best way to find a horse to ride?

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Apologies if this topic has been done to death previously, bit of background I am a student currently on a placement year in West London. Have been riding for over ten years and am competent but have no spare money for my own horse and I dont really want to go back to riding school.

Do people really exist who just need a hand with their horses? I've been scouring adverts looking at shares/part loans/rider wanted ads but I know a lot of people dont advertise as they get so many numpties roll up. I tried one horse, turned up and the owner had neglected to tell me it hadnt been ridden in two weeks (and still couldnt be) due to mud fever. Tried another and have been riding it but pretty sure the owner is dealing on the quiet and I dont like being lied to. Struggling to find anything where the owner doesnt have a hidden agenda or isnt expecting to paid for the privelege of schooling their green youngster. I understand that payment for sharing is often fair and have done it previously (would do it again if the horse was right) but being a skint student I cant really afford much at the moment.

Any ideas on the best way forward? Wanted adverts? I had one on preloved that I got a few replies on but mostly too far away, are there any other good sites?
 
Are you offering to help with mucking out, feeding etc in lieu of payment? For most horse owners, surely the riding's the fun bit which is our reward for all the hard work and expense!

You might consider you're "schooling their green youngster" but most of us would choose the skills of someone we already trust to do this job for us (if we were unable to do it ourselves). It sounds more that you want to ride for pleasure, which is understandable, and you might be lucky.

But surely most people do pay for the privilege of riding, whether by sharing the chores, or the costs involved in keeping a horse?
 
sorry i forgot to add in OP (and cant see how to edit it ) - im more than happy to help with stable chores etc, I would never expect just to turn up, ride and go home.

I know that such arrangements are a bit like gold dust - hence my post. You're right, I am looking to ride because I enjoy it - I dont mind putting work into other peoples horses but I have seen an awful lot of adverts "looking for experienced rider who likes schooling as my horse is very green. £xxx per month" which is not something I'm in a position to do.
 
Yes the sort of owner you are looking for does exist. I ride for two of them :D
The first I ride their horse to bring it on for showjumping. Horses main role is dressage but owner wants him to jump and has no desire to do this herself.
The second I just school a couple of her horses. One an established schoolmaster type, the other a very green 4yo.
No payment is made either way and i dont have to do any stable duties (but would happily).
The major difference between us is that i have 47 years experience and have competed to a reasonable level at BS, BE and BD so have a track record.

The first owner is a freind of an HHO member so she put us in touch.
The second is a HHO member and contacted me directly after a thread I posted about the possibility of schooling horses for people FOC.

What you need to do is really think about what you can bring to the relationship. This may be helping bring on a horse, or dealing with stable duties. In your situation I think I would be looking for someone who's horse needs more work then the owner has time to give it. Then you would both be gaining.

Adverts in local tack shops / feed merchants do sometimes pay off.
 
I have just done the reverse, I desperately needed a rider to keep my green boy in work as we're finally making progress with his development and i want him to maintain a decent level of fitness while i have my leg in a cast (- nothing to do with him!)

After looking at lots of ads, and seeing noone suitable, i posted a thread in here- i got a few people pm me but unfortunately they were too far away :( i really didnt want to advertise as i dont really have the time to show lots of day trippers around, especially as i was not particularly fussed on getting a financial contribution. I emailed the local university riding club, and after getting no response asked to join their facebook page, I posted on the wall what i was looking for, and that my horse is green can be spooky, riding would entail flat schooling, possibly some polework, absolutely no hacking.

Within a day i had ten people call me. I trialed 3 girls and eventually picked a couple who rode my boy beautifully, werent see-sawing his mouth or trying to force the issue with him but rode sympathetically to his greeness and accepted that when i said i dont want him doing any sitting trot because his back isnt strong enough that was fine, and were asking me questions about him, what I would like them to do with him etc..

Im very hopeful that it will work out well between us, no money is exchanging hands, they are doing me a favour keeping my horse fit and hopefully continuing his education a little bit, and in turn i am transporting them to ride for free twice a week. Its mutually beneficial.

I would join a local horsey facebook group for your area and put up an ad, but be honest about location, transport (can you drive), experience,etc.. email the local riding club, pony club- if you are lightweight there is always a demand for schooling naughty ponies, local hunts, the local polo club all might be looking for people to help with fittening work before the summer season, or may be able to point you in the direction of someone who might be able to offer you something.

Good luck, there are arrangements out there, you just need to be a bit imaginative to find them- alot of owners are busy and could do with their horse exercising onc a week, but arent bothered enough to put an advert out!
 
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If you have the equivalent of the NFED where you are, thats a good source of wanted/available riders ads, or put notices up in local riding schools, tack shops etc in the area you want to ride.

