Selling a Pony

RDyche1971 said:
Thank you I may

Can I ask his name as my friend uses a fantastic farrier who trains army farriers, but when I tried to get him to come out he was too busy & refereed someone else who is ok but I would say doesn’t have the knowledge as he’s a lot younger, I’m going to ask him next time he comes what his thoughts are.
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will pm you but although you are not a million miles from me, I doubt he will travel that far. I know why my farrier chose to use heart bars on my horse (he discussed it with me and gave me another option) and it was only ever a short term solution, there was no underlying problem but he had been turned away for the best part of a year and his feet had been badly neglected. I think your best course of action is to find out from your farrier why your pony needs heart bar shoes and take it from there. I would also be very suspicious of a horse wearing them so it is in your interest to get them removed if they are not really required now.
 
I was not made aware that the heart bar shoes should have only been used short term by the vet or the 2 farriers I have used over the last 2 years, I am now worried sick that I have done permanent damage to his feet, I am not overly experienced with ponies, I had them growing up, I did the riding, mucking out etc & it was quite simple, can’t ever remember any of my ponies even being lame!!! I should of done my homework but if you can’t trust a vet to tell you then who do you trust!! We may now be stuck with him for life now!!
 
I'm another that would be put off by heart bars I would definitely change farrier. Re: the young farrier you mentioned I would not be put off by this especially if recommended by good farrier. I've been using mine for 10 years now since newly qualified and he is excellent. There is currently no requirement for ongoing training for farriers and a lot of the older ones I come across are pretty disillusioned and with bad backs and are going through the motions a bit. At least someone young has had their work recently assessed and are up to date on the latest thinking mine has always done farriery competitions for instance. Of course age brings experience and there are good older remedial farriers about but I tend to find they have employee's or apprentice's to do the grunt work and get thrown about by youngsters and they just do the interesting stuff!
Aside from that he looks a lovely pony and nothing else you've said would put me off he sounds like a typical young green Welsh D (they're all a bit nuts but lots of people love them for it). If your daughters not scared she def needs to get on him if she can show him even in walk and trot for 5 mins so doesn't need to be fit it will drastically improve his saleability.
 
RDyche1971 said:
We may now be stuck with him for life now!!
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Don't beat yourself up, I don't think that he is impossible to sell. To me your choice is to either sell now for a nominal sum to someone who is knowledgeable and wants a project, or do a bit more work and get him ready for sale.

If there is a really good farrier who is too far to come to you then maybe consider transporting the pony to him. And as soon as you can, get the pony back in work - since he has only been out of work since December this should not be a terrible task. Your daughter really needs to help with this - it should not be totally up to you. I also understand her losing interest, but she has to see that if you have animals you don't have the option of just walking away when you don't feel like dealing with them.

When the pony is back in work you may be able to find a local teenager who would welcome the opportunity to ride him for a little while - keep him going while you deal with the hooves.

Good luck, and don't be too hard on yourself.
 
I needed a FAB farrier in 2003, we were competing eventing and she had 7 types of filler in her feet from different attempts to keep her shoes on. All the farriers were registered and experienced, but her feet were awful.

Took her on a box ride to a highly respected one. She had shoes made from scratch for her, came out of that forge with NO filler in her feet and had no issues from then on.

I have transported all my horses to him from then on. 1 1/2 hours each way. Worth it. Feet that are great.

I would find out who is a great farrier and transport to them. That way they can make shoes to the horse's exact needs. For the horse's future, I would also take to a pro yard to get him going again. That way he can have a selection of homes for you to choose somewhere great.

As he is, although it is possible he *could* end up in a great home, it is sadly more likely that he would end up passed around and finish in a bin end dealer. I would spend the money now to try to safeguard his future as a valued riding pony.
 
RDyche1971 said:
I was not made aware that the heart bar shoes should have only been used short term by the vet or the 2 farriers I have used over the last 2 years, I am now worried sick that I have done permanent damage to his feet, I am not overly experienced with ponies, I had them growing up, I did the riding, mucking out etc & it was quite simple, can’t ever remember any of my ponies even being lame!!! I should of done my homework but if you can’t trust a vet to tell you then who do you trust!! We may now be stuck with him for life now!!
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It's totally not your fault a lot of vets will go with the option of heart bars it's in my view a quick fix for many hoof problems but they basically cover up what is really wrong and often only work for a while, I would get a different farrier to look at his feet and see if you can have him shod differently. Please don't feel bad you can only take the advice from your vet and farrier!
 
Heart bars aside he's exactly my type and the sort I like to buy (sorry, I'm not in the market for another!) And probably priced quite reasonably actually given the way horse prices have rocketed lately.
With heart bars on I'd make a nominal offer subject to my vet/farrier reviewing the vet notes and I'd take a gamble.
But I'd suggest there might not be so many people out there happy to do so and a shoeing cycle or two with a different farrier, then a few weeks with a pro or even with your daughter first, just polishing him up and giving him some fitness would stand him in better stead of finding a more suitable long term home.
 
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