Newbie here - pony stabling/turnout advice needed.

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Caznay

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Thank you, this is my first post on the forums.

We live in a rural village but unfortunately do not have enough field space for a pony. We do have enough space at the bottom of the garden to build a stable or 2, and a local farmer has said we can rent a field from him to use as a paddock. The field is approx 5-10 mins walk away from the house.

Would it be possible to stable a pony (or 2 - companion!) during the winter with occasional turnouts and then turnout during the summer (field shelter) bringing in at night or when needed? My daughter or myself would have to lead or ride the pony from the stable to the field.

This seems not an ideal solution but it is the only way I can see of fulfilling our dream!! Of course we could leave a pony out in the paddock with a field shelter and not bother with the stable but I think good to have a stable long term for vet visits/shoeing/grooming etc?

Any advice very welcome, thank you.
 
Stable is a good idea for occasional nights in when the weather is bad and for farrier visits :) But i would keep out as much as possible!
 
Caznay said:
Of course we could leave a pony out in the paddock with a field shelter and not bother with the stable but I think good to have a stable long term for vet visits/shoeing/grooming etc?
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I think this would be a better solution, to be honest! Assuming you buy a hardy native type of pony it will cope well living out (but will be best with a companion). A lot of ponies can turn into little monkeys if they are kept fully stabled. Still worth building a stable though in case you need it if one of the ponies is ill, for example.
 
Thank you.

I think we will definitely need a stable and I am loath to put one up in the farmer's field!

if nothing else I can see my three daughters wanting to fuss round it in the stable for hours (poor thing!)
 
This is probably going to sound like an idiotic question..but if you keep your pony out all year how do you groom it :o

I can see the field churned up with mud and nowhere to stand to groom/do feet etc!!
 
When I was a child, we had two stables at the bottom of the garden. We lived in suburbia. I rented a small paddock which was originally the garden of a large, posh house. The ponies were very happy. Go for it. Modern rugs are so good, the ponies will be fine living out most of the time, you won't necessarily need a field shelter.
 
If this is your first foray in to horse ownership - I'd recommend looking round for a local livery yard.

Invaluable to the novice owner.
 
We have looked into livery and the nearest are a good 30 mins drive away - unfortuantely totally impractical with three children. I need my oldest daughter to be able to do the pony alone (she is 11) without us all having to be there - and she will not want to ignore the pony all week and only see it at weekends.

BUT I do think livery is a good solution if it fits into your lifestyle - lots of other owners etc.
 
BigRed said:
When I was a child, we had two stables at the bottom of the garden. We lived in suburbia. I rented a small paddock which was originally the garden of a large, posh house. The ponies were very happy. Go for it. Modern rugs are so good, the ponies will be fine living out most of the time, you won't necessarily need a field shelter.
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Thank you that is encouraging! I remember someone at the end of my grandmas road in London having two stables in their garden and no discernable field nearby at all!
 
Caznay said:
We have looked into livery and the nearest are a good 30 mins drive away - unfortuantely totally impractical with three children. I need my oldest daughter to be able to do the pony alone (she is 11) without us all having to be there - and she will not want to ignore the pony all week and only see it at weekends.

BUT I do think livery is a good solution if it fits into your lifestyle - lots of other owners etc.
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Have you had horses before? Have you any good, experienced horsey friends? I am slightly concerned that you appear to be new to owning a pony and going to do it alone. It's a lot harder than it sounds!

I personally would buy native type ponies and leave them out, if you can build a stable, tack and feed room then you can bring the ponies in for grooming, riding, farrier etc. Where will you ride?
 
Caznay said:
This is probably going to sound like an idiotic question..but if you keep your pony out all year how do you groom it :o

I can see the field churned up with mud and nowhere to stand to groom/do feet etc!!
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On a day to day basis the pony won't need a full grooming - just needs to be thoroughly checked over for any signs of illness or injury and feet picked out to make sure there are no problems lurking there. If it is a day that your daughter intends to ride then she can lead it back to the stable in your garden and give it a thorough groom and tack it up there.

I would advise, however, that you try and gain a lot more knowledge and experience before you embark upon pony ownership. Are your daughters riding at a riding school at the moment? Do they have pony care sessions there? Are there any basic horse care courses at local colleges etc you could enrol in? I'd also recommend investing in some comprehensive pony care books - the Pony Club Manual of Horsemanship would be a good start, and you should consider your daughter joining the local Pony Club where she can get lots of good instruction on looking after and riding the pony.

Having a pony at home is great, but if you are novice horse-owners you may find you make silly mistakes without experienced help on hand, and the pony's welfare could possibly suffer because of it.
 
Well everyone has to start somewhere!

Yes I have a couple of very experienced horsey friends who I can get to come and have a good look round.

