i need somthing to do

[horses4lf]

my pony is 13hh hes a cob and is five years old hes just lurnt some manners so now i need somthig to do with him like our own little hobby and hobby that we are in together people do showjumping and crosscountry but hes a bit exitible over new horses that he see's so i cant got to shows what could i do that i can do at home or if go out go somewere small and quite got any clues :)

[CurlyWurlyRach]

how about ome groundwork?
its a great party trick when you can lunge your horse without a line and have them tuned in to your every command (alo good for respect etc etc aswell)

[*GroovyGallop*]

How about Pony club? ;)

Just an idea :D

[horses4lf]

how much dose it cost??

[Holly B]

You could hire a cross country course occasionally? That way you can have a go (or even if you don't want to do many jumps you'll get a nice hack along the course). You could hire it by yourself or with a friend or two and there wouldn't be horses everywhere to make him too excited.

ETA: There's a site called UK Chasers you can visit which has details of XC courses all over the country. You can join for £15 then each time you hire a course it costs around £10-£20 per day. Some courses don't require you to be a member but hire it out for a slightly higher price. See http://www.ukchasers.com/ukchasers/ukchome.htm. Click on Course Directory on the left hand side to see a list of courses that are registered with UK Chasers.

[Sparkie]

You could do hany pony type stuff, obstacle courses, gymkhana games etc, these really help your pony listen to you and be brave, and are fun! You could do groundwork as well, like CWR said, and spend some time introducing him to loads of new horses, so you can go to shows in the future!

[horses4lf]

You could hire a cross country course occasionally? That way you can have a go (or even if you don't want to do many jumps you'll get a nice hack along the course). You could hire it by yourself or with a friend or two and there wouldn't be horses everywhere to make him too excited.

ETA: There's a site called UK Chasers you can visit which has details of XC courses all over the country. You can join for £15 then each time you hire a course it costs around £10-£20 per day. Some courses don't require you to be a member but hire it out for a slightly higher price. See http://www.ukchasers.com/ukchasers/ukchome.htm. Click on Course Directory on the left hand side to see a list of courses that are registered with UK Chasers.

theres none near me im in sussex is there anything else like that

[*GroovyGallop*]

how much dose it cost??

How much does Pony Club cost..?

I'm not entirerly sure, but If it's not too expencive I'd be in there like a flash if i had my own pony :D

http://www.pcuk.org/

Heres the link, Have a look around, search for your nearest one you'd make lots of new friends and you and your pony would probably get even closer

IMO - Its definetly worth looking into!

xx

[Holly B]

When you think about it you can do most horsey activities at home by yourself or with one or two others... build your own XC and SJ courses, aim to improve your schooling/dressage, practice mounted games...

[Daffy Dilly]

Pony club is about £50-60 to join, and then I'm fairly sure you have to pay for your rallies as well.

However, everybody I know that has been, has benefited from doing so. It may also be a good place to introduce your pony to the concept of shows, as yes there'll be other horses, but there'll be plenty of instruction on hand. Perhaps you could ask to go and watch a couple (rather than committing all that money!) to see if your local branch would suit you?

[Roheryn]

I'll back what CurlyWurlyRach posted about ground work. I do that with my little guy, who's too small for riding. I free lunge him and he's good at voice commands, and yes, it does attract onlookers. :) He seems to enjoy it--tho' I have to add that one of his best party tricks is bucking when I ask for canter. Because he's small people tend to think it's "cute"--I wish I could get him past that, though.
But the sessions are good fun for us both and he is great at join up.

[mayoguinness]

I love riding bridleless and letting the horse come off your weight though I wouldn't reccomend it unless you can ride bitless and your horse comes off weight commands when riding normally!