children and unbacked ponies

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kazhar

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I have been looking for a loan pony for a while and no joy, how feasible is it to buy something like an unbacked new forest type for a 7yo child. obviously it would be me that backs it and im quite happy to spend ages long reining, de sensitising and allsorts -no rush at all but having never done it for a childs pony, what is the likelihood that it will safe enough? I know its a bit of a " how long is a piece of string" type question but if anyone has done this could they please tell me their experiences. Im quite happy to get on myself...just wary of it going horrribly wrong with small child. Its a first pony for her as well so got to be careful.
 
Personally I wouldn't. I would rather something in its early teens that has been there and done it. You want a first pony to give confidence and I don't beleive a pony which is experiencing things for the first time can do safely.

This is just my view x
 
well, i brought an unbacked 12.2hh pony in jan. backed and ridden away by myself. now hes winning every jumping class, total doddle to do. infact think i may have a loan home set up now for him (FINALLY) so im very happy. i wouldnt recomend it. although he was easy, at times i thank god there Hadnt been a child on him.
 
flying solo said:
Personally I wouldn't. I would rather something in its early teens that has been there and done it. You want a first pony to give confidence and I don't beleive a pony which is experiencing things for the first time can do safely.

This is just my view x
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yes thats my view too...I just cant seem to find one:( out of the 30 e-mails I sent last week....2 have bothered to get back to me and that was only to say they had gone.
 
Yes I have put some up today so I'm hoping il maybe get some response from them. I have not put one on here yet but a lovely person did email me off this forum earlier but unfortunately her pony is just a little too big.
 
It could be done, someone has to start these ponies and an experienced adult with time is ideal if done with children in mind not getting them going as a small horse. They need to be desensitised and less reactive than you may want your horse to be, get it used to the silly things a child may do without thinking.
Finding the right youngster is the main thing, a well handled pony ideally from its place of birth or all its history known would be preferable to one that has been through the traumas of sales and moving from pillar to post, some in hand showing so it has seen some of the world would be helpful.
I have seen young ponies become fab first ponies with careful starting and several are now in new homes teaching the next family the ropes.
Obviously an older pony would be preferable but as you are finding they are very much sought after.
 
done that already. Just getting a bit disheartened now. They all seem to want sharers rather than loans and I wont have time to go to another yard as well as my own unfortunately. Oh well...will keep looking. Thanks for your advice though...that was meant for the post previous to the one above.
 
the most perfect pony that i had while i was growing up was an unhandled unbroken 4 year old connemara mare that my mum bought from a dealer, i must have been about six/seven at the time, so about 13 years ago now, to be honest all of the ponies i had growing up were unbroken as it made it cheaper, it was good because the pony was a complete blank canvass hadnt done anything else before and she turned out to be the most fantastic pony could hack her out alone just me and her, dont get me wrong we had off road hacking no car to be seen ever, and done a bit of local xc and sj, as long as you have the time to put into the pony and have the support system it works, looking to buy my sister her 2nd pony and we would rather go for something unbroken because we dont get soemone elses problems
 
I have done it! I bought 2 x section a's last year. They were 2 at the time. I was happy to take as long as it took though as i was not needing them for a while, my little girl was 2 as well so the plan was to let her get to know them over the gate and then send them away to be properly done as I don't have any experience breaking/backing. One day, hubby and I were tacking up one of the ponies that we were looking after to exercise and curiosity got the better of us. Daughter wasn't with us at the time I hasten to add. He put saddle on one then walked him round then did the same with the other. We did this for 3 days and he leaned on them gently. If we went down with tack they would come to the gate first so week later we brought little one with us and her hat as she was only riding his 16'3 ISH previously and just lifted her onto his back whilst hanging on. He looked round and you could see a smile in his eyes. Now some may call me mad but my daughter and this pony are soul mates. He follows her like a puppy, if she trips he is there, if she cries he will gallop length of field if necessary to be with her. The other one and her don't have this bond but he is very gentle and loving too. To cut a long story short I never looked back, she now rides with a bridle although I still have a lead rope and headcollar on him. She rides on the road to get to the bridlepath and loves trotting and doing little jumps as greenlaners use the bridleway and put tyre ruts in the ground so they pop over them a's he doesnt like it if they are full of water! If he comes across something new and I don't think he will like it, I take her off and walk him past then put her back on.
It wasn't the plan but I now have 2 darling section a's that we love dearly and yes they still have a lot to learn but I think as they have grown up together and learnt together it not only gives her an appreciation of being gentle and understanding of new situations but they will have years of love and fun ahead of them. I wouldn't say do it for sure as I know we have been lucky but I wouldn't swap my boys for the world. I know others on here wouldn't approve I have horsey friends who still tell me to get shot of them but I couldn't. I still think I will send them away to be finished off but let's be brutal I spent £200 on 2 x ponies whereas a schoolmaster would set me back at least 3k!
Good luck with whatever you decide to do xx
 
