We have recently taken on a 15 month old shetland x 'gypsy cob', piebald pony.
He is entire and we have been told to get him gelded.
First question - if this pony is to be a lead rein pony for my 4 year old to plod along on, will he definitely need to be gelded?
There are NO other horses around him at all and he appears to have a steady temperament.
We have only had him a week and at first he had a biting problem in that he tried to nip quite a lot.
We have started to break him of this habit but still have a long way to go I think.
Other than that he is pretty damn good at doing what we ask him.
He can walk on, trot on, lunge a bit, stand and pick up so we can work on his hooves. NOTHING spooks him. He is very confident around kids, dogs, traffic, everything.
If we can cure his biting habit do you guys think he sounds as if he could be ok left entire?
I have some videos of him here:
and ... I am really sorry to go on as I know I have a lot to say and ask.. but any advice would be really really appreciated.
We want to do the right thing and land up with a happy, well behaved pony.
He eats hay and has 1 hour grazing per day.
We groom him twice a day.
For 1 hour we try to train him by way of trotting him up and down, walking him on 2 leads and sometimes try lunging with him.
If he goes to bite we say 'shhhh!' loudly and make him do something like 'walk back', take a step back and/ or walk him in a circle.
He is entire and we have been told to get him gelded.
First question - if this pony is to be a lead rein pony for my 4 year old to plod along on, will he definitely need to be gelded?
There are NO other horses around him at all and he appears to have a steady temperament.
We have only had him a week and at first he had a biting problem in that he tried to nip quite a lot.
We have started to break him of this habit but still have a long way to go I think.
Other than that he is pretty damn good at doing what we ask him.
He can walk on, trot on, lunge a bit, stand and pick up so we can work on his hooves. NOTHING spooks him. He is very confident around kids, dogs, traffic, everything.
If we can cure his biting habit do you guys think he sounds as if he could be ok left entire?
I have some videos of him here:
and ... I am really sorry to go on as I know I have a lot to say and ask.. but any advice would be really really appreciated.
We want to do the right thing and land up with a happy, well behaved pony.
He eats hay and has 1 hour grazing per day.
We groom him twice a day.
For 1 hour we try to train him by way of trotting him up and down, walking him on 2 leads and sometimes try lunging with him.
If he goes to bite we say 'shhhh!' loudly and make him do something like 'walk back', take a step back and/ or walk him in a circle.