How to ride a resistant pony better…

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Adelaidelaine

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Feb 16, 2025
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Hello, I’m new here! I was wondering if anyone has any tips for getting more go out of a pony which I think has a confidence issue and also strongly dislikes a lot of leg and whip!

The details, my son is 11 and has been riding for five years, at first monthly, then fortnightly, now weekly for two years. He has moved up through the riding stable’s ponies and is now transitioning to the biggest of the ponies (or the shortest horse, I haven’t actually measured!) he looks a bit like a cob but leggier with less of a feather around his hooves… he’s a very unpopular pony because he doesn’t go forward very easily. He hates getting strongly kicked or whipped… I know why my son is being moved up to him as my son is strong but very gentle, unlike a lot o& the others his age! Typically Mini (the pony) only WANTS to go whilst following another pony, and that’s a problem for getting him to canter, as the lead pony always seems to feel chased and it has almost ended in tears a few times! He will go better on the lunge, but my son needs to get him going forward more without the instructor being close at hand with a lunge whip!

So if anyone has some suggestions, we’d love to hear them! (We are on Guernsey in the Channel Islands, between England and France!) thank you 😊
 
My initial feeling is find himsomewhere else to ride! Mini doesn't sound like he belongs in a school if he's like this with all his riders - he either lacks training, is very unhappy with being a RS pony, or is in pain. The instructor isn't doing anything to teach people how to ride him either because getting a lead from anpther pony or kicking and whipping isn't a solution for him or the riders.

In a lesson environment I don't think Ihave any tips that you could use, the approach I'd take - after getting him checked by a vet and his tack checked - simoly wouldn't fit in a lesson structure and would almost certainly involve ignoring the teacher. If there's nowhere else to ride I'd ask the stables for another horse, and by ask I mean tell them you won;t pay for him to ride this one.
 
I don't know if you're allowed to hack him alone, but if you are, you could try that. Sid my cob turns into a riding school pony when we are out with others - he slots in behind and takes the lead from them (including spooking and being a prat) unless I am very firm,. On his own he is much more inclined to pay attention to me, and that's where I've worked on his occasional napping issues. My RI, who helped me, doesn't agree with kicking and whipping, so we've never used that to make him go forward.
 
One suggestion is to use the whip on one's boot instead of on the horse.

However as well as giving the cue, the child needs to make sure that nothing is preventing the horse from moving forward - like the rider holding the reins too tight or gripping the sides of the horse with their legs. Children need to know that they are taught to steady themselves by letting their legs touch the sides of the horse,
But if they grip too hard, the horse cant move. If they "over-achieve" as many of us do in lessons, and grip the horse between their legs, the rider's legs act as brakes. The body of the horse has to be able to swing from side to side to allow the hind legs of the horse to step forward.
 
diplomaticandtactful said:
I had a terrifying ride on a riding school horse on a 1 1/2 hour hack the horse was totally brain dead and been trained to simply follow the leader at whatever the leader was doing, the rider was superfluous.
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Me too. Near Aberdeen/Balmoral. Beginner riders like me were supposed to wait at the botton of the hill while the advanced riders cantered up the hill. I relaxed and waited but my pony had other ideas. He chased up the hill after the canterers who stupidly did not stop but cantered on with me in tow.
 
@Skib that's why I was always taught that those wanting to go faster stayed behind until the slower riders had reached the end of whatever track they wanted to canter. Riding manners seem to have fallen out of favour nowadays which is a pity because they were about safety as much as politeness.
 
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Why on earth would you get the beginners to wait behind the fast ones.
The people who can ride wait for those who can't to go first and then catch up.
That used to be the case on fun rides that you turned up early to go slow and the faster people turned up later.

Allowing a horse to take a lead from another is fine to build up some confidence in the horse or rider a few times, but not consistently.
I would actually suggest a few private lessons and take the others out of the equation.
But I would be teaching canter how I was taught, everyone in the middle and the pony you are focusing on in canter on the outside. Never send people cantering around together unless you want a pile up.
If the cob doesn't canter the chances are it can't because it isn't balanced enough. Sending it around after another horse sounds like it's running in trot until it falls into canter which will still be unbalanced.
That's a big no no when learning to ride let alone educating a horse.
 
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I had some odd and wrong ideas when I was learning to ride. I thought I needed to ride regularly even when we went on holiday. So I located BHS listed places near to where we were going and simply rode on what was offered me. I think it helps if one is already a car driver. One is used to steering a vehicle moving at speed. I did the same in USA when we had long holidays there. The only time I dismounted and didnt ride further was in India. We were assured they provided hard hats but in fact they didnt. After I demurred and dismounted they obliged me to accompany the hack on foot in rather deep sand underfoot.
 
Skib said:
I had some odd and wrong ideas when I was learning to ride. I thought I needed to ride regularly even when we went on holiday. So I located BHS listed places near to where we were going and simply rode on what was offered me. I think it helps if one is already a car driver. One is used to steering a vehicle moving at speed. I did the same in USA when we had long holidays there. The only time I dismounted and didnt ride further was in India. We were assured they provided hard hats but in fact they didnt. After I demurred and dismounted they obliged me to accompany the hack on foot in rather deep sand underfoot.
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I don't see how driving a car or not has any impact on riding, handling a car at speed is totally different to a horse not least because the horse has a mind of it's own - sometime this is a good thing, sometime not!
 
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