What Are Some Excercises I Can Use to Help With Training My Pony/?
He is around 8 years old and has previously been used in lessons before we got him (were free leasing him).I want to use him for jumping and slowly work our way up to dressage training. He has beautiful movement but is very unbalanced. he wont stay on the rail and seems very confused when i ask him to bend to the inside and stay on the rail. What are some ways to help me gain more control of his movements and get him to bend more and become more balanced? I am going to work with my trainer but until we get our arena finished, I’m on my own! What are some exercises? Maybe I could lunge him in a German martingale or some sort of training aid? What would you advise?
I have had experience in working with horses like this but theses horses had some prior experience with what I was asking of them.
Lots and lots of transitions, whether on the lunge or ridden. This will help develop his topline as well as help him increase his balance. Not snatching transitions, but not long drawn out yanking transitions, and you can use voice to help reinforce the transitions. The outside rein must have more influence to transfer balance to the outside hind leg, and the upward and downward transitions should start from the outside hind leg.
5 strides walk, 5 strides trot, 5 strides walk, 5 strides canter, 5 strides trot, etc.
I like lunging in sidereins, but I’m not a big fan on more involved gadgets, and the german martingale without enough energy production from your legs or the whip will just pull this guy onto his forehand which he already favors. Again, lots of transitions. He needs to build strength in his topline to have balance.
If he resists and downward transition, then he gets to "meet mister wall" in that he is turned into the wall and somewhat abruptly stopped. This uses the outside rein and leg, and makes him pay attention to their subtle use. I also use head to the wall leg yield lots for the unbalanced guys as that also emphasizes balance to the outside hind leg and attention to the reins. Don’t let the neck bend too much; his head should always be between his shoulders, not bent around to your knee or allow the shoulder to "pop" away from the direction of the head.
Your trainer will likely have you do these things, and particularly head to the wall leg yield needs to be done with eyes on the ground at first to help you with enough angle and not get too much angle. I don’t recommend doing it on your own at first.
i would not recommend lungeing u need to do a ton of flat work in order to him back into shape and truly understand what your doing i would try doing some side passes and serpentines to make him help him learn how to ballance you might also want to try some check reigns in order to balance his body.