Boys and ponies.

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Onyxia

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As R is getting older I keep thinking about buying him a pony.
Now, with a horse mad mum he will probably be very into them for a few years, but most boys seems to lose intrest in their teens.

Logical step would be lessons first, think about buying later but there isnt a school near us that will take children under 7 so its buy one or wait untill he is much older.

What age were yours when you bought first pony?
what did you buy?Something purely for the child or something you could do something with too?
 
I thgink you should make him work for it/want it. Without fail, all the kiddies I know who had to work for it/want it even for a little while rather than having one given to them are more keen and interested and driven to succeed. A few rich ones who have everything and have had everything done, literally, are still doing it but the ones who had to work then got brought up well/with good ponies are the ones continueing IMO
 
How old is he?
It seems extreme to buy a pony when you don't even know if he will enjoy riding, especially if you weren't considering buying one anyway. How big is your horse? Are there no small ponies on the yard you keep yours that he could ride on a LR?
 
Mine was 6 when we got his first pony, daughter had just turned 2.
We bought a shetland, thinking small pony, for small kids. But as someone once said "the closer to the ground, the nearer the devil".

Tiny ponies and tiny kids are okay to a point...

After 7 months it's apparent that this tiny pony won;t do much more than LR. So we'll be getting soemthing bigger which mummy can help with, and hop on if need be. I did get on the shetland earlier for a demo... but prefer my feet to be more than two inches off the ground.

I'd say get something that's about 12.2hh. Then you can school and hack it lightly, and R can learn on it. If you can, maybe get something this year, a youngster, and have a couple of years bringing it on yourself? Or try and find a share?

Just be warned, unless you positively LOVE doing 90% of the chores, don't do it. Mucking out takes ten times longer with kids in tow, and winter's hard when you have a pony to do before school.
 
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I thgink you should make him work for it/want it. Without fail, all the kiddies I know who had to work for it/want it even for a little while rather than having one given to them are more keen and interested and driven to succeed. A few rich ones who have everything and have had everything done, literally, are still doing it but the ones who had to work then got brought up well/with good ponies are the ones continueing IMO

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Very true!

Having to pay your son 50p per poo picking session kind of takes the fun out of it...
Teaching them yourself isnt easy...
Some days for two pins I'd sell the pony and go and buy myself a project...
 
having said all that, you could just buy a shetland... just as a starter...

He;s a fab pony! really!

and a special price to you
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. I'll even throw in some arm protection

( not that he ever bites
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)
 
My daughter started riding lessons at 5 and had a lesson every week, did the pony camp thing etc etc untill she was 11 before we bought her a pony, a 12.3h new forest.
She is nearly eighteen now and because she's quite small, we never had to buy her another one! We still have him and I couldn't bear to part with him. when I'm feeling brave I ride him, (his names Turbo )
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We also have a 9 year old shetland whose his companion, and yes he's the devil! ( but we love him)
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I started riding when I was 4 and I went for lessons until I was 9. Only after 9 did my mum agree to let me have a pony. In fact she went mad and bought two. One for me and one for my sister. Sure enough my sister lost interest in her teens and I had both ponies to play with which was great while I was small. When I grew to about 5'1 athletic build in my twenties I become really too big for the pony and in the end decided to loan her out....Once she had been out on loan I decided to sell her. I had both ponies loyally for 15 years. I still own my 30 yr old who mum first bought me at 9.

To be honest I would think about loaning. Youngesters grow so quickly and it can be a pain trying to sell as well as heart breaking if you have become attached.

I felt guilty for years about selling my pony and spent so much money on both of them when really they just sat in a field. Although I trully adored them and really should have sold my pony along time ago as really she was wasted with me, horses do cost alot of money and loaning is a much easier way of riding horses and once you have out grown them you can give them back and start again.

