going off to uni, any other options other than to sell?

[Landmark97]

Dear All

The eventing season is coming to a close and the 25th Sept (the day I am due to leave to university) is fast approaching. This means that I will very soon need to sell my awesome horse Marco. I have been working hard all year since I left school to provide for him, paying for entries, livery, food etc. My family owns two horses (one of which belongs to my little sister) and we simply can't afford to keep them both now that I won't be paying for Marco. So, basically I am desperate to keep my boy as he is truly special and has so much more to give.

Last Monday we did our first intermediate at Wellington going clear XC inside the time...don't know how?! But it felt effortless. Have been having regular dressage lessons with my lovely and fabulous dressage instructor but have had one SJ and XC lesson since March. So have basically been doing the jumping side of things on my own. I do think we could be competitive in OIu21's next year with some help/training.

SO! I have had very few ideas...

1.Leasing him to someone until April/May when I break up? Is it worth the risk of injuries or untrustworthy people?

2.Sponsorship/Bursaries? Difficult?! Not great at all the social media lark. But could have a go...

That's all I got

Does anyone have any suggestions? Any would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Mince Pie]

Depending on what you're studying you can easily get a p/t job which should pay for livery etc if you were to bring him to uni. It would mean that you possibly couldn't compete due to costs but at least you've still got the horse.

 

[TheMule]

Get a job and fund him yourself! I kept my horse running at Intermediate throughout Uni- I worked in Subway and rode a bit for other people

 

[be positive]

Apart from getting a job and possibly some sponsorship if you can "sell" yourself to a company or two I see little option but to sell, I don't think anyone would lease for the winter/ spring only to lose the ride for the bulk of the season, even a decent PC kid would want to keep to do the summer and get on teams, aim to qualify for various champs, they are unlikely to want to keep a horse fit for you to come back and take it away.
You may find someone willing to exercise him free of charge or even pay you for riding if he stays at livery where he is, possibly even a full loan but you are unlikely to find anyone at the right level to keep him going for you, I would sell and take to opportunity to get yourself some decent money while he is at the top of his value, he could be injured at any time and you would be left with a horse you can do nothing with for the next few years.

If you really want to keep him taking him to uni is really the most sensible, if difficult financially, option.

 

[Landmark97]

Hi, thanks for your replies. I would love to get a job and keep him at uni. Trouble is the course is vet med which is quite demanding and I don't think places are likely to take me on for one/two evenings a week which is probably all I could manage. However, I could by all means try. I going to London and have looked at yards, he'd have to be on full livery which just doesn't make sense. I think I just needs to accept that the best thing for him is to sell as much as I don't want to.

 

[LizzieRC1313]

I'm studying medicine having done a previous degree. I would have said if you were doing a normal degree then working p/t & doing DIY is definitely feasible and then long summer would allow you to work f/t to fund competing. But there is no way I could have managed a horse on my own while studying medicine. I do have a P/T job but I work when I want and do no more than 1 shift a week and that's not every week. Also it's likely you would have to sell him in a couple of years anyway when work mounts up - so I think you probably would be better to sell him now when he's worth a decent amount of money. There are loads of horsey things to do at the RVC - I know people who have been there so you'll get your fix another way I'm sure! I can understand why you're not keen though, he sounds fab!

 

[ihatework]

Do not lease him. Sponsorship is unlikely.

TBH a sound OIU25 horse has such value that, as hard as it is, I'd say sell now.

Concentrate on Uni and come back to horses later. Boring I know, sorry

 

[Jnhuk]

Think with an intensive course when you don't have time to have a p/t job then it is hard, speaking from experience (five years is a long time!) and you may be better to sell. You may be better selling and using that money down the line to buy another horse once you have your degree. Your horse will have a good value at present so sometimes you do have to think about the £.

I would have asked my XC instructor etc... if they knew of anyone that was looking for this sort of horse as they often know by word of mouth who is looking and they may know a suitable home. Your dressage instructor would have the same sort of knowledge on the dressage side rather than the eventing contacts.

Leasing or loaning your horse is possible if you find the right person but there are always potential issues with that one so you need to think that through and also be aware if some injury happened how would you feel and what that may do to the value of your horse? Would worrying about your horse distract you from your studies?

I also don't think it is fair for whoever comes in to be expected to do the hard six months of the year then you take back over just when the weather starts to improve so you would need to think about time frame etc... as even if you find someone for this winter willing do it, you are going to be repeatedly in this position for the duration of your course.

Is there no-one locally that would be interested in taking on your horse that could keep the horse at the same yard etc...

