How decent horses get ruined + novice owners frigthen themselves

Kallibear

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Agggghh. I'm cross at people who should know better.

Someone asked on a horsey facebook page where they could by cheap stuff for a potential pony and how much a pony costs to keep. Poster is a complete beginner wanting to buy for her young daughter who's just started lessons. That includes buying a riding hat, to give you an idea of quite how novice. Fair enough, no one's born knowing all about horses and if you're very novice you've no idea how much you actually don't know.

Yet others replied with places and prices and even suggested livery yards and potential ponies. No suggestion that maybe it's a Really Bad Idea and she should get more experience first. I duly did and you can imagine how it went down with others. Thankfully there's others who agree with me until one self-professed genius suggested;

She should definitely look at youngsters because they're cheaper than Been There T-Shirt holders. Helps keep the costs down dontchknow.

A youngster hasn't picked up bad habits yet (as proved by her badly behaved 25yr old she's trained for years :rolleyes: ) so would prob be better than an older horse.

Go for something cheap to keep. Definition of which is apparently something who's feet grow slowly so they rarely need trimmed. It will definitely make a horse affordable.

Full livery is a good idea (after I made a fuss about it) but a good doer is def cheaper on feed costs (eh FULL livery?!?) and aforementioned slow growing feet will make £100 + a week livery affordable.

And a young Newforest Pony would be ideal. Have to say that's not true of any NF I've ever met!

And of course she can do it cheaper by cutting corners.

Grr. Apparently I'm just being a patronising ' peasant' who looks down on novice minions. Actually I'm a pissed off pheasant who thinks that some people are idiots (and not the origional OP!).

This is how decent horses get ruined. Idiot 'advisors'. I really hope the OP isn't someone who just heards what she wants to hear, and doesn't have idiots advising her in real life.
 

Arizahn

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Really hope they don't jump in with both feet and end up in a mess :( I stay away from Facebook for the most part, these sorts of things are why!
 

pip6

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Will always be people who don't realise they know nothing and those who think they know a lot and must tell you what they think as they know best.
 

Magicmillbrook

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Makes you want to bang your head against a wall - or theirs. My local horse facebook page is actually quite good and has some knowledgeable folk who would have made similar comments - perhaps they are all patronizing pheasants too. My advise to novices or non horse parents would be to try pony share or working livery at their RS for at least a year before going alone. Even though I had ridden for years when my daughter got her 1st pony we did working livery for 3 or 4 years to ease us in.
 

Floxie

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Why would a peasant be patronising? Or even a pheasant, for that matter :) I wonder if they know what words they're actually using. You could be properly patronising and pull them up on it, that's how these things usually descend :D
 

YasandCrystal

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Just be thankful noone mentionned she may get a freebie on the 'Project Horse' website where she might get a cracker pony to really injure her on.
 

hnmisty

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A friend of a lady at the yard who has had a 35 year break from riding (and can barely manage rising trot) is looking to buy.

Too many people try to run before they can walk. Sadly, when there's an animal involved, they suffer for it.
 

Kallibear

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The OP did suggest getting a rescue. Thankfully no one's yet said 'what a wonderful idea. So rewarding'

I should point out the OP doesn't appear to be an dreaming fool. She trains big dangerous dog breeds and seems sensible. She just doesn't realise how little she knows and now others (apparently experienced) are encouraging her.

Best so far is the dog share comment. OP has mastiffs so I compared diving in to encouraging a complete dog novice to buy a mastiff or akita or similar (breeds the OP has and therefore hopefully understands). So self-professed genii have said that they bought a staffie and noone suggested they 'shared' a dog first, so it's a silly idea and she'll be fine just going off to buy. Brilliant piece of logic.
 

Kallibear

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A friend of a lady at the yard who has had a 35 year break from riding (and can barely manage rising trot) is looking to buy..

Well, your lady is more experienced than mine! And a young daughter in the mix too. Hopefully she'll have better advisors than those on facebook!
 

sjp1

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Oh dear!!!

I do though think that so much has changed since I was young. My parents couldn't afford to buy a push button jumping pony, I learnt at a riding school in Africa and when we came back to UK we rented a house from a chap with loads of ponies he had bred.

A dartmoor brood mare was brought out of retirement for me to ride at 8 years old, who knew every trick in the book and often trotted me back to the stables with her head bent to my knee and I had to duck as she cruised back to where she wanted to be!!

Fast forward a few years and the young ponies were broken by us kids - probably not correctly, but they were fine and we learnt a lot!

These days, everyone seems to want to be paid to ride, and kids are bought ponies as a matter of course - certainly wasn't like that in the old days when we fell off all the time and rode whatever we could get our hands on!!
 

xxcharlottexx

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I got added to a group by a friend on facebook group a few weeks ago that was supposed to be a last attempt at finding a home for horses that were going to be sent to auction

I left when I saw a 2 year old colt advertised as broken to ride and drive, safe and sensible so would be perfect for children and novices.....

The admin didn't seem to worry to much about it. The problem is you get the novices who are looking to buy a cheap safe horse like in you OP who don't know any better and it only ends in one way!
 

PingPongPony

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Oh dear, I feel your pain OP. A girl I know has recently moved her arthritic 23year old mare from our yard to a field with a 2 year old colt. We have told her that it is a bad idea and she should separate them, but she says that it will be fine because the colt is only 13.2 and her mare is 15.2 so he is waaaay too small to do anything, plus when the girl is at the field, the mare never lets the colt near her back end so its ok, they obviously aren't going to breed... we've given up trying to make her understand now :(
 

Kallibear

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There are and will always be idiots. Sadly they're currently telling the OP that it's just fine to buy. In fact, as a new development, some (drunken) illiterate lunatic has decided I'm a spoilt horsey brat (actually, I'd love to be a spoilt horsey brat!) and the OP should just buy a cheap-as-she-can-find horse and 'just jump off' if it's sillly. I kid you not.
 

Crugeran Celt

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You would think that the child's instructor would recommend more lessons and 'own a pony days' before jumping in and buying one. I am always a little negative when people start talking about buying their own horses only because I think if people are aware of all the problems and are still serious about it they will be more inclined to slow down and learn more before jumping into it. I started riding at the age of 6 and had my first horse when I was about 19, kept at livery. At the age of 27 we bought our own place and 20 years on I am still learning about keeping horses! Horses seem to have the uncanny knack of throwing new problems at you when you least expect them, most that you have never seen or heard of before. :confused3:
 
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