I'm a little bit confused about why you would buy an unbacked pony, but only want to loan one that is already up and running. Im sure your options for finding the right pre-backed and safe pony would be expanded if you were looking to buy rather than just loan.
 
Better to have a been there done that pony, but one of the best kids ponies I have seen at pony club was a green horse that was too small for the mum to ride. She ended up having to sell him when she got into money problems and another pc mum bought him for huge $$$$.

Our little minature was 3 when we got him, unbacked and he never put a foot wrong. It just depends a lot on the pony, but also on the child.

It can be extremely unfair on the child if they have to worry about a green pony as well, however quiet. The mum who broke in the pony that her 6 year old daughter was riding, (mentioned above) used to give the child a fairly hellish time, the daughter was pretty keen, but a lot of kids would have got put off.
 
Have you tried contacting your local Pony Club or Hunt? They normally have good knowledge of what's available that's ready to move on to another child
 
I wouldn't do it. Have started ponies before and had light adults/ teens ride 'em.

Do one for my own child? Not prepared to risk. I bought a pony for my son last year thro pony club. She is lovely but wasn't cheap.

I think tbh, although it may be cheaper to buy an unfinished for me I wanted to test as much as poss before buying and knew would spend too much time worrying with a youngstr that it would try something new with my child on board.
 
Ponies have to start somewhere!

I use to get Welsh ponies from the market. Unhandled, frightened and best part wild.

I would get them into pens and then do things like tie tin cans filled with stones tied to manes and tails. The set up was such that tractors and heavy vehicles drove by the pens several times a day. I had an old fashioned football rattle that I would use when I fed them, carrying an umbrella!
It didn't take them long to accept it all and once they were use to all that then I would turn them away to put weight on and grow.
By the time it came to break them they really couldn't care less and were certainly 'proof' with most things.

I have had these ponies working in a riding school within a short time of being backed when they were first ridden by experienced children.
 
Most of the unbacked ponies bought for children spoken about here seem to have been smaller ones - Section As and the like. If you're looking to buy a pony that you can back and ride away then it would presumably be 13hh and above, that would be a big pony for a 7 or 8 year old to handle and ride, especially as a first pony.

I wouldn't do it.
 
My mum bought all my ponies as unbacked youngsters....did me no harm, I had to learn to ride properly that's all!!! She had them backed professionally as she didn't have the time, but I got on all of them and rode straight off the lead from the start, I was 8 when I did that the first time. Before that I had older ponies, but imo it taught me a lot!
 
Friend has done that with her two. It's worked well :D. The only thing I would say is, find a good child/early teens rider who is light/small enough to get on sometimes: they're unlikely to be as strong as you, so will work the pony more as your child would. D1 has been on hand, which has been good for her as well. Friend's older daughter (very early teens), is now a cracking little rider and horsegirl having learnt everything from the ground up :D

Seeing the children grow up with the ponies has been great :D.

The only thing is, due to the size of the pony, you are unlikely to get in the small/beginner type classes, etc.
 
gnubee said:
I'm a little bit confused about why you would buy an unbacked pony, but only want to loan one that is already up and running. Im sure your options for finding the right pre-backed and safe pony would be expanded if you were looking to buy rather than just loan.
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Because if I am going to start from scratch, it may as well belong to me. Im not going to back something and then they turn around and want it back when its all ready to go-I dont know if that would happen, just something that I have thought about. A loan with a view to buy would be ideal.
 
jemima_too said:
Most of the unbacked ponies bought for children spoken about here seem to have been smaller ones - Section As and the like. If you're looking to buy a pony that you can back and ride away then it would presumably be 13hh and above, that would be a big pony for a 7 or 8 year old to handle and ride, especially as a first pony.

I wouldn't do it.
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why would it be over 13 HH..im not heavy :D somewhere between 11-12 HH would be just right. And a section A would be spot on. That is what she rides now.
 
Someone I know did it, it didn't work well. The pony, although a saint on the ground is forward going to ride and they didn't put the work into him. I ended up taking him on, starting from scratch and with the right riding he is great. He is highly intelligent, everything can be off the voice but he does need to know that he is not boss (not by whipping etc, just firm riding). Ended up selling him to a brilliant family, the girl is a fab little rider and he is really teaching her how to ride and I know this as I see them regularly :)
On the other hand, I got Pharaoh as a feral 2 and a half year old when I was 11 and it worked out in the end! He was a NFxTB standing at about 13.1 when we got him. He was quirky (not helped by the extra testicle we didn't know about) but with a lot of work from me and a brilliant instructor he was the most brilliant pony I could have hoped for, quirks and all! From the age of 4 he pretty much did what any normal pony did (except the shows), he thrived off work and became a monster if he didn't have any! Apart from his leading that was easily controlled if he wore a bridle, he too was a saint on the ground!
Im 17 now, and have just got another youngster. I want to make her as bombproof as I can so any child can handle her. If you have the time to put in and you child is confident enough then it can be done but it is hard, especially if the child wants to go out and ride but can't because the pony is too young etc.
:)
 
The best pony we ever bought for our two girls was a recently backed shetland, he was a really lovely pony, and very good with them. It really does depend on the pony, he was treated like the rest of the horses and expected to mind his manners, not the mistake alot of people make and let them get away with being cheeky and walking all over you. He is now out on loan teaching another two little girls the joys of a nice pony!
 
We bought an unbroken pony for my daughter when she was 9. He is fab now, but it has been three years of hard work and patience. She was already a good rider when we got him. I would never consider it for a 7yo though.
 
the problem that i found, is the once pony is backed, by the time your daughter and pony are ready to compete and start doing 'well' she will need something bigger.
 
kazhar said:
I have been looking for a loan pony for a while and no joy, how feasible is it to buy something like an unbacked new forest type for a 7yo child. obviously it would be me that backs it and im quite happy to spend ages long reining, de sensitising and allsorts -no rush at all but having never done it for a childs pony, what is the likelihood that it will safe enough? I know its a bit of a " how long is a piece of string" type question but if anyone has done this could they please tell me their experiences. Im quite happy to get on myself...just wary of it going horrribly wrong with small child. Its a first pony for her as well so got to be careful.
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As an adult with a horse mad child myself I would be wary, although my daughters' first pony was a very green broken in later life Welsh Cob pony, but you should see them now getting along like a house on fire and myself as a 9 year old (barely able to ride if I think back on it now) had a completely unbroken Welsh Section C... we backed her ourselves (my mum and I) and I was basically left to get on with it.... we had a few mishaps now and I would do things a little differently now but back then I didn't have a school to ride in just a field, but this pony turned out to be a 100% genuine little pony and I could do anything with her she was brilliant.... now I would ensure that the child had lessons in an arena until the two of them gelled... but back in the days and I am talking about nearly 40 years ago you made the best of what you were given.... so an unbroken pony is a possibility you just have to find one with a really genuine temperment, then all things are possible....

Izzy
 
Have you looked on NFED site - there were a few on there. Sometimes people who have a pony that their children have grown out of prefer to loan than sell so they know its somewhere nice. :)
 
people probably wont agree with me, as long as your prepared to get on it yourself and do the work,
if its a small child and you have someone to lead and another person to walk at the side if the pony is just being used as lead rein pony you should be ok.
new forests are usually pretty boomproof.
 
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