I think tbh that you have left it far too late re sponsorship as that takes time to build up a social media following and make contacts. You might be successful at getting low level sponsorship but that is no way going to pay for your horse.

Other thoughts, is your younger sibling likely to outgrow their horse and be a potential rider for yours so could this be a future option? If so, then you would just need to make plans until then so maybe thinking about placing your horse with a college until that time?

 

[FfionWinnie]

Sell or lease for a season / multiple seasons and make sure it's well insured. Leasing for half a year in the winter isn't going to work.

 

[Miraculous]

I've got back into horses after a four year break. I sold my horse thinking I was going to uni but ended up working a few years first. For some stupid reason I decided to get a horse during the middle of my physiotherapy degree. I love it and it's great to unwind but also very hard work and I've taken on a sharer to help out time wise. I also work every hour possible around a 9-5 degree to earn money to pay for it all as well as the mortgage and other costs of living. Maybe worth selling or loaning for a year, at least until you know the actual pressures of your course and how finances will work out for you.

I've actually just seen a wanted advert on the Facebook Eventing UK page which might be ideal for you. They are a family wanting a horse to finish this season at novice and come back out next season at intermediate and to hand the horse back in july as their own current horse should have progressed to intermediate by that stage.
I can't work out how to send you a screenshot photo of the ad though :-/

 

[HotToTrot]

There's more to it than whether you can manage to do keep him... even if you can, uni is a great experience and I would say having a horse would hamper you. You want to be drinking too much and putting traffic cones on top of phone boxes on Pentonville Road at 2am, I'd say. If you have a job and a horse whilst at uni, then you'll be hard pushed to do too much else and it could curtail your enjoyment. I'd sell and then you get to rattle on about the time you went clear in your first Int, and how you'd have made the under 21 team if you hadn't had to sell your horse!

 

[SO1]

One of the girls on our yard is on the same course as you but going into her third year. She has kept her pony and has worked as well at weekends and having her pony on assisted DIY livery. However she also had a sharer 3 days a week. There are some yards near Potters bar about 5 minutes away. The difficulty will be for the first two years when you are in London unless you are able to commute in to London and live further out DIY is going to be difficult unless you have assistance and if you can earn enough from your part time jobs without any financial assistance to cover your livery costs and possible assistance for example when you are on placements.

 

[DuckToller]

Can you buy yourself some time - turn him away for the winter at a cheap grass livery, and see how it goes?


Selling him is so very final - if you could find a way to keep him just to see if you can cope, then it's worth a shot.
Would your parents help at all? Could you afford to compete and keep him in the summer when you get long holidays?

You are not leaving yourself very much time to sell him but you need to make plans fairly soon!

 

[Eventer96]

There's more to it than whether you can manage to do keep him... even if you can, uni is a great experience and I would say having a horse would hamper you. You want to be drinking too much and putting traffic cones on top of phone boxes on Pentonville Road at 2am, I'd say. If you have a job and a horse whilst at uni, then you'll be hard pushed to do too much else and it could curtail your enjoyment. I'd sell and then you get to rattle on about the time you went clear in your first Int, and how you'd have made the under 21 team if you hadn't had to sell your horse!

Totally agree with this.

I'm a final year (uh oh) Law student at a top 10 uni. I made the same choice you had to, except we specialised in dressage. I'd worked so hard on a horse that was apparently 'untrainable'. We got further than I ever imagined (competed Advanced). I work part-time in a nightclub, mainly for the social scene and it is such good fun. However, I decided I couldn't hack the nights for my final year and I will be waitressing, which will provide me with more sociable hours. Instead of horses, I picked up hockey at uni and I do not regret it for a second. I would not be without my incredibly diplomatic and sophisticated hockey socials every Wednesday night. For me, uni wasn't just about obtaining a degree. Rather, it was about gaining an experience and that would not have been possible with my degree, a part-time job and a horse. So personally, I'd sell... you can always come back to it later. I was very lucky and picked up an owner after my horse was sold, who I had the privilege of riding and competing whilst I was at home (the owner was fabulous and I am forever thankful for her).

However, everybody has their own priorities and their own desires and at the end of the day, only you can decide. As I said, I do not regret selling one bit... Despite my horse went on to be poorly managed and as a result had a career ending injury just 2 months after I sold him. That's just life. For me, horses will be there for me once I've finished being reckless!

 

[Landmark97]

Can you buy yourself some time - turn him away for the winter at a cheap grass livery, and see how it goes?


