teaching a young child

[lamprellsarah]

i am teaching a girl of 8 she is a good little rider, i am teaching her as her mum, how was trying to teach her, she would not listen to.
i start off with exercises you name them she does them, we work without reins and without strirrups,
but the pony she has is very lazy she constantly has to kick it so her heels are always up, the pony has to do half a lap before it listens to you and changes gaits,
i have tried to convince her to give the pony a smack if she doesn't listen, but it's very febble and the pony doesn't even feel it, and i ask her not to kick as much and concentrate on her seat, but it's the only way she can keep the pony going so she carrys on kicking, help any ideas????????

also when she jumps she leans forward way before the jump, often the pony stops how can i convince her to wait for the jump?

[Showjumper]

I've taught several young children to jump, adn the first thing I do is tell them not to stick their tongues out. Children tend to do this without thinking as they are concentrating, and if the pony stopped at the jump, they could bite their tongues. Focusing on controlling their tongues stops them thinking about leaning forward. What you could do is have them ride up to the jump while chanting, "Tongue, tongue, tongue!" at them, then at the takeoff point, call, "Lean forwards!" or have them ride up to the jump holding onto a neck strap while you lead them. This will keep the pony going, and should the child get left behind as she's not focusing on leaning forward, she won't pull the pony in the mouth.

Good Luck!

BTW if all else fails, tell her to stay in jump position the whole time - she'll soon see it's preferable to sit down and wait until she has to lean forward.

[floppy]

i remeber when i was about 9 or something my riding instructor use to tell me to give the pony a whack ebcause he wouldnt listen and my constant leg aids were too weak. So in the end the instructor would get a loong whip and walk behind the pony. The pony didnt like this one bit and use to lunge forward and i didnt like it so i soon learnt that i should give a quick whack than let the pony run away fromt he lunge whip....
then sometimes my instructor woudl get so annoyed so said that if i didnt give the pony a little whack rather than a tap then she would crack the lunge whip behind the horse and he would for sure run away with me...
hehe ok so this scared me and she never actually did it but it worked for me....
the reason i never used the whip was because i never liked using it and saw it as an evil thing that was going to hurt my pony....but i soon realised that i could give an effective tap without hurting the pony.

mayeb you should give the girl a bit of a nag and tell her her pony is sleeping and needs to wake and keep tellign her to wake up the pony and if she doesnt you willl have to do it ...or something...then maybe she will ride more effectively...?
i dont know..you really have to find away that gets this girl moving without her hating you!
maybe she is just unsure of using the whip

even better you have to find a way of making hte pony more forwards so she doesnt have to use the whip

[Wally]

Ask her whether she'd like to be constantly thumped in the ribs or have her bum pinched once in a while. This poor pony has had any sensitivity wellied out of him and short of re training him the rider is going to have to learn to be a bit more kind.

This is my bete noir! I cannot stand seeing ponies kicked to a stupor. you are going to have to start somewhere and tell her that she is to use her stick every time he ignores her leg. Tell her how awful it looks, tell her it is going to get her into real trouble when she comes to ride a more sensetive horse, put her on a sensetive pony to see what effect belting a willing pony in the ribs has.

We have a little Shetland called Haze to get kids to sit still and be kind. You boot him in the ribs he will GO! yet he is sensible enough to slow at the touch of the rein.
We have managed to re train a couple of pony club ponies who were turned off to the leg, simply by being very strict with the kids and not allowing them to boot. These "dead" ponies now move of with the lightest touch.

The sooner folk stop using the term "kick" the better, it gives kids the wrong idea. I always use the word tickle, instead of kick. The smallest of child can understand that and if they never hear the word kick they won't get the idea.

[fiesty_filly]

well for the forward thing, she sounds like an okay rider maybe you could let her use a dressage whip! That way she only has to flip him and maybe that will help her.

[lamprellsarah]

she does carry a dressage whip, but she is frightened of using it, and her wrists are quiete weak, so when i convince her to use it, it flaps around without touching the pony.

[Hayleyb277]

Have you tried carrying a lunge whip in the lesson, if the child is too nervous to use a whip with any conviction or not enough strength then perhaps you can help by giving a flick of a lunge whip as if you are lunging the pony.

Also regarding sitting up, a horse I am jumping is extremely strong into a fence especially when they get big, and to stop the horse from pulling you forward and taking the fence on you have to really sit down and hold. In a lesson on this particular horse, cantering into a fence all I can hear from John is "sit on the canter, sit on it, sit on it" every time and believe me I do, it becomes implanted in my brain and is automatic. It will probably be the same with this child, a matter of repeating sit up while she is going into a fence every time at every lesson and eventually she will be thinking it herself and then doing it.

[lamprellsarah]

yeah i do carry a lunge whip both when i am lunging and when she is schooling it worked very well this week and she got the longest and best canter she every has!!!
so i guess it depends on the mood of the pony, because before that the pony still didn't take a notice and would leap forward if the whip got near!!!
i guess it just a matter of repeating and waiting, she didn't kick as much in the last lesson, in fact it's only trot i really have a problem, heels come up and even though the pony is going as fast as he can it's still kick kick kick.
thanks for all your help :)
i will keep you updated on her progress i am sure other problems will arise :o

[Miriam]

Could she be frightened of smacking the pony with the whip in case he runs away with her. I know when I first started riding and was told to smack the pony with a whip I was terrfied that the it would run away with me.

It was just a matter of learning the the pony would not bolt away.

[floppy]

if you got a probelm with the heals coming up then take the stirrups away..because she wont be able to put here heals up so much..also with this jumping thing make her do some small ones without stirrups because she is less likely to perch forwards