The Pony Academy UK

02/12/2025

I like to give my little students the option to choose something special to do at the end of our sessions.

This little person likes to sit in her pony ba****ck for a few minutes.

We all look pretty happy don’t we!

What do the little ones in your life like to do as a special extra at the end of a session?

21/11/2025

I just read somewhere that to keep
Children safe around ponies, adults have to ride and train the ponies….

I disagree!

For 17 years The Pony Academy kept a very good safety record…. And I never rode one if those ponies or went out there in extra time to train them.

So how did we keep the children safe? By making sure the ponies FELT safe. By making sure the ponies’ basic “horse” needs were met (hanging a Pony Lifestyle), by teaching “tiny messages” ponies give (their body language) so we could address issues before they happened, and by making sure we were very consistent, so ponies always knew “what was happening next” (explaining ponies learn) and were happy about that.

Sure, gravity plays a role and sometimes a loss of balance leads to falls. But we never promoted that “you have to fall to be good rider”.

And I never rode the ponies in between.

Keep your pony below “scared mode”… that will keep your child safe.

Photo: Introducing water, away from home, making sure pony feels safe first!

30/05/2025

More stuff looking for a new home…🙏

No prices… donations welcome for our transport fund!

29/05/2025

Closing Down Sale!

25/05/2025

…and just like that, 17 years of joy, laughter, growing, learning and spreading awareness of a kinder way with ponies has come to an end today😢

The Pony Academy held her last Pony Session and has closed the gates forever.

It is sometimes hard to believe…

Thank you each and everyone of you for you unwavering support over the years.

My little dream of creating the opportunity for children to “have their own pony” through our Pony Sharing Scheme, way back in 2008, took us to creating a riding school with a difference so we could get those children ready to be Pony Sharers! Anita joined me in this dream in 2009! It has been quite a ride! (pardon the pun!)

So many of you have spent many years with us..one of you as long as 15 years! We will miss you all.

Thank you, as well, for helping me raise the funds to close The Pony Academy by supporting our Farewell Crowdfunder. I underestimated the costs… and I still need help. 🙏

Most pressing is being able to pay for hay and the transport of the ponies to their new homes… we still need close to £1000 to cover those costs. Maybe you can share the crowdfunder with your friends, let people know how much your children have enjoyed the time at The Pony Academy?

Humbling excercise for me…. it is so hard to ask for help. 😢

For all our old timers and alumni…
Anita and I will be on the field this week on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Come by with a picnic! Let’s celebrate what we had! We would love to see you. We will be busy clearing up… so you might want to give us a hand, too! 🤪

Rambling now…. I better sign off. It has been a big day.

In immense gratitude,
Monica

Please help us say Farewell to our Pony Academy by helping us get ponies to their new living environments and cover closing costs.

07/10/2023

This week we had to say bye-bye to one of the founding members of the equine team of The Pony Academy. 😢

Darling Tango, almost 30, was the highlight of so many children’s week over the years:

❤️ the perfect confidence giver
❤️ the gentlest ”first trot”provider
❤️ the safest “off the lead” pony
❤️ Pinky’s best friend forever
❤️ Chief “smile producer”

… the list goes on!

A one-in-a-million pony! 🙏

Tango helped us share the joy of ponies with many children for almost 15 years. The last 3 she enjoyed a well deserved retirement, hanging out with her herd!

Sadly, age caught up with her… if only she could have lived forever.

Thank you Tango for all the happy memories. You will be sorely missed. 😢

If you have any photos or memories of Tango, please share them here with us! 🙏

15/11/2022

We are often asked how we manage to keep our ponies so calm and gentle.

This is how.... we do these 3 things before we touch them!

Would love to share it with you, too!

19/10/2022

This is why we don’t even allow whips (or bits, or spurs or use the work “kick”) at The Pony Academy!

We need to stop normalising horse and pony abuse….. now. When they are young. 🙏❤️🙏

Jumping coaches: you must STOP teaching children to use a whip whenever a horse hesitates in front of a jump.

Children do not naturally have a desire to kick or hit or yell at their animals - they observe it, or are instructed to do it, by people who should know better. This generation of angry and abusive riders are specifically being TAUGHT how to be angry and abusive.

Imagine this - you see a dog being taken for a walk on a leash. The child leading the dog turns towards some stairs, and the dog stops at the bottom step. The child kicks the dog forcibly in the ribs, yells “GET UP”, and hits it with a whip.

I hope you would be outraged. I hope you would wonder who or what on earth caused the child to be so abusive to that animal. I hope you would NOT turn a blind eye and ignore it.

Now imagine this - you see a horse being ridden by a child. It is turned towards a jump, it hesitates, the child kicks the horse forcibly in the ribs, yells “GET UP”, the horse stops, and the child hits it with a whip.

I hope you would be outraged. I hope you would wonder who or what on earth caused the child to be so abusive to that animal. I hope you would NOT turn a blind eye and ignore it.

This situation is so common, normalised, accepted, TAUGHT TO THEM that nobody even blinks when it happens to a horse. I'm sure you can exactly picture it applied to this photograph. I hope you can also picture that it will not help the horse or child become safer, more confident, more harmonious, more balanced. Once these abusive “techniques” become automatic habits, they are very difficult to correct. UNLESS WE STEP UP NOW!

But but but….. why did the horse stop in the first place? There are a multitude of reasons:

Underprepared
Over faced
Tired
Sore
Lacking clarity
Rider unbalanced
Horse unbalanced
Wrong pace or line
So many many possible causes, NONE of which are helped by angry and abusive riding.

Yelling at the horse, hitting it, frightening it even further results in nobody having fun, nobody feeling safe, people and horses getting hurt, and our sport being in the media for all the wrong reasons.

Here are some phrases I never wish to hear again:
Make him do it
Don't let the horse win
Always discipline a stop
Don’t let him get away with it
MORE LEG!

Replace the above phrases with these:
Prepare, then prepare some more
Reward the smallest try
Breathe
Wait
Feel
Trust

There are also FREE preparatory exercises here: https://classicaljumping.com/next-level-freebie

Children do not naturally have a desire to kick or hit or yell at their animals - they observe it, or are instructed to do it, by people who should know better.
STOP IT!