Looking for horse share but confused about an ad

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igglepop

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Been looking for a horse share to get some extra riding and found this advert "Hi Come For A Ride With Me On One Of My Other Horses 14.1 To !5.1 There Is A Small Charge Which Helps With Shoeing And Ins Please Do Call Me Or Email Me Thank you For Looking" I emailed her and she has replied "hi what we do is we go out for a 2 hour ride and you pay me £15 to help with the shoeing and incs no stable work to do horses to go out at ride I go out with you on ride I have 4 horses and can't ride them all in one day so like to give somebody the chance to ride with little pay" Am I being stupid or does that sound like a cheap tracking center set up not a horse share.
 
The exact time of ride, and horse being ready sound odd. I love the idea of a cheap ride but not if its an make shift set up as you would assume no insurance also illegally run (apologies if your readying this and I'm wrong) my gut is just saying its a bit off.
 
igglepop said:
The exact time of ride, and horse being ready sound odd. I love the idea of a cheap ride but not if its an make shift set up as you would assume no insurance also illegally run (apologies if your readying this and I'm wrong) my gut is just saying its a bit off.
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This... the insurance concern would worry me if you were to have an accident.
 
I do have my own insurance but not sure if it would cover me riding at a business as its only personal riding cover. I want to ask out right but the way the advert is written makes me think I wouldn't get a proper answer. Think I will steal clear. Cheap ride isn't worth the risk.
 
Are there any legitimate trekking centres nearby or were you looking for a share in particular?? I ask because my sister and I rode at a local centre a few times and they said if we wanted to go regularly they would give us a discount. We now do that once a month and have lessons the other weeks 😊
 
I'm coming back from injury and health issues and need more time in the saddle. I've ridden at a riding school for a bit and I'm now looking for a horse share which will be a bit more of a challenge as I'm trying to get back to being able to ride my youngster but need to do it in stages.
 
To buck the trend, she sounds to me like someone with 4 horses who`s struggling to exercise them all, and who maybe needing a bit of financial help.

She may be particularly OCD with how her horses are kept, so doesn`t want anyone to help with that, but is offering someone the chance to ride one of hers, with her, so she can get 2 out at once, and maybe have a little company on the way a couple of times a week. The 2 hour hack sounds like she wants people to have value for money. She may feel awkward actually asking for money to begin with, so she wants to make sure who ever comes to "Share" feels they are getting value for money (and not in a business way, but in a genuine concern for being an honest person who doesn`t want someone to feel ripped off). I have a number of hacks locally that are anywhere from 30 mins to 3 hours, and if I was asking someone to contribute, then I`d take them on one of the longer hacks.

That`s how I read it, and I would happily go along and meet her, meet the horses and see how you felt about it all in person.
 
Surely a share is just a cheap trek? Most shares are £x for Y rides a week - the only difference here is that she wants to supervise your riding (which most sensible sharers would want to do initially anyway) I don't see any difference.

On insurance if you fall off a share horse there's no insurance cover from the owner - exactly the same as if you fall off at a trecking centre that doesn't have it's own insurance.
 
DJ said:
To buck the trend, she sounds to me like someone with 4 horses who`s struggling to exercise them all, and who maybe needing a bit of financial help.

She may be particularly OCD with how her horses are kept, so doesn`t want anyone to help with that, but is offering someone the chance to ride one of hers, with her, so she can get 2 out at once, and maybe have a little company on the way a couple of times a week. The 2 hour hack sounds like she wants people to have value for money. She may feel awkward actually asking for money to begin with, so she wants to make sure who ever comes to "Share" feels they are getting value for money (and not in a business way, but in a genuine concern for being an honest person who doesn`t want someone to feel ripped off). I have a number of hacks locally that are anywhere from 30 mins to 3 hours, and if I was asking someone to contribute, then I`d take them on one of the longer hacks.

That`s how I read it, and I would happily go along and meet her, meet the horses and see how you felt about it all in person.
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I agree with this. I'm currently looking at getting a second horse as mine hates hacking alone, and if I did I was considering getting a 'sharer' for the other one but asking if we could ride together, or otherwise it defeats the object. It may not suit you as I understand with a share a lot of people want to 'do their own thing', but I don't think this sounds dodgy as such.
 
I don't think it's necessarily a unofficial trekking centre, I have seen people who do shares on a pay per ride basis. They need help with exercising and a little extra cash and think they are just offering a different version of sharing. However I was led to understand that there are legal issues doing a price per ride as opposed to a fixed weekly/monthly cost or sharing expenses e.g. pay for shoeing and x bales of hay. If it's pay per ride it can be interpreted as being commercial and there could be insurance issues.
 
Polos Mum said:
Surely a share is just a cheap trek? Most shares are £x for Y rides a week - the only difference here is that she wants to supervise your riding (which most sensible sharers would want to do initially anyway) I don't see any difference.
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Most shares are £x for Y DAYS per week, rather than rides. I might ride my share horse five times in the same day. (I wouldn't!) I might ride him on my day, or I might not. (I have him 5 days a week, so there'll normally be 1 or 2 days when I don't ride. Obviously, if the share agreement was that I WOULD ride him on my days, I would.) When he's not working - lame, saddle off for adjustment, whatever - I still pay and do my chores, even though I'm not riding.

