Have we gotten fussy?

[Kaylum]

Definitely I got my first horse on loan he would not tie up, reared with separation anxiety, would not load, spooked on the road, would not go first, was terrible in the school but he was my first horse. I spent time with him, worked with him, schooled him and had him for a couple of years until his owners took him back and sold him. I couldn't afford him. But I didn't really think about his problems I just got on with it.

 

[ycbm]

I never had a pony but my first horse was a 4 year old newly broken Arab. I didn't know enough to know what a daft thing that was to do, but we got on fine and I really enjoyed owning him for a year. He turned out to be a very one-person horse and that was too difficult to manage with a full time job in DIY livery so I sold him.

My latest was a 3 year old unbacked traveller trotter who thinks he's supposed to go everywhere at a spanking trot, totally unsuitable for a 63 year old ?. I don't think I've changed much ?

 

[Gloi]

I loved my first pony. He was a 3yo Fell type and when I got him all he knew was how to plod along behind another pony. When I started to hack him by myself I'd get so far the he would squeal and run back to the stables sometimes with me and sometimes with me having to do the walk of shame back without him.
Eventually he got used to it and I used to ride him all day. Pack a picnic and go out. I rode to Blackpool to go on the beach and to shows over 10 miles away. He was never very fast but when out from dawn to dusk with trusty o/s map we did an awful lot of miles. I wish I still had that energy ?

 

[J&S]

When I was young in the 50's you just got what you were given..... in pretty well all spheres! First pony was a NF x, 3 yrs old, just broken but sweet as pie. 2nd was a big feisty coloured cob, both chosen by the local riding school instructress with input from my father. I was happy as larry with both. In later life I got what I could afford, an unbroken 4yr old NF and together we made ourselves into a great partnership. After this I made the great mistake of moving into horse territory and got a TWICE broken but still unpredictable WB/TB, poor soul carried too much baggage but we made the best of a bad job. Latest: once again unbroken 3 yr old, ID/Arab/TB still winning prizes at 24yrs old. She was the second that I went to see and had pretty eyes and a good friendly disposition so she came home with me.
I would certainly say that I was not fussy. I have ridden and loved every equine that has been offered to me.

 

[Brownmare]

My first pony came from a family where the children had lost interest so she came complete with bridle, 2 saddles, head collar and grooming kit! She also had persian slipper feet and a big wobbly crest. My mum got her vetted and the vet very politely said that for the price she was buying the tack and getting a free pony! We got her back in shape soon enough and she was utterly bombproof on the roads and looked after both me and my mum's recently backed arab nutter on hacks. She refused to jump as she couldn't see the point in going over something she could go round and sadly I outgrew her pretty quickly. Mum then decided to break her to drive but she was not a fan and took off with mum and my brother on board towards the yard gateway so that plan was quietly dropped but she stayed with us til she died and nannied foals and was a great companion pony.
I haven't really got any fussier though, my second pony also refused to jump, the one after that jumped everything whether you wanted her to or not ?, and the one after that would only load once in a day so we got stranded at many venues all round the area! After that I moved to unbacked youngsters which was easier but then got an exracer habit because I do love a project and straightforward can get boring! I then moved onto warmbloods but got fed up of them breaking and now have come full circle back to an unbacked youngster again. I keep saying the next one will be a sensible cob but somehow I doubt it....

 

[MissTyc]

Our understanding of horse social cognition has really changed even over the last 5-10 years. What I considered acceptable as a child and young adult in terms of behaviour or wonkiness I no longer consider acceptable now. In part, because I know how to fix these things, or at least feel I owe it to the horse to try.

 

[clinkerbuilt]

I love the K.M.Peyton-esque stories in this thread. I agree in a lot of places there's so much less space for "scrappy" riding, when I think back to junkyard oil-can jumping and urban treks. So it's safety and empathy (for injury and weakness), less margin for error in a lot of locations.

 

[SO1]

A lot of this talk is of childhood ponies. Most children were glad to have any sort of pony. The first 3 I had were not very suitable for a child the 4th we got from PC and he was really very very nice. Big different as an adult when you are paying for the horse and its keep and have more knowledge of what can go wrong and why.

People are fussy for a reason for example experience or because they want to do certain activity.

