Keen Young Dressage Riders and Cracking Ponies

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Anika and her daughter Lexi, along with their lovely New Forest pony Teddy in Kent. Lexi is a young rider who is very keen on dressage and is just starting out on her training journey with her pony. She was having a few issues with Teds accepting the contact and softening through the neck. When Lexi would ask for him to come into a contact he would evade by crossing his jaw and poking his nose in the air and ignoring her aids… as some ponies do, because they think they know best!
Lexi has lovely hands and is a very sympathetic rider, (Ted doesn’t know how lucky he is) and she was a little frustrated with this issue while schooling. After watching her ride, and assessing Teds evasions, we changed his bit. Well, what a transformation! After giving Lexi a little guidance in how to ask Teds to accept the contact, they were off! Lexi was beaming and Teds was happy as now he knew what was expected from him. It’s so lovely to be able to help riders like Lexi achieve their goals and set them on a path for success and to enjoy their training sessions. I’m sure Lexi will be a future dressage star with Teddy, and wish them every success in their learning journey.

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