H&H wants your sharing horses stories - good and bad

[HHO admin]

Horse & Hound want to hear from you if you share a horse. Have you shared a horse or pony only for it all to go horribly wrong? Or was sharing the best thing you’ve ever done? Do you and your sharer take it in turns to compete your horse? And what do you think is the secret to success with sharing? If you’ve got any experiences you’d like to tell us about for a future feature then acting features editor Karen Spinner would love to hear from you at karen_spinner@ipcmedia.com. Thank you.

 

[Firewell]

We have shared our horses out now and in the past and find it works very well most of the time.

One sharer we had for 6 years and she only stopped sharing the horse because she moved to the USA. when she came she was too scared to jump a cross pole, by the end of her time with the horse she had won a british novice area, was jumping open xc and wouldnt think twice of popping over a 1m20 fence.

I think it works as long as both parties know where they stand. I think the sharer above paid about £15/£20 a week to go towards costs. She would have the horse for 3 days a week and would completly look after him on those days. she would be at the yard at 5 before work to ride and would be there come rain or shine, she loved him as if he was hers and of course he half was hers! He was always a bit of a 2nd horse for us so most of the time she would have first 'dibs' on competitions with him but as in all relationships it took a bit of give and take on both sides.

Nowadays the same horse is 26 yrs old and has another sharer. She pays for his shoes and she comes 4 days a week once a day. On her half of the day she will ride, muck out, turn out/bring in etc. we bring him in/turn him out the other half of the day. She is a happy hacker and she will ride out on her own/ with other people from the yard and he is her horse for whenever it is her turn to do him and she can treat him as such.

We have had the odd person who has not worked out, mainly because they couldnt commit to the time and responsibility of Herbie being their horse on the their days. We have also had a little problem on finding sharers because quite often people will over estimate their riding ability.

We give riding help/advice to anyone sharing herbie if they want it, this has included lessons in the past free of charge. It has also included transport to shows if we are going with another of our horses and the person wishes to compete.

It has been a very handy thing for us to have sharers and Herbie is a lovely well schooled, talented horse that they have been able to ride, love and compete. It makes us happy to see others enjoy our horse and gives him the attention he deserves.

 

[Lordy100]

It all depends on the arrangements you have and the committment that the other party can give. I decided not to "share" so that I had control over what happened with my horse. If you are taking contributions towards costs then many sharers feel that gives them some rights when it comes to making decisions.

 

[lexiedhb]

I have shared Boris a 17hh strawberry roan gelding for nearly 8 months now. His owners contacted me after seeing an ad i had placed on newrider.com. I had owned and competed in the past, but hadnt ridden for 4ish years. They had 2 horses and a change in working hours meant they were finding it difficult to exercise 2.

I "do" Boris 3 nights a week, which in the winter includes mucking out and in the summer poo picking. I also "do" their other horse as i am often there much earlier, and just feel its nice to help out.

His owners are AMAZING, and I pretty much do whatever i want with Boris which means I can swap days or have extra days if i want them. Last week we went out and did a XC charity ride, which I never thought I'd do, as Im a dressage girl at heart, but boris loved it and we had so much fun!

When Boris had an abcess for a month and couldnt be ridden they let me ride their other horse, but i would of gone up there anyway just to make a fuss of the B man. They also wouldnt accept that months sharing money (a tiny £50a month I pay) as didnt think it was fair, even though i was more than willing to pay it!

They have had great trouble finding another sharer for their other horse though, as people tend to lie about their ability/knowledge, which i really dont understand, as its blindingly obvious when they get on!!!!

Boris owner said to me last week that she just wished she could clone me, and have another sharer the same which I thought was really nice. The only reason I'd give up Boris as a share would be if i moved away........ he rocks!

 

[SDH]

I have 2 long term shares in the past. The first was very successful, the 2nd not so.

First - the owner was pregnant and the horse was getting fatter & fatter without being ridden. I had just left university with mountains of student debt. So I mucked out 5 days a week and rode whenever i wanted too. I wasn't ambitious enough at the time to be competing but I could have done if i'd wanted too though.
I didnt have to pay any of the horses bills. It was the perfect situation for both of us. Once her baby was more a toddler, she did start riding again, we had 'our' own days to ride. We became good friends and 6 yrs on still are and I'm her bridesmaid next summer!
When she wanted the horse back full time, another horse on the yard became avaliable to share. Was very handy as we could then hack out together.

However the 2nd share didn't work out so well. The owner wanted to me to "keep him fit" during the week so she could hunt etc at the weekends. However she never hunted or did anything with them the whole year i shared with her. Again it was "no bills" situation. I asked if I could take him on a sponsored ride and she said No becuase he would gallop off with me / No she wanted to do the ride...... so I went to watch her start the ride and she didnt turn up.
I ended that share and bought myself a horse

 

[RedVendetta]

I had a share of my 14.1hh pony with a lady and her daughter who both rode him. I competed him at weekends and they had him a couple of days a week and a saturday. It then got out of hand, this lady was a qualified BHS instructor and therefore thought she knew everything about my horse.... she changed his feed, tried to reschool him (I was happy with him the way he was) and bossed me about, plus started asking to do extra days and compete him when that was never in the original agreement. I ended up taking him back to 100% mine and changed his feed back etc. I let her take over a bit I admit, because Im a bit of a walkover, but found it very hard as she was very bitchy about me taking him back and she immediately started sharing another pony so was talking to other liveries behind my back.
I didnt let it bother me and the pony was sold as I needed something bigger for affiliated showjumping. I bought a mare that was a handful but had a lot of fun with her. I then got a sharer in for the mare who was wonderful. She never intefered with the way I kep my horse (she was a great believer in giving a horse the same routine etc) and had lessons with her and really enjoyed the mare, despite her being a difficult horse. She has now gone back to uni and we all miss her as she was a lovely person to be around and very good with horses. She is now on her university sj team and says that's down to my difficult mare as she helped her learn to ride better! So Ive had good and bad experiences!