I don't plan to get another horse once mine has passed away but if I did I would certainly not buy another good doer as the constant worry about weight and laminitis risk is too much stress. I bought a native pony as I wanted to complete and it gave me more options as an adult on a pony, I was looking for something under 15h due to my height 5.1ft. I wanted to be able to get on from the ground in emergencies and be able to tack up easily. My pony is a super boy but I would now go for a show pony type which would get less fat.

 

[nagblagger]

Like a lot of people my first experience of looking after a pony was in the riding school where you worked all day, catching and riding the ponies bareback in a headcollar from the field, cantering on the grass verges, age 7! (in the 70s) Wouldn't be allowed to do it now. My pony was a grey cantankerous cob mare who would bite and kick - but we bonded, unfortunately she 'disappeared' after getting laminitis., I was heartbroken. My first pony I owned was a grey and white unbroken emaciated part arab, 2yr old gelding, i had seen it in a stable where a friend kept hers and my unhorsey parents bought it. (best parents ever!) Best Christmas present ever! How times have changed, i was looked down upon as he was coloured, he went better in a headcollar than bridle so eventually got a hackamore, that was a novelty in those days and started winning show jumping at local shows., the blacksmith filed the teeth, equine dentistry was rarely heard off! I would never say I was in control 100% of the time, the bucks after the jump were amazingly scarey! Took his back shoes off as he had better grip on the roads and was cheaper, now barefoot is the norm.. He stayed with me all his life until he got colic on Christmas eve at the age of 28.. Role on to the present day, during covid bought a cantankerous grey and white cob mare, from traveller/dealer, emaciated, has bitten and kicked.....but we've bonded - some things don't change !!!

 

[MotherOfChickens]

Ha, well first pony was a section c that quickly got the better of me (I was 8) and so dad started riding him. we then got a rescue Exmoor who was all kinds of awesome as well as teaching me to sit a buck and how to catch a pony that didn’t care to be caught. He went on to his late 30s teaching little girls the same thing. I then had a wizzy NF x TB who scared me half to death in the first 6 months but then who took me hunting, Hunter trialling and hacks that lasted from dawn to dusk-he had a morbid fear of tractors though.
As an adult I had a Lusitano, an Exmoor who is now in his late 20s teaching kids to ride, another lusitano that I wasn’t suited to and now another Exmoor and a Fell.
I got older and so I am less fussy-I also can’t afford to be fussy lol. my expectations are lower and anything I do with my pony is a win. They are low maintenance, hardy and have low running costs and I just like being around them. I don’t ask that much of them, in return they pretty much live like the moor ponies they are.

 

[SEL]

Our understanding of horse social cognition has really changed even over the last 5-10 years. What I considered acceptable as a child and young adult in terms of behaviour or wonkiness I no longer consider acceptable now. In part, because I know how to fix these things, or at least feel I owe it to the horse to try.

^^^^ yup. I feel embarrassed about a couple I had rides on who were definitely not sound but I still galloped around on, jumped etc. It was pretty normal sadly.

 

[I'm Dun]

I think people have gotten lazier with today's throw away culture. When i was kid most of us seemed to get totally "unsuitable" ponies but we put the work in and made them perfect because we had what we had and we had to work with it or do without. Now too many people expect quick results and/or don't have time to put years of work into something that turned out more challenging than initially thought so just pass the problem on to someone else and get another with less quirks because its so much easier with the interenet now to buy/sell (admittedly guilty of this myself, much to the disaproval of my very old school horsey mother!)

I think there's a huge element of this. When I got my ex-racer the first thing I did was start to rehab his feet and do groundwork with him, only really riding to hack out and the odd flatwork lesson mainly in walk.

When I was talking through my plans with my physio she said I was one of the first people she had been out to that did anything like that. Most want to be on and out doing stuff now. I want my lovely boy to feel good, have strong feet and to enjoy his work because he's supple and strong.

He's a sweetheart and I could have whacked shoes on and took him out showjumping the first weekend I had him and it would have been fine and we wouldn't have disgraced ourselves, but within a year he'd have been lame with navicular or ligament issues due to the awful state of his feet. It was scary how few people thought his feet were an issue past being "typical TB feet"

 

[Old school]

Throwing in my tuppence worth.... I think society is a lot more 'judgy'. In my childhood pony club days, when a parent spent time lungeing a pony the first morning of camp the DC was full of praise for being sensible. In my parenthood days of pony club, when I lunged my daughters pony, a DC mocked me for not getting her a more sensible pony...... there is so much quick judgement and so little proper patience to develop knowledge.

