Getting pony fit

[HornungTheHelpful]

10.2hh Welsh section A, ridden by my 3, 5 and 7 year olds. Rarely in the week but every weekend. He lives on air. Consequently, even with minimal grass exposure he has a tendency to be a little barrel. I would like to get him a bit fitter and more responsive particularly for the 7 year old. Think the pony would also benefit from the additional attention and stimulation.

How does the following sound:

• lunge x2 per week, c. 20 minutes each, walk, trot and canter (building up over time)
• led out hacking when I take out my horse (working up to hack of c. 1 hour over 6-8 weeks - may have to get him started with me leading from the ground)
• ridden Sat and Sun by one or more children (this is not strenuous as 3 and 5 year old just potter, and 7 year old doesn’t push him)

any other suggestions? No small teenager available. Hard for children to ride more in the week until a little older. I am small and light enough to ride him but don’t think this would benefit him until much fitter, even if then. I also don’t want him OTT as, adorable as he is, he can be a little sod and I don’t want excess energy resulting in excessively rambunctious behaviour with the children. In addition he has turnout c. 8 hours a day with at least 3 others, so he’s not bored, just a bit fat and unfit.

He is a little angel of a pony and I’d like both him and the children (whom he genuinely adores and looks after) to get the most out of the relationship.

Your plan looks fine but my experience with little ponies is they do get harder to handle and ride as they get fitter and more energy. I do wonder if you might be better trying to work out a way to restrict his calorie intake still further to get some weight off (winter will help you here), will he wear a grazing muzzle or can you create a partition system in the field (maybe not if you have others to consider) - or slow him down on the forage when stabled, get a small hole net or a trickle feeder or similar? Apologies if you've already tried all that, these little ponies are determined to get and stay fat on thin air!

For the exercise, maybe you could replace one or both lunging sessions with some other groundwork that's more focussed on training and responsiveness rather than pure fitness, perhaps try some horse agility or despooking or even dressage in hand - you might need some lessons from a groundwork instructor to get him going? Lunging is good for fitness but I do think it can wind them up quite a lot as well as not being brilliant for joints (which will already be under strain if he's overweight) and I don't know how much it would help in getting him responsive for your 7yo? The ponying from your horse out hacking sounds good so long as he takes to it as then maybe you can do the same with your kid on board, I did try it with my lead rein pony (also a fat Welsh A!) many moons ago and have to say it was an enduring nightmare, he spent half his time trying to bite and kick my poor horse and the rest spooking, farting and bucking and trying to piss off (despite being an absolute angel with kids up, he knew his job very well and when he could and couldn't mess around!). You could try teaching him to long rein and hack him out on foot if the ponying doesn't work out?

Thanks, some good ideas there. The seven year old does ride out with me (doesn't need leading) but again I can't really up that too much as hard to do anything in the week. Further calorie restriction is tough (isn't it always?). He can remove every grazing muzzle we have tried and has a trickle net already.

The ride/lead will take some getting used to. The pony does wind my dressage twat up, but doesn't bite and kick fortunately. We are just going to have to go on a learning journey together 🤣

May well look into the idea of doing some dressage in hand with him. This will help me get fit too 🤣

Would it be possible to break him to drive then you could do that with the kids . As @maxelly said I wouldn’t aim for overfit as he could end up being a menace particularly for the younger 2 children .

You might not want to hear this but do you need to buy a new pony? The first ridden saint that is very Ploddy may not suit a 7 year old who is able to hack off the lead. Would also mean two of your dc able to ride together.
A middle option would be to try to join your local pony club so your eldest can start doing more. There are normally indoor weekday rallies over winter making it possible to ride when dark. Also normally beginners jumping competitions once a month at the weekend. Pony may go up a gear with new challenges.
I only mention the above options as it sounds like you would be putting lots of work into trying to turn this pony into something he might not be, when you have three young children to spend your time on.

Yes sounds fine to me. I kept my daughters pony fit by leading him off my Hunter out hacking. Providing his behaviour doesn't change for them to ride.

In all honestly, yes, I think we are close to needing a second for the seven year old, but for a variety of reasons I'd like to delay that if we can. And to be fair to the little pony, he is not ploddy, but he can be difficult when he doesn't fancy doing something and this comes around pretty quickly at the moment due to the lack of fitness.

But yes, I think this is ultimately where we are going!

I'd probably drop the lunging, this can just create for ponies like you say with not a huge amount of other benefit. Long reining at walk doing hill work or poles is a far better option ime. Apart from that, sounds fine. Just monitor the behaviour.

I live in Lincolnshire 🤣 I’m not driving 40 minutes for hill work. Not yet anyway. Thanks for the suggestions. My long reining leaves a lot to be desired but maybe time to improve my skill set

Oh haha. We definitely don't have that problem here in Scotland. Spoiled for choice of hills 🤣Poles (raised and grids) are a good too. You can also do them in hand and on the lunge as well as long rein. Lunging over poles does a lot more than just trotting round in circles will

Yes - poles probably the way to go (joking aside we do drive any rehab horses for the hills)

I agree with the suggestion to swap one of the lunging ones for an inhand one, e.g. over poles etc- which will hopefully engage his brain and interest him without making him super fit!

I would definitely try ride and lead- maybe practice around the school/yard first if you haven't done it before. Get a longer leadrope- I know someone who does it with one of those natural horsemanship type long ropes- you do then end up with a lot of rope to hold, but it gives you more slack to sort out any issues too, and the led pony can properly tuck in behind the ridden one which it seems to prefer!

Do you ride and lead with your younger kids? If not, I'd give that a try too, as at least you can take the pony a bit further/faster than with you on foot?

Do you really have no hills at all? I think even a gentle incline can be beneficial (up and down)- I'm in Cornwall and I genuinely have no idea how I'd keep my pony fit without lots of hills to trot up!