Children riding out alone?

Wildforestpony18

Wildforestpony18

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I was just thinking, how old were you/ would you let your children ride out alone? On a safe pony? I'm 13 and ride out round the fields with my 99% safe pony. But was just curious about other people :) (Not on roads i'll add as we get idiots round our roads)
 
Wildforestpony18 said:
I was just thinking, how old were you/ would you let your children ride out alone? On a safe pony? I'm 13 and ride out round the fields with my 99% safe pony. But was just curious about other people :) (Not on roads i'll add as we get idiots round our roads)
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Errr 14 i think ? Only because that's when we had a safe enough horse for my mum to feel 100% ok with it otherwise probably would have been earlier but her horse Boots was a nightmare sometimes.
 
I was allowed out on my own at about 10. I had a very safe pony and it was over 30 years ago! I don't think I would let a 10 year old out on their own now on a pony although my son who is 10 is allowed out with friends or his sister to go to the woods near our house. He doesn't ride.
 
Many years ago, I was about 13 on a green pony I couldn't control. My first pony and non-horsey parents. I shouldn't have been allowed!

With my stepson, he was also 13, but on a wonderful schoolmaster pony that was a saint, and he had done his riding and road safety test, so had a bit of road sense. Our hacking is amazing and we don't have to touch a main road, just little lanes and bridleways, which helped the decision.
 
I was about 13 with my first loan pony and he was a bombproof 10 year old. I'm now 17 with my first proper owned horse, had him for 3 years (he is 6 now) and only yesterday we went for our first hack alone due to me being crippled with fear for him dumping me and taking off. Mum didn't know about this until I came home crying that we'd finally done it :)
 
About 9 or 10.. to meet up with friends usually,although hacking alone was also encouraged. Children had so many happy adventures!:)
However, people rarely ride out on roads round here now, and my grandchildren will not be allowed to do so, when they are old enough. Luckily there is good off road hacking.
 
My daughter is 10 in june and I can't see me letting her out on her own till she is perhaps 12-13,maybe even 14 it depends how mature/experienced she is and what sort of pony we have at the time. She will have outgrown charlie at about 12 I think and we will be looking then for a quiet safe alrounder large pony or small horse for her to have fun on and for me to plod about on :D
 
Around 10 mostly hacked out with other kids on the yard of similar age, didnt have a well behaved pony but was certainly a capable confident rider(more than I am now I have my own kids!) Things were different back then though. I think 13 for a competent rider is acceptable
 
My son is almost 16 on a bombproof horse but I wont let him, due to whoever might be behind the wheel of a vehicle! He has plenty of time when he's older to ride out alone if he wants, but for now, im responsible for trying to keep him safe. I'd never forgive myself if anything happened and I wasn't there.....
 
My daughter is 13. She is allowed to ride my horse out alone but I know exactly where they are going and how long it will take. She go's at times when the roads are very quiet (ie early morning) or sticks too off roads.

She isn't allowed to ride her own loan pony alone I always walk with her as she's new too us and although seems safe is spooky and we don't know her well enough. She is ok in the school as long as other people are around.
Her old pony id also not let her hack alone (or even in our field if I wasn't there)
 
I was 11 and my sister was 9 and we went out together with another 11yo on the yard. I was allowed out on my own at that point, but never did because I have my sister and friend, or the yard owner who was someone we all looked up to and thought was amazing (she rode at 3*, so we were all starry eyed!).

By the time I was nearing 12 though, I was allowed to ride and lead out on my own.

Our ponies weren't saints (more sinners!) and we had no phones. But we were told where to go and how long to take and what we were allowed to do, and we knew our road safety and had done the tests... So off we went. It was so much fun, we got into so much trouble when we were spotted standing on the ponies' backs picking blackberries :D
 
My daughter was about 10/11 when she started hacking out with freinds, same age. She is now 15 and has very good road sense.
 
I was 12 when I was allowed to ride out on my own, but then my pony is absolutely bombproof. I'm not allowed to take my other pony out near roads though as he is green and spooky(I'm now 14).:)
 
Think I was 12/13? That was when I got my first pony so couldn't hack out alone before this age.

I often didn't go alone anyway.. Pony was a serial napper and I spent more time getting bucked off and getting back on (always landed on my feet back then) :D

So in company was just easier for me!
 