If you do decide to buy a pony, they can become great for other members of the family to ride, they can also become a good role model at times for horses....havent found that out yet, but they do seem to be very clever. I broke my old pony into harness as she would jump electric fences after I semi retired her. So there is alot that can be done if youngsters do out grow them.
good luck
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Toby comes to a lot of the shows with us and is desperate to ride in the ring. I bought a cheap pony for him when he was 4, but she was not keen on doing lear rein when he was practicing his rising trot (kept biting me) and was not good enough to show. She has now gone on loan to the local riding school (she does 3 hours a week so not exaclty overworked) and Toby has lessons once a week on her (he can now do rising trot so she is nowhere near as narky!). I have now bought him a "proper" lead rein pony who is actually a first ridden, but small enough to do lead rein classes. He seems a real sweetheart, but due to the bad weather, has not been to a show yet. Toby is taking it reall quite seriously and is riding as much as he can in order to practice for his first show. He wants to hack out (bit too busy from our yard unfortunately), he brushes the pony, and does "general maintenance". He does not muck out as the pony is currently living out, and to be honest. Now that he is just 6, he is a lot more committed and realy enjoys riding.

He says he wants to be a footballer who goes riding after football matches.
 
Why don't you ask about and see if anyone has a pony they are hanging onto that their child has out grown and have it on loan until he is old enough to go to the riding school, just so some real basics and lead him round and get his balance but you can leave the main teaching to the riding school and he can ride lots of different ponies so he can learn to ride different ones. Also because they will be able to provide a range of ponies as his riding improves and he grows.
 
My son told me he wanted to ride from about seven but I really did not realise how serious he was till we took him to France when he was ten on holiday and he spent every available second at field gate just gazing at horses. Was lucky and was able to get him lessons at local riding school and then he worked there really hard all day just so he could ride a pony back to field in evening. After about a year i decided to buy something we could share. He is seventeen now and rides a 17.2 warmblood and still completely horse mad so I would say your son will soon let you know what he wants to do.
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: My seven year old wants to be a rider that plays rugby but i am getting myself a small horse now and if he is keen he can ride her in a couple of years.
 
My brother as been riding since 6yo - he gave up pocket money to keep is ponies (later on, at about 10-12). He still has a horse (he's 18yo) and I can't see him stopping anytime soon - he's doing well at dressage and shows too. Hell he rides better than me alot of the time. We both started on Rusty, a little shettie who I had from when I was 4yo. Lessons were via PC
 
My son had a very fine little show pony type from when he was about 3, perfectly safe on a lead rein although she would have been too much for him off the lead rein - she started him off nicely although we never took it seriously at that stage - I walked for miles! Later on as he got a bit stronger I was able to lead him from a small cob.

We then went through a stage of not having ponies for a little bit (my cob died very suddenly and I didn't want to keep the pony without a companion) and my son went to a riding school for about 6 months but he never really enjoyed group lessons after having so much undivided attention!

Then Emerald came along when both he and she were 9 years old (see pic in sig) and they have been incredibly bonded, my son had private lessons on her for about 6 months and since then they have had fun hacking and have done well showing when you consider that the primary objective has always been to have fun. If I had pushed the equitation side he would have bored of the whole thing quite early on. In addition I have paid for polo lessons for a couple of seasons (that was scary, seeing your little 11 year old on a 15.2 polo pony cantering around chasing the ball) and he has caught the bug big time and wants to join a team and play more competitively in the future (I told him he can start earning first!)

So now his life plan is to join the Household Cavalry and play polo when he has the time and funds to do so - that may change, I am just delighted that he still loves horses and wants to be with them.

Boys and ponies can work - but they are different to girls!
 
I'd find out if he was willing to work for it! My first pony was my parents shetland show stallion, and then a welsh show pony, TBH they were so show orientated it put me off and the ponies were not friendly and i could not do stuff on my own. I was 4 when i first went to pony club, but i pottered about on the stally from when we were both two. You could get a small pony that could be driven by you? It depends how old he is as to what height, but when i was about 7 12.2 still semmed to big for me to handle, but i was probably midgit. In hunting around here there are quite a few boys, and in the UK young drivers there are more boys than girls. Although many boys give up horses i would expect a higher percentage of girls give it up at some point in their youth.

My first pony, Felix the stally my parents did alot of inhand showing with, then the welsh i did alot of leadrein on, my first offlead rein pony was a shetty, who we still have, my sister had a small welsh who we still have, and my other sister uses both of them at the moment for her first ponies.
 
I absolutely agree. Both of mine have had ponies and Will will work hard and try to ride 'proper' but Charlie just wants to zoom around and would love to play polo.
I can't be bothered to negotiate with them though, if they want to ride it's cool by me, as I get as much pleasure as they do. If they don't want to ride ponies get sold & I have less work to do
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The key is that it's fun.
 