I have never owned a pony before but have always ridden and groomed/mucked out/wormed etc so am not total novice but would appreciate advice.
 
TGM said:
On a day to day basis the pony won't need a full grooming - just needs to be thoroughly checked over for any signs of illness or injury and feet picked out to make sure there are no problems lurking there. If it is a day that your daughter intends to ride then she can lead it back to the stable in your garden and give it a thorough groom and tack it up there.
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Yes this is why I think a stable will be necessary. Friends of mine whose ponies live out all year also groom them in the road before riding - not something I want my daughter to be doing!
 
Hello and welcome!

At first glance what you are proposing sounds reasonable. You are on the right track - if you can provide grazing, shelter and companionship (ie another equine) then you have the basics in place.

I agree that a stable is a good idea in case of illness and gives you somewhere to groom and tack up that is out of the rain. However, most ponies are happier and calmer (and safer to ride!!) if they have daily turn out, and hardy native types have no problem living out even in winter. For a child's pony, especially if only ridden once a day, I would say that daily turn out is a must.

Some things to think about:

How big is the paddock? Enough room for two ponies (yours and a companion)? Does it have adequate fencing, gateway(s), shelter, water supply? Grazing takes time and knowledge to manage - you will most likely need to divide it up as there will be too much grass in spring and autumn, and not enough in winter. You will need to either poo-pick or rotate and harrow sections to prevent the grass from souring and issues with worms.

How are you going to get the pony to the paddock and back? Is it on the road, and would it be safe for your daughter to ride or lead in the dark in winter?

If you have no floodlit school, where would she ride? If you are going to go down the 'occasional turn out' in winter route then the pony will need to be ridden every day, preferably exercised twice a day. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but you cannot keep a pony in a stable all week with no exercise, and in winter it is dark in the mornings and evenings.

Keeping a pony at home takes more experience than on a livery yard, because there will be no one to ask for help if a problem arises. And unless you are lucky enough to have a groom, all the work will fall to you and your daughter. Do you have the time and experience to have a pony at home? If the pony cut itself in the field, or got cast, or had colic, would you cope? If you had to be away from home for a few days who would look after the pony? Could you deal with all the naughty 'testing out the new owners' tricks without you or your daughter getting injured or scared?

I'm not scare-mongering and I can see that having a pony in the back garden would be a dream-come-true for your daughter, and lots of people do keep horses at home. But if you are novice or first-time owners then it could go badly wrong for all concerned.
 
Getting a first pony is a really exciting time!!! I really envy your daughters!

On the positive side, I think you can easily cope with a field shelter in the farmer's field (get one that is movable) and a small shed for storage, although you also need to think of water and electricity, as well as access to hacking (ideally you want your daughters to be able to ride off road for safety reasons).

On the more negative side, I would strongly echo what the others say and suggest you start with lessons at your local RC. They will be able to advise you on the right time to buy a pony and perhaps help you with finding the right pony (if you search the forum you will find millions of posts of people who bought the wrong horse/pony and got themselves in serious trouble). For a first time owner it's much, much easier to keep the pony at a knowledgeable livery yard. 30 minutes drive is nothing compare with the time you will waste trying to do things on your own, doing them wrong and having to re-do them. A livery yard can help you out if you need it as well, e.g. put the pony on working livery to get rid of excess energy, have someone around for farrier visits in the middle of the day, help you decide when you need to call the vet out, be around 24/7 for those middle of the night accidents, etc. Finally, at 11 your daughter is far too young to be in charge of a pony by herself, you shouldn't count on that! Realistically she will need to be supervised by an adult while around the horses at all times.
 
Thank you. That is a very helpful and thought provoking post.

Yes it would be a huge commitment for us and require the whole family to be sensible and committed to pony ownership.

My daughter rides with an excellent riding teacher who has offered to be involved the whole way through with choice of pony/help etc. She is ensuring that my daughter sees every aspect of pony care and maintenance. My cousin is the local hunt secretary and owns point to point horses so is very experienced although will probalby think anything that isnt a state of the art stable with indoor school is not good enough!
We live in a rural village where a few people own ponies that live out most of the time and I am sure will be only too happy to give us tons of advice and help!

So although noone can ever be totally prepared for everything life will throw at them I think we have a good attitude and a good support network!
 
Sounds great! I know it sounds disheartening when people go "are you sure you can deal with this" etc. but I was around horses for 11 years before I got my first pony and it was a real eye opener! Good luck with your pony hunting, will you be getting 2?
 
