XR89
New User
Hey All
New to the forum so be gentle with me! I just wanted to ask a few things as a prospective owner (near future). Basically after a couple of years break I am back into riding, I have ridden since I was 5 (23 now) and I am a confident rider, and I am thinking of buying a horse (jointly with maybe 2 other people) I have never been great at dressage and am not the type of person to enter shows/comps. Simply a horse lover who likes to hack and the occasional jumping lesson. I like challenging horses, not uncontrollable but one that is responsive, strong and fast.
I am a relatively big bloke, just under 6ft 2 and I weigh 85kg , athletic build and quite strong, I play a lot of sports/regular gym, and I think I like horses that have a similar temperament to myself, the other two who would be buying would like similar requirements/are flexible. Judging by my kind of requirements what kind of breed/ the height of the horse would you recommend. I have been told 16.2HH would be the lower end but ideally something over 17HH (I usually prefer larger horses, but ofc I am flexible as its more about how the horse rides.) Having looked at a few adverts I think I would be looking in the 1.5-3k range and ideally a horse no older than 10 years old, ideally in the 6-8 range?
Now I have a few questions regarding costs but first do you think, considering I live in North London, and I would only be able to ride him/her twice a week, and the other two collectively 1-3 times, so 3-5 times in total, is that anywhere near enough exercise for a horse or would I have to employ someone to exercise him/her more often for me? (although I have ridden for a while my equine knowledge is lacking these days.) If the general consensus is that a horse will need a lot more TLC than this I will reconsider for when I own a nice bit of land in the country .
Do you know of any decent livery stables north of London, within either an hour’s drive of hackney, so epping forest/Loughton way ( or further as its about 30 mins to epping), or with decent travel links to it, that is relatively inexpensive (my old stable in epping full livery was £25 a day!, 775 a month which is just nuts, and if that is the norm in the area i dont think it will be viable currently!).
Also lastly, given a horse has no problems, which of course I know is highly unlikely, how much a month are you looking at in terms of Vets bills, extra bits and bobs? Of course there is tac, rugs and so on to consider but that it something I will factor in later.
So main points for the TL;DR people:
- height and breed of horse (for a 6ft 2 male, 85kg)
- viable livery options in aforementioned areas (epping/Loughton way)/cost(P/M), all year turnout would be ideal.
- cost per month for vets bills and other bits. etc
- Is 3-5 times a week enough exercise?
Cheers in advance
New to the forum so be gentle with me! I just wanted to ask a few things as a prospective owner (near future). Basically after a couple of years break I am back into riding, I have ridden since I was 5 (23 now) and I am a confident rider, and I am thinking of buying a horse (jointly with maybe 2 other people) I have never been great at dressage and am not the type of person to enter shows/comps. Simply a horse lover who likes to hack and the occasional jumping lesson. I like challenging horses, not uncontrollable but one that is responsive, strong and fast.
I am a relatively big bloke, just under 6ft 2 and I weigh 85kg , athletic build and quite strong, I play a lot of sports/regular gym, and I think I like horses that have a similar temperament to myself, the other two who would be buying would like similar requirements/are flexible. Judging by my kind of requirements what kind of breed/ the height of the horse would you recommend. I have been told 16.2HH would be the lower end but ideally something over 17HH (I usually prefer larger horses, but ofc I am flexible as its more about how the horse rides.) Having looked at a few adverts I think I would be looking in the 1.5-3k range and ideally a horse no older than 10 years old, ideally in the 6-8 range?
Now I have a few questions regarding costs but first do you think, considering I live in North London, and I would only be able to ride him/her twice a week, and the other two collectively 1-3 times, so 3-5 times in total, is that anywhere near enough exercise for a horse or would I have to employ someone to exercise him/her more often for me? (although I have ridden for a while my equine knowledge is lacking these days.) If the general consensus is that a horse will need a lot more TLC than this I will reconsider for when I own a nice bit of land in the country .
Do you know of any decent livery stables north of London, within either an hour’s drive of hackney, so epping forest/Loughton way ( or further as its about 30 mins to epping), or with decent travel links to it, that is relatively inexpensive (my old stable in epping full livery was £25 a day!, 775 a month which is just nuts, and if that is the norm in the area i dont think it will be viable currently!).
Also lastly, given a horse has no problems, which of course I know is highly unlikely, how much a month are you looking at in terms of Vets bills, extra bits and bobs? Of course there is tac, rugs and so on to consider but that it something I will factor in later.
So main points for the TL;DR people:
- height and breed of horse (for a 6ft 2 male, 85kg)
- viable livery options in aforementioned areas (epping/Loughton way)/cost(P/M), all year turnout would be ideal.
- cost per month for vets bills and other bits. etc
- Is 3-5 times a week enough exercise?
Cheers in advance
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