Handy pony suggestions for total beginners LOL

[ccc]

Having looked at Gills' amazing pictures with Saturn I would like to try and do some stuff with Rose to get prepared for the PS in August.

I will start from the ground for obvous reasons, but I was wondering where do I start. I can get som,e smaller flags to place round the menage and get a tarp to play with but what else?

I am sure someone mentioned agaes ago that Valerie trained their ponies using her washing line with clothes on. I don't want to go that far, but is it worth setting up a line with dangly things and plastic bags on it?

Clair x

[SuzieP]

Let's see - when we were at Dales Camp Claire put up a handy pony course for us. There was an "up" umbrella, a tarpaulin, some big settee cushions to walk over, a line of washing, a garden sprinkler (LOL LOL). Other good things are cones with flags stuck in them, something to pick up and carry whilst on horseback (a bucket or a bag of something), maybe something to pull behind the pony - one year at the Perf Show they had to drag a feedbag stuffed with hay. Anything that flaps or makes a noise are good handy pony things......

Have fun Clair......

[greydales]

Just to mention about Saturn Clair - I can guarantee you he will not be so calm at the show LOL!! It's all about how secure they feel and the show will be a strange place and away from the security of his herd, so a completely different story ;D

Anyway, a list of 'handy pony' things to get you started!

Tie plastic bags around the arena
If she accepts these okay then try balloons!
Fill black bin bags and put them in various places and walk Rose in and out of them
Try walking with Rose carrying a bin bag then dragging it on the floor via a bit of baler twine so it goes behind you
Tie things to jump wings - old feed sacks, plastic bags, and walk Rose around them
Put the jump wings a little way apart and walk Rose through them, gradually making the gap smaller
If Rose accepts the tarp no problem then rumple it up so she has to 'wade' through it and feels it further up her legs
Put an empty dustbin on its side (very scary!)
If you have traffic cones set them up in a line and weave her in and out
Put any old thing on the floor, such as flat cardboard boxes, old sheets etc and see if she will walk over them

I've got many more but that should do for starters LOL!

[sunnyeyes]

Having to get into a sack or bin bag and hop along whilst leading your pony (think sack race style!) is always a good one, lol. Hope you have fun!!!

[admin]

Hi, things I have in my handy pony course:
kick a football
ride up to a mcdonalds bag and pretend to eat from it while pony has to stand patiently still
mount/dismount from incorrect side
mount from a mounting block (you'd be amazed how few can do this properly)
ride using only one hand
open and close a gate whilst mounted
trot/canter towards the gate on a loose rein
trot poles on the ground at odd distances so the pony has to think about where their feet go
a maze of trot poles to ride through
branches tied to jump wings to make a woods
a 6ft bright pink shark
a "dead body" (scarecrow) to ride over/past
some drain pipe tied to a jump wing that you have to pour water down from a watering can
Rein back into a 3 sided square
lots of things "borrowed" from some roadworks
trot down a very narrow (60cm) corridor made from trot poles
Pony has to touch or kick a large excercise ball
balancing a ball on a racket
hitting a ball on a racket


Urm can't think of any more at the moment. I'll get back to you if I do

Good luck and have fun!

Olivia

[jet]

I'm going to have to try Flash with a few of these suggestions!

[vjjjebony]

O.K. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
lots of agreement from previous people.

all treats MUST come from a plastic supermarket bag steady at frist and then flapping around more and more!
this rebounded on us when peter boy ran over the road whilst hacking to investigate theflapping carrier bag in the hedge the other side of the road.
The washing line.
start with a line under which the pony goes to get her treat after work.
As soon as this is o.k. put on a 5" size piece of material
As soon as this is o.k. 10"
As soon as this is o.k. 2 X 10"
and on and on.
I will always remember the police in birmingham putting their new horse in the school with large brightly coloured sheet on the floor. theeir food was then placed on this and they either got to eat or did not!
Valerie

I can asure you that none of this is upsetting for them as they have two choices treat or no treat. Or pos for a Dales this no treat could be very upsetting!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Valerie.

[vjjjebony]

;D ;D ;D ;D
Um Olivia just were did you get the 6 foot pink shark?
please.

Valerie

[greydales]

LOL Val! I think that above all else if you can get them to accept stuff going over their heads this is a very valuable lesson. My horse Pip could not stand going under anything, and over all the years I had him I couldn't get him totally over this. Yet strangely if we were out on a hack he would go under any overhanging low branches without any hesitation!!

He was awful with large vehicles and I remember one occasion that my good friend Dave Baker, who has years of experience in training horses, took Pip down a dual carriageway with lorries etc thundering past. He disappeared a few times into some bushes up a bank but when he saw a large road sign which he had to go under, he preferred to step into the road than go under that

I did however manage to get him to a Le Trec day and go under a pole - but we had to break this down into tiny chunks!

[flintfootfilly]

Other possibilities:

Plastic carrier bags filled with either milkbottle tops (or similar) or empty cans. Nice and rattly. Good to practise picking up 2 bags filled like this, and joined by string, and put them across pony's withers and ride with them there. Worth trying online first before trying mounted if in any doubt!

Backing through a corridor, or L shape or maze.

Automated noisy cuddly toy - pick it up.

Pick up anything from a fencepost and replace it accurately.

Weave in and out of line of cones.

Will keep thinking - there must be LOADS of other stuff!

Sarah

[ccc]

EEEK!

Okay will print all this out and start doing a little bit at a time!

Many thanks everyone!

Clair x

[vjjjebony]

what about an apple in a bucket were that scarry bush is? let adam lead on his own you place aple loudly in bucket.
Valerie.

[sammy]

Beau was scared the first time I carried her bits of apple over to her in the tesco bag whilst I was shaking it about, now she's got her nose in it to get them out! before I tie it on the fence to let the wind blow!!!

[ccc]

Valerie,

I like the sound of chucking treats in a bucket!!! Rose is a sucker for carrot so will give that a go. That d**n bush has been there all the time so why she now thinks it will eat her I have no idea!!!!!
Will also try the plastic bag too. I see hours of "fun" ahead and a pony stuffed with carrot LOL

Clair x

[SuzieP]

Have lots of fun Clair - doing this stuff is great if you can't ride every time. I really enjoy "playing" with Bea and am going to have lots of fun testing the handy pony obstacles for the Perf Show on him.

LOL - Leann has challenged me that everything I ask people to do at the show, I must have done myself at home!