Pony dropping her head

[EllaBella]

We have recently bought a pony for my 8 year old daughter who has been riding for a couple of years now. She is a real sweetie, she doesn't mind being groomed, having lots of children around her or having a bath, she just stands there!! But when my daughter rides her in the menage after about 20 minutes Jazz starts to pull her head down nearly pulling my daughter off. It is always when she is trotting never seems to be when she is walking. In my daughters riding lesson today we put some grass reins on her which didn;'t seem to work, not sure if they were tight enough though. We tried to perservere with my daughter pulling Jazz's head up each time but Ella is not that strong. After a few more times of her dropping her head she then refused to walk on anymore even when kicked on.
I am getting really worried that this is going to become a real problem and will put my daughter off riding her pony but at the moment she loves her. :(

[nutkin]

there could be a few reasons for your daughters pony doing this such as tiredness, boredom or just needing to stretch her muscles. It may also be because Jazz feels that your daughter has slightly too tight a hold on her mouth and is asking her for more rein. Firstly is this pony fit? is she overweight? Does your daughter always do the same things when she rides her? Another possibility at this time of year is the pollen can affect them. It is difficult to say without seeing the pony ridden, but when your daughter rides make sure she does different things with her every time she rides and lets her stretch her neck between exercises to allow her to stretch her muscles. If this makes no difference then tighten those grass reins and maybe try those elastic inserts that fit onto the bit and reins to see if that helps to stop her pulling your daughter out of the saddle.

[EllaBella]

Thanks for that Nutkin. I have wondered if my daughter is holding the reins a bit too tight in readiness for her to pull back Jazz's head. I'll look out for that when we next ride her. When she's ridden we try and do different things with ie 20m circle, changing the rein etc any other suggestions as we are both new to this.I'm not sure how fit she is as we've not had her long at all, I did wonder if she was getting tired and that is when she starts dropping her head. She is not overweight if any thing she needs fattening up a little. How tight should the grass reins be?
My friends that have horses of their own tell me that most ponies try it on to start off with but my daughter's riding instructor fills me with doom and gloom and says the pony shouldn't be doing this!! :(