pony mad 2 year old!

[LindyLulu]

Ok, daughter is 3 in September and has been having pony rides for the last few weekends.

She collects all pictures of horses in books and puts them together, puts her wellies on and stands at the front door saying "ride pony".

It's very sweet, but I have a feeling this is going to get expensive.

Do you think it would be worth trying to find a pony to share a couple of days a week to teach her on or just stick with pony rides until she's old enough for lessons?
In my experience teaching, the smaller children tend to spend the first 15 minutes of the lesson remembering how to hold the reins or what they did last week.

We are not in the position to be able to buy a pony to teach her on yet, just wondering what anyone else has done in same situation?

 

[tasel]

I think if you are good in teaching her, it would be far cheaper to share than have the lessons...

 

[Brontie]

Personally I would wait until she's old enough to ride. That way she'll be professionally taught, and if she carries on being 'pony mad' for another year, then you know its real and not just a phase. She's much better off learning on a riding school horse than a share horse, especially as you wouldn't be able to try the share horse out yourself. So yes, I'ld wait for another year

 

[Lexie81]

My daughter was exactly the same! At the yard where i kept my horse, there was a lovely little dartmoor mare that was basically an elderley couple's pet, we were really lucky as they told us to use her as much as we wanted and my daughter spent ages brushing her and going for little walks. It was a perfect situation! If you could find a similar scenario it would be lovely but i think they are fairly few and far between...you could put an ad up at your local tack shop/ feed merchant though? When she was 4 she went for lessons at the local riding school, then we got her a pony on loan and now she has lessons at home with her Pony Club instuctor.

 

[Katie__Connie]

Would look for a share

 

[measles]

Younger son was 3yo when we got him his first pony and yes he didn't ride him for long or necessarily every day but he enjoyed the companionship just as much. All made easier as we keep ours at home. The 11.2hh saint that we got him went last week to a new family with a 6mth old little girl, so children do get ponies even younger than your daughter!

 

[kirinsam]

We got a loan pony for my eldest son on his 5th birthday , only trouble was the little one was 18 months at the time and would srceam the place down when you took him off the pony . So we ended up loaning a very elderly shetland as well. The pony ride phase went on for a very long time , every day up the lane and back , he never got bored. But that meant the learning to care for the pony went on for a very long time too , so he has always had a great empathy with horses and ponies and never saw them as riding machines like a lot of the kids we met later on at yards etc. There is plenty of time for your little girl to learn to ride correctly with lessons , for now I would try to find a loan or share that she can love and just let her learn her balance .

 

[YorksG]

I think a share is an ideal solution, a friend of ours has a mini shetland, who is loved and ridden by many local small children, he is earmarked for her imminent grand-dughter to ride. Friend has also put her name down for another friends 14hh, for when the grand-daughter outgrows the shetland and the friends boys outgrow the 14hh.