Pony's Advice please

[farthing]

First and foremost, does your daughter ride, if not I would invest in lessons first. My neice was really keen to ride but after she fell off a couple of times she decided it wasn't for her

How old is she, lots of girls are into horse riding until puberty and suddenly boys become a lot more interesting and the pony gets neglected.

What do you plan to do when she outgrows it, will you be willing to keep it or will you sell it on, and how will you feel about that.

If she can ride, why not take a horse out on loan, I only started riding in my late 20's and felt it would be better to try a horse on loan first, incase I didn't enjoy the actual work side of it. It will show you how much it costs and the work involved without the full commitment of buying.

If you are not used to handling horses it can be quite dangerous, even the best of horses soon learn when somebody is inconfident and become very bargy. Why not invest in some stable management classes or offer to help at a riding school, just to give you an idea of how difficult some horses can be.

Again, I don't mean to sound negative, and I don't know your experience, but if it is limited, I would get some practical experience first, even the smallest sheltland can be dangerous.

Finally, as for cost, I would call local yard and ask, and also what facilities they have, same for a blacksmith, up here they are like gold dust. Definately get it insured, it can save a lot of cost, and remember you still have to cater for every day vet bills, like vaccinations, yearly.

Hope this helps.

[Fran]

Originally Posted by farthing

First and foremost, does your daughter ride, if not I would invest in lessons first. My neice was really keen to ride but after she fell off a couple of times she decided it wasn't for her.

Very very good point. A few years ago, we loaned a very experienced, school master pony. At the time, my daughter had had lessons and was a reasonably confident little rider and this was an absolutely bomb proof pony. However, one day during a lesson, she lost her seat whilst cantering and had a nasty fall. That was it, she never got on that pony again. The pony did nothing wrong but children don't see things the way we do. My daughter will ride our 16hh horse! but she wouldn't ride the little 12hh pony again. Luckily as it was on loan, we eventally returned it to it's owners.

[tilly]

I know nothing of owning horses but had a thought if you wanted to loan a horse what about one from the ILPH as i think they loan out horses here is a link.http://www.ilph.org/hls/

not sure if that would help or not

best of luck

Sally