. Genereally ponies have shorter and quicker strides to a big floaty horse  I have only gone as far as Novice on Com but I see them going through all the levels with kiddies in the official classes. I think it is wonderful that kids are getting into dressage on ponies that fit them, I think there is only one thing worse "looks wise" than a teeny kid on a big lanky horse and that is someone miles too big for a little pony haha.

As for training ponies, I am helping my mum with the riding part of her little 12.2hh mare. I am 5'6 and weigh 110lb and feel quite comfy on her. I sometimes ride without stirrups on her to get the leg contact I want, and wrap my legs around her if need be, but she carries me quite well I feel. 









And this is me on our little old man who is 11.2hh









He feels so small but carries me quite well. He isn't struggling, he would definitely let me know if I was causing him trouble!!


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## Jubilee (Dec 15, 2008)

I measured my height last night and I discovered that I'm actually shorter than I thought I was! I'm really only 5'0"! I don't know why that's such a shocker to me... it's only an inch off then I thought I was (I thought I was 5'1") but still. If I'm wanting to work with ponies I guess I should consider that a good thing. I still weigh quite a bit though... I need to work on that. Now what I'm worried about is that if I decided to work with large warmbloods I'm going to seem like a little pimple on their backs, haha 

Thanks for sharing the pictures Pinto Pony!

Jubilee


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