WE have just restarted Gems ridden education, she is 5yrs,backed and lightly hacked out by previous owner.
We have taken her back to basics , spent first 2 weeks on ground work , halt - walk- trot - walk - halt transitions in short lessons on the lunge, week 3 she was ridden in the field , same process for 20 minutes on weekend only, then back to groundwork and same again following weekend but with a short hack out after the schooling work, this week she had been ridden once in the field - she is now more balanced, is not rushing and slowly starting to stretch into an outline and work from behind and taking up contact. We are hoping to repeat tonight and then same again at weekend weather permitting, inbetween she is handled daily but allowed to be a pony and clear her head, her shape is changing with the work as she muscles up and she has lost some weight as she starts to exercise more, she was not overweight so have increased her hard feed slightly , grass is restricted for all our natives, to support the increased workload and so far so good.
We have not touched canter and do not expect to until we are happy with the 2 gaits we are working on - we will increase length of time for hacks out , we don't have the luxury of an older horse for her to go out with so it means someone walking out with her, shes not got a giddy nature just very green and forward going so firm repetition and reassurnce is the key making sure she is comfortable with each stage before moving on.
Patience and time and short training sessions always ending on a good note and a feeling of achievement, definitely not a process to be rushed.