any tips welcome!
One of my shetlands came to me last November as a completely unhandled 3 year old. I spent winter doing ground work and teaching to lead, manners etc. She only took a few days when I first got her to come round to the idea of being caught as she is naturally friendly and although very wary, she soon got over her nerves at any sight of a bucket. At the start I think I was probably a bit over enthusiastic and did a bit much too soon with her as into January I hit some problems where she started testing the boundaries and proved that she is quite a sharp girl who is far too handy with her back feet for her own good. I got some help in and had a groundwork lesson which helped enormously and I generally learned to take a step back a bit and be more intuitive about what her body language was telling me.
Fast forward to spring and she is now a very well mannered young lady who trailers out to shows and behaves beautifully, I couldn’t be more proud of her although I think she will always be a sharp type. I’ve been doing a lot of preparing for backing her myself; she is a full up island bred pony and although Im not a teenager anymore Im around 8 1/2 stone. She has been bitted and happily wears a saddle and walks out inhand with it on. Long reining is not a strong point it has to be said and requires more work. She is well used to things flapping over and round her and Ive been leaning over her progressively more until slipped a leg over her and let her take my weight. She had a neckstrap on and she did look worried, ears went back , but she didn’t do anything other than step back. Fast forward a bit again and Ive been able to be led round on her. she still feels wary but is very good and will walk on when told and stand. All I am doing is max 5 mins at a time and then making lots of fuss of her. Am I right to just keep my legs loose on her for the time being, Im on her bareback. Im very aware of not rushing her and am over the moon to have even got this far. I dont have a little jockey available to do more with her , although my little one will be led on her, he is only 2 and very small for his age so he wont be on her until we are a lot further down the line. So what should my next step with her be? My thoughts were to continue in this way, no pressure, for the rest of summer hope to get her to the point of being led out for walks with a rider, which she currently does in tack very nicely.
One of my shetlands came to me last November as a completely unhandled 3 year old. I spent winter doing ground work and teaching to lead, manners etc. She only took a few days when I first got her to come round to the idea of being caught as she is naturally friendly and although very wary, she soon got over her nerves at any sight of a bucket. At the start I think I was probably a bit over enthusiastic and did a bit much too soon with her as into January I hit some problems where she started testing the boundaries and proved that she is quite a sharp girl who is far too handy with her back feet for her own good. I got some help in and had a groundwork lesson which helped enormously and I generally learned to take a step back a bit and be more intuitive about what her body language was telling me.
Fast forward to spring and she is now a very well mannered young lady who trailers out to shows and behaves beautifully, I couldn’t be more proud of her although I think she will always be a sharp type. I’ve been doing a lot of preparing for backing her myself; she is a full up island bred pony and although Im not a teenager anymore Im around 8 1/2 stone. She has been bitted and happily wears a saddle and walks out inhand with it on. Long reining is not a strong point it has to be said and requires more work. She is well used to things flapping over and round her and Ive been leaning over her progressively more until slipped a leg over her and let her take my weight. She had a neckstrap on and she did look worried, ears went back , but she didn’t do anything other than step back. Fast forward a bit again and Ive been able to be led round on her. she still feels wary but is very good and will walk on when told and stand. All I am doing is max 5 mins at a time and then making lots of fuss of her. Am I right to just keep my legs loose on her for the time being, Im on her bareback. Im very aware of not rushing her and am over the moon to have even got this far. I dont have a little jockey available to do more with her , although my little one will be led on her, he is only 2 and very small for his age so he wont be on her until we are a lot further down the line. So what should my next step with her be? My thoughts were to continue in this way, no pressure, for the rest of summer hope to get her to the point of being led out for walks with a rider, which she currently does in tack very nicely.
