Ridden lead rein??

[Mayandbump23]

Our friends have recently acquired a lovely little pony for their kids. They have asked if I would do ridden lead rein (not sure of the correct terminology here..) with it, me riding my horse, leading their pony (with eventually, one of the kids onboard). The pony is an experienced in-hand lead rein pony but, as far as we know, has never been led from another horse. I have never led a pony from a horse. I was thinking trying it out in the menage first, with no rider on the pony but not quite sure of what else we need to do. Can anyone help? Is there special kit we need to buy or will a normal lead rope attached to the pony?s bit do?

why would you attach the leadrope to the bit? Dredging my childhood memoreis and fairly sure that my dad led me from his horse with lead rein attached to the noseband (as per leading in hand)?

Never done it with a kids' pony but when exercising more than one at a time we just attach the lead rope to the bit in the normal way. hth

When I do it with my neice, I just attach the lead rope to the bit in the normal way. We're talking 10.2hh shetland being lead off a 16.2hh. The only problem is that Dpony has problems keeping up with my boys long legs!

I would also attach the rein to the bit, or put a head collar over the small ponies bridle and attach the lead to that. If you attach to the bit, I would clip it on on the far side of the ponys head, then thread through the bit ring on the side nearest, so if the pony shies, you don't pull the bit through it's mouth.

When DD was on the lead we used to lead her off with rein attached to the bit as Saggy describes. When we started we had her on a lunge line as it gave us a bit more length and we never wanted to be in a situation where, if he pulled away, we ran out of rein. Later on we just used a normal leather leading rein.

On fields/tracks we had the pony in our right hand as normal. However on the roads we had him in our left hand, on the off side, as we wanted our horse between DD and the traffic. This takes some getting used to if your pony is an experienced LR and not used to being led from the "wrong" side.

P.s. I would definitely not lead on the road off a noseband. I've seen more than one bridle broken when the horse pulled back and the stitching on the noseband sheared! We had one girl on our yard who would borrow my best tack for shows, then tie her pony up to the trailer like this. She was banned from borrowing in the end. The repairs were becoming pricey!

I've never seen anyone lead from the noseband - lead from the bit, attach the lead rope to the outside of the bit and loop it through the inside - as Saggy describes. I've always ridden and lead like this and so has everyone I know. A headcollar over the top might be an idea if the pony is likely to slip out of it's bridle (I've seen this happen).

As for the first time - take it slowly, round the school sounds ideal as a first go. I recently lead DD's pony off a horse for the first time (without DD on board) and he kept trying to dive in front of the horse I was riding. He also stuck to her like glue - DD wouldn't have been able to stay on if she had been riding.

Definitely try in school first - or even easier may be if you have field tracks you could ride round (less corners!).

I've ponied my friend's horse a few times, although not a lot recently. It helps if the ridden horse is dominant over the led horse as they'll then help you keep them in check! I'd also recommend carrying a long schooling whip on the same side as the ponied horse to give you a bit of control over their impulsion - I found it much harder to cope with led horse not keeping up/ trying to stop than if they tried to push in front (which my mare 'discourages'!). Also I found the flat webbing type leads easier to use than a standard rope one, as they're less bulky to hold along with the reins.

If you're attaching to the bit we found using a newmarket chain gave the best results (eg www.rideaway.co.uk/SHIRES-SMALL-BRASS-NEWMARKET-CHAIN/default.aspx or equivalently a coupling: www.robinsonsequestrian.com/saddles-tack/briddlework/bridle-accessories/requisite-webbing-coupling-black-one-size.html ), or if you'd rather not attach to the bit but are leading something much smaller than the ridden horse then consider using a lunging cavesson and attaching the leadrope onto one of the nose ring (if you're leading something smaller with the leadrope attached the 'normal' point on the headcoller you'll find the headcoller can get pulled round and into the pony's eye IYSWIM?).