Mara spent the weekend with us. She rode Laddie this morning.
Mara likes dogs, cats and horses. She will walk around the barn hallway and go to each stall, look at each horse hanging their head over the stall door and say “Hi” and sometimes wave. She sincerely tries to communicate with each animal and I am certain they understand her. A few weekends ago Mara rode without an adult holding her on. I just set her on Laddie and took my hands away. Then I had Laddie step forward. She adapted to his movement and that was that. I did not know how I was going to get her to make that step, but it just happened. I just kept on leading Laddie all the way from the barn to the house and Mara never had any problem.
She has a little black Sears and Robuck western saddle just like I had as a kid. I told her to hold on to the horn. Then I told her that she would not hear me say that very often. I just want her to ride the horse and be comfortable. We have to get her a helmet. Today we rode in the round pen. My plan is to get her used to riding by herself (w/o holding adult) which I think we can consider accomplished. The only problem I noticed today is that if her seat slips to one side (always to the right) she adapts her body to the offset rather than scoot her seat back to the center. My inclination is that she needs to learn to scoot her seat back to the center and keep it that way.
Or does she need stirrups to accomplish this? She seems to have good riding posture in the saddle. When she rode bareback yesterday, her inclination was to squeeze with her knees which caused her legs to bend and her knees to move up towards the withers. Today in the saddle, her legs are under her. My next step is to have the pony move in a circle on the lunge line. I can control the move forward and stop so Mara can work on her seat. The next step is to have Mara start controlling the go and stop. Once she learns that, we can ride the Buffalo River Trails… I would appreciate suggestions. Are there any books on “How to teach a child to ride a horse”?
Great pictures Dad! However you all are not supposed to ride the ponies w/out me there;)
This is incredibly sweet.
I have no advice about riding horses… I just enjoyed reading this and wish you luck with Mara.
Tell Mrs. Brown Hello! from Brandy Thomason
Love, love, love the pics of Mara riding Laddie; cannot believe how big she has gotten. Looks like you’re having a lot of fun being Grandpa; Hope to see the ya’ll when we get back to Arkansas.
I believe you and Mara already have it figured out………….see ya’ll on the trail! great site!
Hi, John. I just discovered your adorable pictures! You are indeed haveing so much fun. How old is Mara? I’ve been leading my granddaughter around on big tall Jack since she was about + 2 I think. She doesn’t get to ride much but now at 8 years she is starting to get the hang of controling the horse. I think my boys were both about 8 when they could start really learning to control the horse and judge the surroundings. I bought my boys trail riding ponies at 7 years, I trained the ponies to stop when I yelled whoa! I remember we were going down a trail and Clay was talking to Wade and heading for a low limb that would have scraped him off. I yelled Whoa and both ponies stopped dead in their tracks. I saved them from several wrecks like that.
Jennifer has given Sadie a two hour lesson and she really advanced in just that short time.
Your little sweet heart will advance fast getting to ride that great pony under your supervision. I love to see all the pictures.