 

[Xmas lucky]

The equestrian world has gotten a lot judgy and I think yards have gotten stricter a lot of yards wouldn’t let you stable a difficult horse. Most horses and pony with behavioural issues back then probably had Heath issues or bad fitting tack. Also your expected nowadays to suitable horses for your riding abilities. A lot has changed unfortunately.

 

[lme]

I think riding is often more of a sport now. And people are prepared to move onto a new horse or pony in pursuit of that. For me they have always been more family members. My childhood ponies got sold on but, since then, I've mostly kept horses their entire life (one got sold to my trainer) adjusting the riding I do to suit what I have.

My first pony an 11:3 mini cob of indeterminate age. I exchanged him for an 18moth old colt of unknown breeding who I led out on hacks until he was 3, when I got on off a gate because the others I was hacking with were going to canter and we couldn't keep up. My first horse as an adult was an unbacked 4yo sports horse mare who I spotted in a H&H advert. At the time I lived in London, had nowhere to keep her and hadn't ridden for 5 years. I lost her at 33. My children all rode the same 13:2 - 13:2 ponies that they started on as soon as they could walk, and stayed on until they moved on to a 15:1 home bred (daughter of my original impluse buy. My latest purchase (bought from Ireland) is a 17h 4yo who I had only seen videos of. Perfect for a creaky 61 yo. We will do whatever she likes / is good at.

 

[millikins]

I'm not sure "fussy" is the term I'd use but I understand what OP means. There's a lot more money about than there used to be, as in disposable income even for those with ordinary jobs, so rather than having to make the best of whatever equine was available people can afford to trade in for a more desirable model.
The throw away culture doesn't help either, not many people bother to fix an older washing machine, car etc, it makes better financial sense to scrap it and start with new and I think that extends to horses. Rather than "mend" your pony by fixing your riding issues it is easier to sell and buy another more forgiving of your mistakes or lack of knowledge.

 

[Tarragon]

I think that many of the "naughty" ponies of my pony-owning youth (in the 1970's) would probably be diagnosed these days with Cushings or Laminitis or have badly fitting tack or just be badly schooled etc. etc. I think we possibly know more and what was seen as a naughty pony is now seen as a pony that needs some help!
Personally, I can see nothing wrong with working within the healthy limits of your horse. Not far from 60 myself, I would certainly fail a vet test, but I am capable of doing so much and enjoy doing it - just don't ask me to touch my toes or sprint 100 metres

 

[Equi]

I think it’s more a case of when you have had one that’s cost your life savings you try not to make that same mistake.

 

[Spotherisk]

Aged 28 I bought a 5 year old gelding described as cob x tb. We were both very green and had various crises but worked through them and he’s now retired aged 29 and I love the bones of him. We have hacked for miles, mostly alone, and he has always been absolutely bulletproof in any traffic, and that has been the most important thing for me. We have done pleasure rides, shows, one dressage test (came 4th so got a rosette and didn’t need to put ourselves through that again). If I could buy a kind, generous little horse which I could safely hack anywhere, at any speed, gallop a track one day and walk it the next without argument, I would pay good money for it and I think that’s what I wanted 24 years ago too!

 

[tallyho!]

Maybe fussiness is a good thing… there’s a lot going out there in the horse world and perhaps being fussy in favour of preserving the good horses is never more important.

 

[sherry90]

I don’t think it’s fussy so much as perfection, in everything in life, and yet we as humans are so imperfect. Kind of ironic that we expect everything else to be perfect when we aren’t ourselves ?

 

[poiuytrewq]

My first horse, in my mind was absolute perfection!
He would be now anyway! He was a coloured gelding. Bay with white patches coloured. I used to be able to go anywhere and do anything with him as long as it didn’t involve loading ?‍ This was such a crying shame as I didn’t have my own transport to practise or be able to put the time in and he’d have cleaned up at shows/jumping but was just impossible to get anywhere.
Now I have the knowledge ability and my own box to have been able to work on that. I’d kill to find another him.