is it worth....

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millies

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Advertising for a sharer for my 4 year old ? I'm going to be away a lot this year, sometimes for a few weeks at a time so I was wondering if it would be worth trying to find some one who wants to ride a couple of eays a week. No yard work and No financial contributions required. Ideally some one who is reasonably confident and capable of continuing her education and schooling but doesn't need to be an expert. Pretty much they can treat her as there own. Are there people out there looking for this post of arrangement? Or am I going to get loads of kids looking for a free ride n idiots taking the advantage of a free horse. Any sharer advice or experiences welcome.
 
Loads of lovely sharers around, but someone who can sensibly manage a 4 year old and continue her education would be much more tricky to find I'd imagine. And the risk of damage they could do if you inadvertantly got the wrong person would put me off.

Not rushing a youngster and doing too much with her as she grows up won't do her any harm at all.

If you really want her to progress I'd rather find someone well respected and pay them £10/£15 a time to rider her.
 
I'm a sharer and that is definitely something I'd be interested in, my only concern would be is this a long term thing (i.e. if your work situation changes again, would you end the share arrangement?). It is very easy to get attached to horses so as a sharer you want to know that your share is going to be around for some time to come.

You will get the obligatory idiots and kids looking for a free ride, however if you are patient I'm sure you will find a decent rider who wants a share and will take care of her like she was their own.

I do worry though with her only being 4, you will really need to vet your sharer before you agree to the share because they could do a lot of damage while you are away and teach her bad habits. With older horses its not so much of a worry but 4 is still very young and she needs a very capable rider to continue her education. I'm not saying it is impossible, and I'm sure there are sharers out there with experience of young horses, but they will be few and far between!
 
I see a lot of those adverts like you're proposing. My general reaction is, "Oh, they want someone to bring their horse on for free..."

You might get someone but, generally, anyone capable of bringing on a four-year-old is already in demand riding other people's horses. I suspect you'll get a lot of teenagers who think they're better riders than they are.

I'd go with Polo's Mum's suggestion.
 
Going to Let her do what ever she wants and let her get away with murder. Work commitments arnt going to change any time soon so it would hopefully be a long
 
Damn phone again.... Term thing. To be honest I wouldn't mind paying some one to ride hee I just don't know any one offering those kind of services in my area
 
I think you could feasibly find someone, just might take some patience. There are people who are more than capable of riding youngsters and would like to do so in order to improve their own riding and get a feeling of accomplishment as the horse progresses.

What sort of area are you looking for a rider?
 
West Yorkshire. If some one was looking to improve their riding I would pay for regular lessons etc for them.
 
Definitely worth it! I have a similar arrangement with the owner of the horse I look after, although even when she is not away I will go up and bring her in, fede, groom, muck out and turn out etc a couple of times a week. When she is away I get her all to myself. I'm 37 BTW so no youngster! :D
 
You sound like you might be better off trying to do it through word of mouth, do you know anyone in your local riding clubs or anyone in the pony clubs that could ask about for you. I would have thought that there would be some takers, especially as summer is coming up, in the Pony Club and at least you know then that they are getting instruction too. If you don't know anyone most Pony Clubs have advertisement pages on their Branch specific websites which might limit the amount of time waters you would get.
 
The only riding clubs I know tend to be full of the know it all done everything types who arnt even close to as knowledgeable as they would like people to believe. Pony club sounds a good idea which I hadn't thought of... How ever said 4 year old is 16 hands... A bit big maybe?
 
You can be in the Pony Club till you're 25, I know some PC's have more older members than others but it might be worth a shot. I would agree RC can be full of them but the ones I have known had a mix of the above and also PC kids and teenagers that were competing in RC teams and tend to have more of an idea (not always!!). You can always ask for references from instructors - they have their reputation on the line at the end of the day!
 
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