If you were down my way, I would be interetsed - I would love some help keeping 2 of mine ticking over! :rolleyes:

Good Luck with your search. :)
 
thanks all for your input. ive been riding over ten years and have experience on lots of different types of horses, youngsters, ex eventers etc but dont really have a competition record to speak of so nothing on paper to prove i am what i say I am :/

will try facebook groups and do some googling for local tack shops!
 
PaddyMonty said:
Yes the sort of owner you are looking for does exist. I ride for two of them :D
The first I ride their horse to bring it on for showjumping. Horses main role is dressage but owner wants him to jump and has no desire to do this herself.
The second I just school a couple of her horses. One an established schoolmaster type, the other a very green 4yo.
No payment is made either way and i dont have to do any stable duties (but would happily).
The major difference between us is that i have 47 years experience and have competed to a reasonable level at BS, BE and BD so have a track record.

The first owner is a freind of an HHO member so she put us in touch.
The second is a HHO member and contacted me directly after a thread I posted about the possibility of schooling horses for people FOC.

What you need to do is really think about what you can bring to the relationship. This may be helping bring on a horse, or dealing with stable duties. In your situation I think I would be looking for someone who's horse needs more work then the owner has time to give it. Then you would both be gaining.

Adverts in local tack shops / feed merchants do sometimes pay off.
Click to expand...

Paddy, you sound too good to be true :-) Are you sure Bicester is too far for you to travel??????
 
These owners definitely exist.. I am one of them! I have two horses who don't get enough work as I work long days, would love to find someone to ride them when I am working, and hack with me on my days off, and do some competing if they want. I don't want any money, and chores would be optional. I've put some ads up, but no takers yet....! :)
 
I "borrow" a horse, that I do everything with but own.

My OH rides for the YO (get her hunters fit for the season/rides stupid idiots that most people are too sensible to ride... me included!), the yard is a full livery yard only, and she always needs help. At the time I just wanted to be around horses, so popped along with my OH to help with the horses, chores and whatever else. YO then got talking to me (after a good month) and asked if I wanted to ride one of her quiet ones (due to injury), so lept at the chance and rode round the field while she watched to see if I was up to her standards, she gave me a few pointers and that was that :) shortly after this Mr Cob arrived, and being full of character and quirks quickly became my favourite. His owner is very busy due to work commitments and has a youngster, and she asked me if I would like to ride him regularly, and have a little go at small dressage shows to get my confidence back :D and that was that, I've ridden him on and off for 3 years, and have all but owned him since November. Of course I hand him straight back when she's feeling like a more "sensible" ride lol.

Just ask round some yards if they need any help, be friendly and work your socks off, you never know when you'll be asked :)
 
HazyXmas said:
Paddy, you sound too good to be true :-) Are you sure Bicester is too far for you to travel??????
Click to expand...
Yes it is way too far (unless you happen to have a GP BS horse or intermediate eventer).:p
I guess I'm just now finally cashing in on all the years I had to ride the horses no one else wanted (or was stupid enough) to. It's a hard way to learn but does give you quite a good seat. ;)
Now I have 3 cracking horses to work (plus my daughters) and I'm very grateful to the owners. :D
 
Before I owned a horse I was looking to loan. I put an advert in the local tack shop, the advantage being the people who see it will probably be local. Put on what you are looking for & what you can help with in return (maybe mention that you'd also do holiday cover if they go away, that would be a major bonus for an owner). Hopefully ad will be read by owners who don't want the hassle of advertising themselves.

p.s., I ended up loaning a fab mare that 2 years later I bought
 
I'm looking for a rider for my WB as I'm unable to ride weekends and school holidays.

I don't mind if they want to turn up and ride as I still have to look after the other one so doesn't bother me.

I don't mind if they are a happy hacker, or I'm just as happy for them to have lessons with my trainer or even compete or hunt once a relationship is established but have not had a response.

I'm in Gloucestershire so no use to OP but I wonder if people are interested in this type of arrangement or if its 'all or nothing'
 
NikCscott and mainpower, if only you were closer I would bite your hands off.

Its good to see that people are looking for this... now just to find one near me.
 
I'm in your area-ish and it's expensive to keep horses round here. If there was someone good enough to school a green youngster better than I could (I'm your average sort of rider!) I'd expect to pay them tbh, and when I've had non-paying adult/late teen sharers for a difficult horse in the past they often weren't committed enough as they weren't paying, so it didn't seem to matter to them if they didn't come for a few weeks. Getting people to pay seems to keep them coming. Equally, if I were to offer my nicely schooled horse out for share, it wouldn't be for free.

I think perhaps your best bet would be to offer to ride/school greener youngsters, for free, so everyone gets something from the arrangement. That or you'd need to be prepared to offer a decent chunk of your time to help a multi-horse owner with their chores in return for riding one of theirs. Wanted ads can work quite well.
 
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