Expectations of a 6 year old

[PonyclubmumZ]

Hi I could do with a bit advice please. The kids have always had older schoolmaster ponies but we have been offered a rising 6 year old pony, although I have had youngsters in my youth and brought them on. This pony is a very well breed section B about 13 hh, its beautifully behaved and acts much older. It was broken last spring and did lots of dressage and then went to a home for 6 months where it did not get on the with inexperienced rider and only went out competing once. Does anyone else have a horse this age; what are you doing with it? What are your plans and expectations? We are planning weekly lessons and probably competitions 3 weekends out of 4 over the summer with additional rallies and clinics too.

We eventually want to end up with an all round PC pony capable of jumping 80cms courses, I am not sure it that is realistic though. There is no real way of knowing what they are capable of is there, otherwise we will all be rich with perfect ponies?!

 

[kassieg]

I'm guessing you mean by rising 6 it is 6 as of first of jan this year but just has not yet had its birthday?

Mine i class as 6 even though she isn't really until September everything turns on the 1st jan

Mines out BE every couple of weekends is getting too fit & too big for her boots ! Hence me jumping round sj yesterday with no brakes then having issues at the double, naughty mare !

the 1 you are looking at will be slightly behind having been broken later but its not a bad thing it just may take a bit longer however it will be ready to learn so you could pretty much just crack on with lessons & little competitions when you feel ready

 

[Thistle]

I wouldn't consider a pony of that age unless there is a small adult/much older child to keep on top of the schooling. The fact it didn't do well with an inexperienced rider shows that it is a bright pony able to exploit a loophole.

Having said that however I always had a youngster alongside older pony when daughter was a teenager that she produced and sold on. We did have great help on hand if necessary and daughter was competing BE Novice sand PC Open on her older pony.

 

[Joss]

I don't think the age would put me off as such but the pony sounds fairly inexperienced and the fact that it has had one unsuccessful home would get a big black mark from me.
Where children are concerned I would always err on the side of caution.
My own horse was 6 last year & we did about 6 BE90 events, a few Working Hunters & show jumped to Discovery level (1m) I didn't even particularly think of him as a youngster but it's a bit different with children's ponies and unless you are a very experienced Mum I would steer clear.

 

[southerncomfort]

Just as a word of warning, some of the more highly bred section B's can be fairly sharp which may be why the previous home didn't work out.

We bought one when the children were small. She was fine on the lead rein but very fizzy off the lead rein but by the time we figured that out we were all besotted with her and couldn't part with her. 13 years on we still have her though she is retired now. She has taught my children to ride but only one of my children was ever allowed to hack her off the lead rein (pony seemed better behaved with her for some reason), I wouldn't have trusted her with any of the others.

I think with any child's pony, whatever the breed, it's always a good idea to see if you can have a trial period to make sure the children get on ok with the pony. Or at the least, perhaps visit the pony in it's current home as often as possible before deciding if it is the right one or not.

The other thing to consider is that quite a lot of horses/ponies go through a bit of a funny phase at that age and start testing the boundaries a bit.

It may be that this pony is the superstar you think it might be but I think it would be sensible to proceed with caution.

 

[PonyclubmumZ]

Thanks everyone, I think we will proceed with caution, thanks for the reality check its very easy to get carried away.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Just to add, a 13hh whp will be jumping 60 in novice nursery, 65 open nursery and 70 to 75 in 13hh opens. If over 13hh then from 70 to 90 depending on novice, restricted or opens.
As a native, again you would need to measure as a big difference in heights from under13hh jumping 65 to 80, and exceeding 13hh to 14hh jumping 75 to 90.

I love the b's as they are probably the most versatile of the smaller breeds