Pony not working when other horses are around.

[Hellopony]

Hi,

My son is 7, pony is 7 and a Welsh sec A.

They have been riding beautifully around the school, 3 nice paces and listening well to sons aids. However this eve a friend's son and his pony came to ride with my son in the school. Sons pony turned into the devil, just couldn't handle it and bucked several times, final straw he bronked and my son came off. We called it a day by this point.
Its the first time my son has ridden him with another pony in the school. So we weren't prepared for this behaviour. He will happily hack out with any other pony and will go in front or behind (has hacked out with the other said pony fine too)
I think it's a confidence thing.

How do we overcome this? TIA

 

[carthorse]

Do you have a small teenager or adult who could ride the pony in the school with another in there? Failing that can you long rein with another around so he gets used to it, then when he's consistently calm and obedient in the long reins put your son on a lead rein with another pony in there.

No offence to your son, but did he ride differently because a friend was there?

 

[Jessey]

What she said ^^^ if pony doesn’t long line, just leading calmly and politely with another pony in there is also an option.

 

[Hellopony]

Thanks both will give long lining a go. Hopefully we will overcome it and he will become more confident. As I definitely feel that he was just very anxious and didn't know how to cope. It would be a shame to have to consider a sell when him and son are a real team and riding beautifully when solo in the school and both love and enjoy to hack with others absolutely fine. He just seemed like he didn't know how to cope.

 

[carthorse]

Maybe once you've got the pony used to long reining in the school with others and your son is ok on a lead rein with them there too then it would be worth getting him some lessons, a couple of private ones first and then try some shared ones if someone else is interested, or even see if someone would ride quietly in the arena while your son had a lesson, He's only young and while riding can be taught learning to deal with problems comes more from experience. If you can introduce the problem gradually and with someone there to help him cope and give calm advice then he stands a much better chance of dealing with it and will have learnt something he can use in the future too.