Littletree methods used:- Breaking & Schooling

By the time the ponies reach the age of three, their education to being a ridden pony begins. We take a pride in breaking and schooling our ponies to a high level before being sold. We like to take the ponies through each of the stages ourselves; therefore we know exactly what they have experienced. We have found that once they have been broken and basically schooled correctly, they soon enjoy being ridden and ultimately want to work to please you instead of because of you. The four critical steps to breaking are as follows:
Mouthing:- The first and probably most important stage. The pony is ‘tied down’ for an hour a day over one week. The mouthing bit consists of ‘playing’ keys to encourage the pony to keep moving his tongue to accept the contact. The ‘body’ of the bit possesses a mild and a severe side, (we always use the mild). The side-reins are elasticated to allow movement of the lower jaw, and are tightened slightly each day. The aim is to end up with the pony showing a wet mouth and light acceptance to the bit. We never put the side reins too tight as to make the pony lean on the bit and become overbent, but quite the opposite so that they are just tight enough to allow them to make a nice self-carried arch in their neck with the head on or, at this stage, just infront of the vertical. The stallion shown is modelling this beautifully .Littletree methods - Mouthing
Lungeing:-

The second stage is when lungeing is introduced to the pony. This allows them to still hold the desired head carriage whilst moving activately forwards. Also at this stage, the voice commands are learnt. Here, the inside side- rein needs to be shorter than the outside to allow the correct bend to flow through the body. This picture shows the stallion coming in on this side of the circle, and so needs to be encouraged to step out again. 
Littletree methods - Lungeing
Long-Reining:-

The third and fourth stages are spent teaching the pony to turn, stop, bend and also to introduce aids to the pony that are taken over by the leg once mounted. This is another stage which is immensely important if the owner/ rider wishes to have a safe mount which stops and turns when required! 

 Littletree methods - Long Reining
Backing:-

The final stage is spent quietly introducing the weight of the rider. At first, we place an experienced rider gently over the back until the horse looks happy and confident with this. Afterwards, the rider has a leg up to sit upright in the saddle. Once the horse is walking and trotting encouragingly on the lunge they are ready to ride away! 

 Littletree methods - Backing

We would like to stress that this is our way of ‘starting off’ which we find to be successful. However, the problems that can arise on the way need to be dealt with quickly before they develop. When it comes to breaking, each pony must be sympathetically understood if they are to trust you, however, being newly broken is the beginning to many more challenges ahead!