When I teach, I'm never on a horse, and I draw the line at getting on a 10 hand pony to demonstrate! image

I use a lot of hands-on when I'm teaching the 2-point. I usually have the kid put her hands halfway up the neck and grab mane (I always have the pony on a lunge line). That puts the upper body in the correct position. Then I tell them to lift their seat out of the saddle and hold it up by squeezing with their legs. Here's where it gets confusing - kids will either lie on the neck, stand in the stirrups, or hump their back. I then put them in the correct position with my hands, and say things like "Push your tummy towards the withers", or "Bend your knee". I'll usually let them stand in the stirrups a bit in the beginning, as long as they're not bracing the knee. I then lead them around while they're in 2-point, and graduate to lunging at the trot in 2-point. That will stabilize the position and get them gripping with the leg, rather than just standing in the stirrups.


It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt