Children asking for horses free or cheap....Rant!

This annoys me too. I wish it was a right to own your own pony/horse as I'd have yet another reason why I want one but I will just have to deal with the fact that I prefer horses to people and enjoy every single part of being around them. I've never owned but I used to spend weekends and holidays at my riding school helping out - grooming, leading, riding, mucking out. It was great and taught me a lot. Then I got an Arab on full loan (I loved her to bits but she was PTS after 5 years) and did everything I had already done, but got the benefit ad experience of building a bond and learning together. I stopped riding after that as I couldn't bring myself to do it but in 2014, I started again and it was like I had never been away. I still want my own horse, and I am definitely experienced in horse care, but even now, I want to work my way back up so that I can be the best owner I can be. I am starting a part-loan in a couple of weeks that I am really looking forward to. I'm 30 now, but when I was a kid I always wanted a pony but I would have never asked for one cheap! I'd also never give up on a horse I had bought. For me, some kids today have a much larger sense of entitlement - if they want something, they get it. Latest tech, TV in a room, newest smartphone, pony....
 
These posts are just terrifying.

I have an almost yearling cob colt. He was an unplanned (unwanted!) BOGOF, and now late to be gelded because testicle number two has only just put in an appearance. He's booked in to be gelded next week, and then I will have to look to move him on. He needs a younger herd as he's too boisterous for my placid (mostly elderly) little group. I've done my best for him, regular handling, farrier visits, he's met the EDT, passported, microchipped, vaccinations, etc, but he also needs someone with more time, and without a neurological condition which can cause sudden migraines and dizziness (as you can imagine, not what you want to risk when handling a youngster!). I'm just not the right home for him any more, as much as it upsets me to say so. But he's about 12.2, cobby, and fathered by god only knows what. I'm so frightened for his future as he's just the type to end up 'cheap or free' in a garden.
 
I have seen a few locally for ponies - not wanting to spend hundreds etc....and then complaining if its over the £500 mark! Seriously?! I get that its a buyers market but I would not sell a pony to anyone who asks that.
Or folk grumbling about the cost, when they pay sod all! I have a sharer for each of ours and they pay 1/3 of the livery and thats it.

if i had to sell both mine then no way the sec a would be less than 2k, but i had someone offer me £500...................aye right.
 
Wooly Hat - sounds like your cob would be best rehomed through Horses for Homes or some other system where you can keep ultimate control over him.
 
I don't get this either. I had a naughty pony when I was small and the attitude of all the adults involved was that learning to ride her would make me a better rider. Its perhaps the throwaway culture. Easy come easy go :(

Thats what we have. 2 ponies cheeky in their different ways. Yes we have issues, but I keep getting told "oh sell X and buy one that is more foprward/slower/responsive/calmer/younger/older. Can't win! OH has told DD that she needs to learn to ride the ones she has. They are ying and yang, completely different and both frustrating in a few ways. One doesn't listen when you ask it to go, one doesn't always listen if you want it to stop (it will eventually). There are a lot of tears, but less throwing in the towel now.

She will have those 2 until she is too heavy to ride them (probably the next 2-3 years if she is like me!). She has my short legs so I wont ever have to buy a horse horse. just a cob!
 
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