Selling him is so very final - if you could find a way to keep him just to see if you can cope, then it's worth a shot.
Would your parents help at all? Could you afford to compete and keep him in the summer when you get long holidays?

You are not leaving yourself very much time to sell him but you need to make plans fairly soon!

Thanks DuckToller, that sounds like a good idea, however he is rising 11 so if we need to sell he'd need to go before 2017 ideally. He does deserve some time off aswell

I'm not sure about that, as vets need to do some work experience in the holidays, not sure how much and if I could keep a job going beside it to finance eventing!

 

[Landmark97]

I have read all your messages. Thanks so much! Really appreciate it and lots to think about...I think we will keep him until the end of the season and see how uni is going and how my little sister is getting on with him.

 

[Landmark97]

Totally agree with this.

I'm a final year (uh oh) Law student at a top 10 uni. I made the same choice you had to, except we specialised in dressage. I'd worked so hard on a horse that was apparently 'untrainable'. We got further than I ever imagined (competed Advanced). I work part-time in a nightclub, mainly for the social scene and it is such good fun. However, I decided I couldn't hack the nights for my final year and I will be waitressing, which will provide me with more sociable hours. Instead of horses, I picked up hockey at uni and I do not regret it for a second. I would not be without my incredibly diplomatic and sophisticated hockey socials every Wednesday night. For me, uni wasn't just about obtaining a degree. Rather, it was about gaining an experience and that would not have been possible with my degree, a part-time job and a horse. So personally, I'd sell... you can always come back to it later. I was very lucky and picked up an owner after my horse was sold, who I had the privilege of riding and competing whilst I was at home (the owner was fabulous and I am forever thankful for her).

However, everybody has their own priorities and their own desires and at the end of the day, only you can decide. As I said, I do not regret selling one bit... Despite my horse went on to be poorly managed and as a result had a career ending injury just 2 months after I sold him. That's just life. For me, horses will be there for me once I've finished being reckless!

Thanks hottotrot and eventer96. I understand where you are coming from and I am looking forward to the social part of uni life and joining societies and whatnot. But actually I would much rather stay here a play ponies ! Silly I know, but I think once I am there I will enjoy it. Also I have never been 100% committed to a career in veterinary medicine so a part of me wants to keep him just in case I decide to drop out and do something else! But yes that's something else entirely.

 

[ester]

As he stands atm it sounds like you could ask a fair price, that might not need to be sniffed at.
If you take him to uni and work to pay for him are you going to be able to keep up the competing to maintain that?
And you being in camden for the 3 (iirc!) years makes it more complicated that some other cities with regards to how far you would have to travel to keep him/options to have assisted rather than full livery etc and cost of livery too.

A friend sent hers to a pro for year 1 (SJ) and then had her on full livery for years 2 and 3 but that was only doing a semi full on course (science).

I think in your situation, knowing the course and the location I would sell.

Also, you aren't the only one happier to be at home and play ponies , you don't have to do the whole uni social thing at all although vet does seem to run on that a fair amount IME but I think you might find you are busy enough anyway tbh if you can't keep the horse at home and have someone else to keep him uptogether so you can compete. I do know someone who took their 2 horses round on all their placements and found somewhere to stay with them at each one! That just seemed stress inducing to me!

 

[oldie48]

My daughter competed at quite a high level prior to going to uni but made the difficult decision to sell and she's never regretted it. She's now qualified as a doctor and the course was very intensive but she played lacrosse for the uni, had a decent social life and managed to do some travelling in her holidays. She felt that unless she could continue competing as she had been, she didn't want to do it at all but she'd come home and ride one of my horses if she needed a quick horsey fix. You have a valuable horse, I'd sell him to a good home, don't loan or lease as he could get injured. Well done for getting into vet school, it's so competitive! I hope you love every minute of it.

 

[Landmark97]

My daughter competed at quite a high level prior to going to uni but made the difficult decision to sell and she's never regretted it. She's now qualified as a doctor and the course was very intensive but she played lacrosse for the uni, had a decent social life and managed to do some travelling in her holidays. She felt that unless she could continue competing as she had been, she didn't want to do it at all but she'd come home and ride one of my horses if she needed a quick horsey fix. You have a valuable horse, I'd sell him to a good home, don't loan or lease as he could get injured. Well done for getting into vet school, it's so competitive! I hope you love every minute of it.

Thank you!
That's exactly how I felt. The plan always was to sell him at the end of my gap year as I either wanted to do it full on or not at all. As really you need to be riding everyday...But now that I am approaching the end of the season I have found myself completely going against this thinking of every possible way of keeping going and plans for next season! Oh dear...

