Breaking the Shetland

Hi there. May I just say that my favourite breed is the shetland pony I love the big horse thinking in them and the fact that both myself a 5ft9 man and vet have both hurdled the stable walls a few times whilst trying to their teeth lol scary animals. Anyway we have three of these brilliant little animals. Rose is 21 this year and safe as house broken to drive and ride. BUT the other two both 3 Humphrey stallion and Tinker mare are now finally due to be broken. I want this to be as pain free and pleasurable exp as possible. They are both broken to head collar allready and easy to handle. But yet why do I live in fear Any advice would be welcome.

Thanks

John

Welcome to the forum!

I'm in the process of working with 2 small ponies for a client. What I did first was to train them to lunge. I had them on a line and worked on voice commands then moved up to long lining them. The next step was a saddle and then some weight in the form of feed bags of about 50 pounds. I will be changing over to a driving harness next.

The reason I went to the saddle instead of the harness is that I had the proper saddle and girth, and my mini harness needed some extensions made for the saddle section (fat little guys).

Hope that helps and good luck. There are some knowledgeable members here who have worked with ponies and minis. I'm sure they have a lot of advise to give you.

Thats great I really do appreciate your advise which seems very sound. Would hate to see 3 year old's being thrown all over the yard I'll let you know how I get on.
John