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I totally agree with the "non equitation" route. If you try to make them do things they just won't!

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Same with anything-make it a game they soak up everything, force an issue they "switch off".

I am not thinking about buying him a pony right now(he is only 3 in November), just curious about the future.
Anything I do he wants to be in, or rather HAS to be in.That could change as he gets older so wouldnt think about anything as serious as a pony untill he is school age at least.
But (apart form his insistence that all greys except BB2's Badger are sheep,colourds are cows and everything else is a pony) he really loves horses, no harm in daydreaming
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Kay, I do like your idear of buying a youngster to bring on as R grows upa bit.If he wants to ride then there will be a pony there readyt o go,if not I have had the fun of bringing on a youngster( have some tiny good rider friends who could back it before selling) and someone would be getting a lovely boomporff pony for their children.

Ideal "solution" would be for be to buy something we could share, but I am 6ft tal so dont feel right on ponies much less then 14.2,would be a bit big for a child.
 
I still think you should buy a yearling / 2yo. in 3 years time if R wants to ride you'll have a ready made pony, if he doesnt, you can sell it on and buy something for yourself.
 
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I still think you should buy a yearling / 2yo. in 3 years time if R wants to ride you'll have a ready made pony, if he doesnt, you can sell it on and buy something for yourself.

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Really thinking hard about it!
If I am honest, I am not in the least bit competative.Shows are nice but not a big deal to me.I really just like pottering around being with horses,always have.
Am happy with a hack a week for myself.

Hmmm, how about you hang onto ginger man fro a bit and have a nice newfie baby in a few years?
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ETS, rate R is growing might as well look for something that will make 14hh +, he will be big enough in a couple of years
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For our older children, we bought them ponies; the boys were about 6 and daughter was 8 years old. Daughter has continued riding and is now 24 years old, the boys stopped riding when they were about 12. We bought a Welsh mountain pony, a Welsh B and a New Forest; all were nice ponies and all the children could ride out unled at these ages.

Youngest daughter was given her pony at 1 year old; Cloud is a ConnemaraX and she was 4 years old when we bought her. This daughter is now almost 11 years old and still rides every day, and even though we have loads of horses for her to ride, Cloud is still by far her favourite.
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Lol, it's not in the least bit tempting! Ginger cannot go any further than he's gone with us, and J wants to do pony club. In the future I hope to buy a youngster to bring on for them, but at only have room for one pony.
 
Our elder son is 12 and jumps competitively but didn't start riding until he was 7yo which was a disadvantage and it took him a few years to "catch up". He's the one who wants to get to HOYS, unlikely as it is on our budget.

Younger son is 3yo and, with some fear and trepidation, we bought him a section A about 4 months ago and it has been the best thing we've ever done. He adores the pony and, although he's too little to ride for very long, we include his pony in our horsey life and making reference to him (eg would your pony like some carrots when shopping) makes the little one's eyes light up. Even my OH agrees it's been a great move and has become much more involved in our equine adventures.

Oh, and we've also bred a foal for our 3yo to jump when they are both older - hope his interest continues!

So, I'd say go for it!
 
my brother is the best person i have ever seen ride my pony and since i don't like jumping and ponio and brother do it is a perfect match however he is know coming up 14 and wont come down to the yard unless money is involved (for poo picking) he even said to me the other day *i hate horses* its a shame but i just cant do anything about it
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If it's not much trouble or extra cost for you, you should. I was the first one in my family to get a pony and then a while later we looked at getting a companion for my pony and although my younger brother wasn't really into horses or riding we got a loan pony which was suitable for him to learn on if he wanted to. He did pony club, particularly camp, games, hunter trails and tetrathalon. He had 3 ponies in all, all loans, until he gave up when he went to college. When he was in secondary school he'd only ride from about march to september as he did school sports during the term and the ponies wintered out. However as we keep the horses at home, it's wasn't really any extra cost, as oppose to livery, and like I said we were lucky to find very good ponies on loan. He was into the more exciting things though, like the games, cross country and tetrathalon, which a lot of boys do. I think if he'd been pressurised into showing or dressage he wouldn't have kept it up. He did have to look after the ponies himself, i.e grooming (he never had a grey though- duns are a good colour for boys as they scrub up well with minimal effort!) and mucking out.
 
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