Training Your Horse or Pony- with Penny Hollings

Penny Hollings, from Team Hollings, is a familiar face on the show scene, competing over many years at the highest level. Penny has numerous wins, HOYS and RIHS qualifications to her name, both in her own name and for horses and ponies produced by the team. Penny also breeds under the Pendle prefix.

Penny is a Registered BHS Instructor and she is very approachable and friendly. In recent years, she has focused on teaching and offers support for novice and more advanced pupils and is available for clinics and lessons. She is an Arab Horse Society, NPS, BSHA, NCPA, CHAPS and BSPS judge and judges both In Hand and Ridden Arabs.

Penny is going to be a regular contributor to our blog and in this series, Penny will be offering invaluable advice for developing horses and ponies for the show ring to improve way of going as well as ringcraft.

In the first of the series, Penny looks at some of the problems that everyone may face at some time or another and offers some great advice on training your horse or pony for the ring.

Training your horse or pony

The first thing that I impress upon anyone having a lesson is that they give their animal their full attention in order that they may read accurately the horse and his reactions and to assume the role of teacher rather than a bickering sibling

People quite often tell me that their animal is fine at home but then is “naughty” at shows or vice versa. This statement indicates to me that the rider is not fully aware of the horse and has not developed a sufficiently strong relationship where the horse is obedient to the rider and they have mutual respect. If an animal believes the rider then the surroundings will have little impact, the horse instead will be focussed on the signals given by the rider.

Another frequently used excuse is “he’s not listening to me”. More often than not, the horse is not ignoring the rider but instead is not receiving clear signals or in some cases no signals, and yet is expected to perform beautifully. Accurate communication and an understanding of the horse’s reactions will result in a more harmonious partnership.

Penny on China Rose

Where a horse is expected to be ridden by the judge, many people think that the poor animal must endure a procession of different shapes, sizes and abilities of rider in order that “he gets used to different people”. A better way to approach this scenario is to train and prepare the horse so he offers a ride with minimum input from the judge. If he is educated and worked so that he is soft and relaxed he will give a lovely ride.

Spooking is quite often exacerbated by the rider. I will quite often get riders to close their eyes as they ride past the object of terror and usually the horse’s response to the object is massively reduced and with repetition will diminish even further.

Quite often riders hold their breath and tense up when they perceive a threat. As soon as that happens, the horse no longer receives clear signals, so will then not do what the rider wants. The calmer and more focussed the rider remains, the more likely it is that the horse will perform in the way the rider would like.

The closed eyes also work for horses that don’t stand in front of the judge, although quite often the fidgeting is caused by a lack of straightness in the halt resulting in the animal having to adjust his balance thereby starting the fidgeting.

In conclusion, the rider’s priority is to improve the balance and straightness of the horse, through clear and accurate signals. This, I believe, is the key to a happy and harmonious partnership.

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If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us on info@supremeproducts.co.uk as we really enjoy hearing from you! We also love to see your pictures, so please feel free to visit our Facebook page and post them on our wall, making sure you tell us all about you and your horse or pony.

Our office number is not just for people wanting to buy products – if you have a question or would like some advice on how best to use our products or what would be the best product to use in certain situations, then please call us on 01377 229050 – we will be happy to help where we can!

Best wishes,

Sarah