Caznay said:
Well everyone has to start somewhere!
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They do, but it is better to get some theoretical knowledge under your belt first, rather than finding out by trial and error on a living animal! Grooming and mucking out for other people is different from having overall responsibility for a horse's care. Things you need to ensure you are fully aware of before buying a pony would be the signs of good health, and of illness, and injury, and how to avoid common problems such as laminitis. How to tell if pony is lame. A good knowledge of feeding and how to tell when pony is too fat or too thin and how to rectify this. Recognition of poisonous plants. How to recognise when hay and haylage is of good quality. How to tell when pony needs the farrier's attention. Know how to tell whether saddle and bridle fit correctly. Know simple first aid and when to call the vet. Knowledge of worming and vaccination programmes. Understanding of basic horse/pony psychology, etc., etc.

If you know all this already then well and good, if not then perhaps this winter would be a good time for you and your daughter to brush up your horse care skills through reading and enrolling on any courses you can find.
 
Booboos said:
For a first time owner it's much, much easier to keep the pony at a knowledgeable livery yard. 30 minutes drive is nothing compare with the time you will waste trying to do things on your own, doing them wrong and having to re-do them. A livery yard can help you out if you need it as well, e.g. put the pony on working livery to get rid of excess energy, have someone around for farrier visits in the middle of the day, help you decide when you need to call the vet out, be around 24/7 for those middle of the night accidents, etc. Finally, at 11 your daughter is far too young to be in charge of a pony by herself, you shouldn't count on that! Realistically she will need to be supervised by an adult while around the horses at all times.
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Thank you all good points. There is no way we can drive an hour a day with all three children to a livery yard, it is just not going to happen. My daughter would be supervised at all times at first but my hope (and hers!) would be she can go up to the field and bring the pony down without supervision.
 
Sanolly said:
Sounds great! I know it sounds disheartening when people go "are you sure you can deal with this" etc. but I was around horses for 11 years before I got my first pony and it was a real eye opener! Good luck with your pony hunting, will you be getting 2?
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yes I can imagine it will be a huge huge amount of work and i am not totally discounting the idea that my oldest daughter MAY not always love it (although this seems VERY unlikely at the moment). So luckily I love horses myself and will be very happy to look after him or her. Enrolling on a course is a very good idea and I will definitely look into this.
 
OK so this is gonna be a big step for you and the family. I agree with post above re. keeping at a livery yard if you can if you're a first time owner.

OR, I don't know if anyone around your area does it, but there's a riding school here that does a sort of shared ownership/loan arrangement, where she pairs up people with a suitable horse/pony and they then share with someone else, so for part of the week you'd be totally responsible for it, and you would then agree with your sharer for the rest of the time, a sort of horsey timeshare! The advantage is that the child/owner has first-hand experience of caring for the animal, BUT there is always experienced help and advice to hand if needed and its thus an excellent way for a child or novice owner to have a go at horse-ownership to see if its right for them.

You're choosing the hard way, of going it alone (yes OK you have a horsey friend) and that will be tough, especially when your daughter comes home from school tired and has to start catching-in, walking along a dark/unlit road presumably, then mucking out and doing it all in reverse in the morning. Also the pony won't be ridden during the week and - ponies being ponies, might well get out of hand. So you need to bear all this in mind.

If there isn't anyone doing horse-share in your area, I'd be inclined to look around for maybe a smaller livery yard where you can go on assisted livery or working livery (where pony will be used during the week).

Also bear in mind that if you live in a built-up area and put a stable at the bottom of your garden you'll need planning permission; also bear in mind that some neighbours might not like the pong of horse manure and/or pony neighing if its not got company and is unhappy.
 
Caznay said:
We live in a rural village where a few people own ponies that live out most of the time and I am sure will be only too happy to give us tons of advice and help!
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In that case, could you perhaps find a local pony to share for the time being? This is a good way of getting a taste of what horse ownership is like, but with someone more experienced on hand.
 
Steorra said:
In that case, could you perhaps find a local pony to share for the time being? This is a good way of getting a taste of what horse ownership is like, but with someone more experienced on hand.
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That is a good idea - can't think of anything suitable off hand but will look into it.
 
Caznay -

I think your plan of stable in garden and local field with shelter is ideal. you could even consider putting a small gate on the shelter to act as a stable too for the winter? so if its icy etc you can shut the ponies in without needing to take them out on the road? (im guessing you would use the road to get them to ur house).

I think the idea of a livery yard is good for some people but not all - your daughter has lots of company from her sisters who all share the interest and also appears to be very well supported by you and a good instructor as well as other family members. As for riding - I would ask the farmer to ride in the stuble fields after harvest and during the winter months before the fields are ploughed - I do this and all the local farmers are happy as long as u ask first. Since you have a nice local farmer - thats your hay and straw sorted too. I am a non-livery yard horsey owner and when my mum got her first horse she went down the same route as you and coped just fine. I think price wise this is a much more effect option for you too.
 