But I do agree that leasing is a nono. Its not worth the risk. I wasn't thinking clearly.

 

[Eventer96]

Thanks hottotrot and eventer96. I understand where you are coming from and I am looking forward to the social part of uni life and joining societies and whatnot. But actually I would much rather stay here a play ponies ! Silly I know, but I think once I am there I will enjoy it. Also I have never been 100% committed to a career in veterinary medicine so a part of me wants to keep him just in case I decide to drop out and do something else! But yes that's something else entirely.

It sounds as if your doubts are more towards veterinary medicine rather than selling/not selling. Congratulations on your place, it is highly competitive. Best of luck in whatever you decide.

 

[Landmark97]

Oh I really don't know! Need more time! Thank you

 

[be positive]

Oh I really don't know! Need more time! Thank you

Is it too late to defer a year, if you are having doubts vet med is a tough course and you may benefit from being 12 months older, I know 2 people that for various reasons started later, 1 is now qualified and working in practice the other is going into her final year and still loving it, the first person was unsure what to do so went in as a post grad the other didn't get the grades so failed to get in initially although was offered a place the following year subject to her A level results, if they consider you a good candidate, which they must for you to be offered a place on the course, they may allow you to defer if you gain further work/ life experience during the time, it would be better than starting and dropping out through lack of commitment only to regret it later.

 

[oldie48]

Oh gosh if you have doubts about the course why not take a year out and take time to decide if it's really for you? so much better than starting then dropping out. Vet med is a lifestyle choice and I personally feel you need to be really committed. why not talk it over with your parents I know I'd want my daughter to talk to me if she was having second thoughts about what is, a very big decision. Good luck, I hope it works out for you.

It sounds as if your doubts are more towards veterinary medicine rather than selling/not selling. Congratulations on your place, it is highly competitive. Best of luck in whatever you decide.

 

[milliepops]

Oh I really don't know! Need more time! Thank you

really feel for you, I wimped out of vet med at the interview stage because I was afraid of the commitment, despite having spent my entire adolescence being completely certain that it was what I wanted.

Worst mistake I've ever made and I will never stop regretting it - course fees being what they are now, there is no way back for me. Do give yourself time to make a proper decision - to have got as far as you have done, you must have once been pretty certain... don't do what I did by acting in haste!

 

[LizzieRC1313]

Oh I really don't know! Need more time! Thank you

If it helps, I felt a bit like this starting Medicine. I was busy playing ponies at the time and I found the great leap into the unknown so daunting. It isn't plain sailing once you start either and there's still plenty of questioning life choices goes on! But I still really can't imagine doing anything else and the degree give you so many options... even if you end up being a drugs rep and making lots of money and mainly playing ponies still (always a tempting option!). Only you can make the decision re your horse but I would just say that you won't be the only one experiencing doubts at this stage and you really do just have to go for it 100% and see how you get on. At least it won't be difficult to find like minded people at vet school... I'm fairly sure I'm the only one that even rides never mind competes in my year at med school!

 

[ester]

I know plenty of vets not being vets too gone into research etc when they decided practice wasn't for them.
In fact a group of friends I had all hit 3rd year and questioned what they were doing, having made this decision in their teens in order to get the required work experience in.
Of all courses it is also one that is set up to give you a fair amount of support along the way and used to people being daunted by it etc so don't panic too much. You could probably start and then defer if you felt it wasn't working/were unsure.

 

[Landmark97]

Oh gosh if you have doubts about the course why not take a year out and take time to decide if it's really for you? so much better than starting then dropping out. Vet med is a lifestyle choice and I personally feel you need to be really committed. why not talk it over with your parents I know I'd want my daughter to talk to me if she was having second thoughts about what is, a very big decision. Good luck, I hope it works out for you.

Trouble is I have been having doubts since GCSE, mainly being because I was also hugely into art and wasn't sure whether I wanted to pursue a career in Architecture or Veterinary. Strange I know...but I made the choice to study vet in the end as I didn't like with the office hours and wanted to be out there solving horsey/animal problems. I am committed and will give it 100% and will see how that goes! Thank you for your support

 

[Landmark97]

Thanks milliepops, lizzierc and ester

Have already taken gap year so can't really defer another year I don't think :/ Lizzierc that is what I will do! I think will see how I am managing with studies and fitting horses in and will take it from there.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your advice/experiences.

 

[Mince Pie]

I think you're unsure of the unknown rather than the course itself. I also think, now that I've seen more info, that you should sell. The potential money from the sale could finance a couple of years of your course.