Paying per ride does sound perilously close to the sort of activity that would be excluded by BHS Gold insurance. An old post on here from the BHS says:

BHS Gold membership would cover someone who loans/shares a horse, provided the contribution made by a loanee or sharer is specifically towards the upkeep of the horse, and no profit must be made as this would be defined as a business activity (which isn't covered). Where money changes hands in other situations, e.g. you hire your horse out for hunting, hacking or competing - even if it's just a friend giving you some money in cash in return for a ride - this is classed as business activity.
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she has 4 horses and wants someone to help her ride them.She doesnt want to do this for nothing ie give free rides as the horses obviously cost her money. So shes asking for £15 fro a 2 hour ride. she doesnt need help looking after them. sounds like good value to me.
 
ester said:
So you'd be helping her out by riding one of her horses but paying £15 for the pleasure... no thanks!
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All shares work on the basis of 'paying for the pleasure' of riding someone else's horses. Unless you do jobs in which case I wouldn't expect payment. But the owner wouldn't offer a share if they didn't need help with exercising or financial assistance. Fair enough, some people pay for someone to ride their horse but plenty do it the other way around.

That said, if paying £15 a week I would expect more than one 2 hour ride, and as others have said she needs to clarify if you are paying for this ride or paying a contribution towards shoes etc. But I don't think riding out with the owner is such a terrible thing.
 
It sounds Ok to me too. It does seem like it is someone who wants her own horses exercised in return for a contribution to costs.
 
Polos Mum said:
Surely a share is just a cheap trek? Most shares are £x for Y rides a week - the only difference here is that she wants to supervise your riding (which most sensible sharers would want to do initially anyway) I don't see any difference.

I used to share vs now where I full loan - id disagree with the above. Shares are all different - mine was basically half the time. So morning feeds, Muck out, grooming, riding when I wanted - half the care half the cost including shoes, vets, insurance
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lewis2015 said:
All shares work on the basis of 'paying for the pleasure' of riding someone else's horses. Unless you do jobs in which case I wouldn't expect payment. But the owner wouldn't offer a share if they didn't need help with exercising or financial assistance. Fair enough, some people pay for someone to ride their horse but plenty do it the other way around.

That said, if paying £15 a week I would expect more than one 2 hour ride, and as others have said she needs to clarify if you are paying for this ride or paying a contribution towards shoes etc. But I don't think riding out with the owner is such a terrible thing.
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True, but that seems a lot, most would get 2/3 days for that and not expect you to ride at a time that suits you.

I have done lots of riding out with owners on spare horses and often contributed to shoes etc but it seems odd to me to have it on a per ride basis.
 
Lots of people with sharers do it for the exercise and only charge because if you don't a) you gets troupes of mums thinking it's free lessons for their kids and b) if people don't pay then when it's raining/ flys are bad/ windy/ etc etc they just don't turn up.

If she has 4 horses £15 a couple of times a week is a drop in the ocean cost wise - so I'd guess it's more about time than £'s

Most shares are £10 per day and most would assume day = ride (if anyone wants to pay me £10 a day to come and brush my horses/ muck out/ clean my take I'll PM you my address!! )

But if £15 is turn up, get on, hack get off and leave then I can see why she's a bit more expensive than the shares where you'd have to catch/ groom etc yourself.
 
It is a way of getting round having to have a RS licence, which can be very expensive, especially if you only have a few horses. If she genuinely only has 4 horses it might be a way for OP to get more experience of riding different horses in a non-RS setting. The only way to find out is to arrange to meet the owner and her horses and talk the whole thing through.
Some RS offer 'shares' in their horses/ponies, which really amount to what is being offered here but with very strict timetabling, which I imagine would be flexible in this arrangement.
 
lewis2015 said:
All shares work on the basis of 'paying for the pleasure' of riding someone else's horses. Unless you do jobs in which case I wouldn't expect payment. But the owner wouldn't offer a share if they didn't need help with exercising or financial assistance. Fair enough, some people pay for someone to ride their horse but plenty do it the other way around.

That said, if paying £15 a week I would expect more than one 2 hour ride, and as others have said she needs to clarify if you are paying for this ride or paying a contribution towards shoes etc. But I don't think riding out with the owner is such a terrible thing.
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I'd disagree with this - I have a sharer for my girl. She pays £80/month towards Roo's upkeep and has 2 days a week where I don't go to the yard at all. My sharer rides if she wants and does all yard work for that day. She can do whatever she wants to on her days. If I'm away she's great and does extra days which helps me out massively as don't have to pay for full livery then. A share is about the owner getting help (either/both time and financial) and the sharer getting to have the experience of having their own horse without the same costs.
 
sounds fine to me!!

I know a lady who pays £10 a time to ride but at the same time, she has to muck out the stable and turn the horse out and I think she also has to poo pick the field!

but it suits her because she doesn't have to go 3 times a week if she doesn't have time, so she can just sort of go when suits her, within reason of course!
 
I would never dream of charging any of my sharers as they are exercising my horse for me (sometimes having lessons on them - which they do pay for which I am grateful for.
 
ester said:
An awful lot of things. but as I said earlier it is the paying per ride for a set time which is odd.
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That might just be till things settle down, I would not, for example let a 14 yo loose on my horse, not any 14yo, not any horse.
She won't make money charging £15.00 for a trek, so really that argument is dubious.
 
Arguably the sharer could be better off. If they are paying per month and they can't make it, the amount they pay doesn't change, with this arrangement if they don't ride, they don't pay.
 
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