Ems207 said:
Caznay -

I think your plan of stable in garden and local field with shelter is ideal. you could even consider putting a small gate on the shelter to act as a stable too for the winter? so if its icy etc you can shut the ponies in without needing to take them out on the road? (im guessing you would use the road to get them to ur house).

I think the idea of a livery yard is good for some people but not all - your daughter has lots of company from her sisters who all share the interest and also appears to be very well supported by you and a good instructor as well as other family members. As for riding - I would ask the farmer to ride in the stuble fields after harvest and during the winter months before the fields are ploughed - I do this and all the local farmers are happy as long as u ask first. Since you have a nice local farmer - thats your hay and straw sorted too. I am a non-livery yard horsey owner and when my mum got her first horse she went down the same route as you and coped just fine. I think price wise this is a much more effect option for you too.
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Yay! it is so nice when people say what you want to hear :D seriously though there have been some really thought provoking points on here and all very useful - and after reading the posts about the pony that bolts I am beginning to go off the idea...!

It is really good to know that at least our set up would be OK so it is actually worth looking into.
 
I think its totally do-able. I dont want to disregard what others have said but livery yards also come with major downsides as well as up so they are not every1s cup of T.

As for bolting pony :O - I am sure with your daughters instructors help you can find the ideal first pony who is sane! There is alot of them out there - I would def look at the local pony club for pony ideas, as alot of the time people loan out ponies which one child has out grown but the other hasnt grown into yet or sell them on as out grown completely.
 
Thank you. The size of pony is a bit of an issue as she is 11 and tall but slightly built - she regularly rides two or three ponies who are 13.3 -14.2 - we'd be looking at something around this size and most of the outgrown ponies seem to be 12.2 etc. I know I am a biased mother but she really is a genuinely caring and very conscientious child who regularly helps out with RDA at her yard and the riding teacher asks her to test out new possible ponies so I am as sure as I can be that getting a pony will be one of the best things we could do for her! But I am under no illusions that it wont be very tough at times and all the advice here has been very helpful and stopped me from dreamily searching the Ponies For Sale section!
 
I think it's do-able, but I'd agree get a mobile field shelter for the paddock, that will make it easier all round - we have one with a gate so we can shut pony in there should we need to for any reason. Also agree leading pony back home down an icy road is NOT good - did this for 18m with loan pony that lived in a field 5-10 minutes down the road.

Not sure I'd not allow my 11 year old to go 5-10 minutes down the road to do the ponies on her own, think it's a bit young, things can go wrong like pony stamp on your foot or kick a fly but hit you if not stood in right place - mine can lapse into thinking something silly is a good idea - and I can see our yard area from the kitchen window, but then maybe mine's not a very mature 11 year old!
(last episode of silliness was when some friends dropped by for coffee I'd said no to her & mate riding due to not enough time, and so they were only going to groom but instead sneaked the sane pony off for bareback and hatless -admittedly on leadrope - rides:eek: I was v cross! - mind you said pony is a saint, and I'm sure I came to no harm in the 70s am sure I did similar!)

I would investigate local RS and see if one has a Pony Club Centre for your daughter to join, or if there's a RS has a stable management club - pay a small fee and get taught stable management, do the chores and get a 'free' riding lesson, and allow your daughter to gain some experience that way. Some RS also run 'pony for a day' in the school holidays or weekends, and they'll be taught all about caring for the pony. Would suggest is FAR easier to go into the spring before buying/getting pony than starting now with the bad weather due. Would def get everything ready and the stable management lessons under her belt first, and use the winter to do this. Our loan pony we found out about on the last day of the summer holidays and had to endure a horrid wet winter, not able to ride after school and a slippy or frozen field to ride in. We didn't learn and got the bigger pony and his mate on the 30th November last year : cue wet weather follwed by snow, and she was still supposed to be riding the little one till Christmas - didn't happen!

For the actual pony itself, I'd suggest try to find a loan pony first, one that's just the right size. As a first pony don't go too big for your daughter to grow into, buy/loan just right as almost every pony will test a smaller less experienced rider and it can end in tears (as we discovered pony was quite strong willed - and even then she outgrew it in a year!). But the experience was invaluable. If there are plenty of outgrown 12.2s about, I'd start with one of those perhaps on loan as a 'dipping in the water' to see how you got on - that's what we did effectively with the 11.2 that my also tall 11 year old - now almost 5ft 3 and was only 11 in June - rode, she started with her feet clear of the pony's tummy but we had to admit she was too big a year later as she started tipping poles with her feet (rather than the pony) at 2ft 3 jumps !

As for finding a share (which would be a v good way to start), ask about, and advertise in local tack shop and post office window. I think, given the lack of anyone else in our neck of the woods of a similar age who rides, that if someone came along who could ride already and asked if they could ride our 2nd pony I'd certainly consider it as would be fun for daughter to have someone to ride with.
 
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