Dealing with pony who has learnt to refuse

[marialuisa]

DD's pony has just turned 6, been broken for approx 2 years and from jumping anything, in the past month has learnt to refuse. This is undeniably down to DD who lost a lot of confidence after an awful fall and has developed some bad habits from fear. To try and fix this we plan to stop DD jumping him at all for now and get her some jumping lessons on a reliable Section A; we'll get an experienced rider to school pony on the flat and over the jumps for us. I think it's unlikely we'll break the pony of the habit completely but hoping that being schooled by someone with a bit more weight will discourage him from taking the mick quite so spectacularly (and we've checked, there's nothing causing pain and he's more likely to stop dead at something that's 18 inches than he is at 2'6" so does seem like cheekiness!)Do any you of any suggestions of other things we should do or consider?

I think you're on the right lines with getting someone else to school over jumps while DD gets her confidence back. I wouldn't worry too much, if he's learnt something he can always unlearn it! Maybe DD could do a bit of pole work on her pony during flatwork, to start to rebuild the partnership?

GD's pony is also far more likely to stop at small jumps than bigger ones, I think he just doesn't respect them so doesn't see why he's being asked to jump it! Ponies huh?

You are defiantly going about it the right way.
I had a pony back in my late teenage years who would jump anything at home but as soon as you took her into a competition ring she would refuse everything. I was an experienced rider and she would do the same with people even more experienced then me, I spent a very embarrassing winter season taking her to every low key indoor jumping event and walk her around the course only going into a trot a few strides from each fence, b it by bit she got better, it was very for me, people would really take the mick but because it was an issue that only came up in the show ring I couldn't see another way. The summer season arrived and my hard work paid off, she turned into a great working hunter pony at county level so these things can be overcome with a great deal of patience.
I also had a young just backed 4 year old (the daughter of the pony above as it happens) who was being ridden after she was first broken by a not so experienced rider who was quite heavy handed, in the two months she was riding her she started refusing, pulling, wouldn't work on the bit ended up diplomaticly stopping the other person riding her, took her right back to basics and started the schooling process over again then started her with jumping again as if I was starting from scratch, she was back on form in about 2 months.

oooh our pony doing same thing to a degree, he was alwaus quite enthusiastic jumper , if a little green about it, last month or so has been just as enthusiastic , canter keenly at jumps , slows at about 2-3 strides and then stops and cat jumps it. never actually refused but keeps unseating dd. if she keeps her leg on to keep up momentum over jump she gets nervy as pony goes to fast

Thanks all.