I reckon I was 11-12. Usually on naughty little ponies bought by a lady I knew, who took pity on wild little ponies at the auction and then whack me on them!!!!! Lol

It was completely off road though. Woodlands and fields

I am talking 15 yrs ago now...
 
Started hacking out with a friend of the same age when I was 13, and on my own when I was 14. Had to go out on the roads else I wouldn't have been able to get to any hacking...YO certainly wouldn't let us ride in her fields! Had the same horse then that I have now (Arab mare) though we were both 10 years younger and quite a lot wilder in those days :D
 
When we left primary school we hacked in pairs, then went out on my own from about 12. I would go out all day without leaving a route. Now I go out and tell someone where I'll be going. I have always had tags with our address and phone numbers on the saddle so if I did lose a pony hopefully someone would ring the number and start looking for me!
 
probably about 9 or 10, firstly on a very saintly lazy pony called Cody who wasnt very sure footed so often had me off, but luckily only ever stood to wait for me to pick myself up!
Then about 11 on my mounted games pony who had a dislike of cows, he once spooked so badly that I flew forward, regained my composure and was just feeling proud of myself when I realised I had his whole bridle in my hand, I must have pulled it clean off as I shot up his neck! with that he took off at full trot down the road, luckily someone from the local racing yard heard the flying hooves and me frantically shouting help and managed to stop him for me! put his bridle back on and I merrily rode home! how on earth my mum let me out again I never know but she did!
sometimes went out with friends but mostly alone on various different ponys we had over the years, all of them were pretty good with traffic!
if my mum could see some of the things that happened she wouldnt have let me out! I used to put my stirrups up at Jockey height and go for a gallop up the bridleways, get off, stuff my pockets and hands with conkers and ride all the way home one handed, even remember my little welshie having a full on broncing fit in the middle of the road because a pony and trap flew past us and a racehorse was brining up the rear, I didnt fall off and I didnt drop one conker, boy was I proud! :D
 
Wildforestpony18 said:
I was just thinking, how old were you/ would you let your children ride out alone? On a safe pony? I'm 13 and ride out round the fields with my 99% safe pony. But was just curious about other people :) (Not on roads i'll add as we get idiots round our roads)
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I was 12 and my sister was 9 and her friend was 8. They used to ride the 3-4 miles from ours to her friends.

The roads were quiet then, the village smaller. I wouldn't let my Daughter at that age now, too many boys use the road as a race track on their dirt bikes now.
 
i was never supervised for anything as i was the only horsey person in the family, i used to walk to the stables or sometimes got dropped off. First time my mum saw me ride was when i was 17 and had loaned my mare for three years! I

I used to ride out alone when i was 12, id just started riding on my friends horse who was a 16.2 exracer. I looked like a pea on a mountain lol, and never put a foot wrong on the roads, i just assumed he wouldnt and somehow got away with it! had my friend with me for the first few times onboard in the school and as soon as i could tack him up and mount up, she left me too it.

When i was 13 i got my first pony on loan, and i used to go all over the place,i would happiy go down roads which now make me cringe! She wasnt exactly traffic safe either :rolleyes: but in the school she had taught me to stick on with her teleporting abilities, dropping her shoulder, the rears and the bucks... so she never actually got me off on the roads but would have a flid at anything bigger than a jeep. She did get used to them eventually though :D

Then again, iv done so many things as a child of 12-15 that i cringe at now! jumping streams laden with rocks, with terrible take off and landing points, going along the top of cliff tops and just letting the horse get on with it, cantering at rope swings and swinging off the horses back to do a tarzan (with sound effects) and teaching the horses to come and get us when we were suspended rather high in the air. Oh those days were fab ;)
 
I was 9/10, with a typical naughty first pony. I usually rode with a couple of friends the same age, but also alone. We went out for hours, on and off roads, exploring. Had a couple of rather hair-raising adventures, but we survived and in the main it was all safe and a lot of fun.
 
I had two 8 year old children that I would allow to ride out on their own though this was some 40 years ago.
They had to stick to the route they had chosen and once out I would send older riders to go the same or opposite way to check they were OK! That pair could make an hours ride last for three hours by the time they had stopped to eat their picnic, given the ponies a rest and made daisy chains to decorate the ponies with!

Now I would be more worried about the traffic than anything else.
 
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