Sharer... would I be looking for the non-existent?

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starry23

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I'll try and cut a very long story short. I'm just wondering if the type of sharer I would be looking for actually exists and if any of you have successfully found a sharer in a similar situation.

I have a 14.2 Irish lw cob mare who has ligament damage from an injury last year. Was told I wouldn't ride her again but have kept her barefoot for a year and worked hard and she has done very well. I am now riding her out in walk and building up her fitness with the aim of her being a light hack all going well. She is well behaved and about as bombproof as they come hacking alone or in company. Not a beginners ride but would suit a "competent novice" (imo - someone who is comfortable and well balanced in W,T,C on an easy going horse but would also be able to hack alone). The downsides from the sharers point of view could be that they can only hack (absolutely no schooling as my horse shouldn't be doing constant circles because of her injury) and absolutely no jumping (again because of injury), there may not always be company for hacking although, as mentioned, horse will happily hack alone. We do have access to good hacking and can stay off main roads (only road to navigate would be the farm road which is very quiet) if that is what the rider wants.

I'm thinking about a sharer because, in the winter, I am not sure I'd actually be able to continue hacking her out as it will be dark by the time I get to the yard. I don't suppose it would be the end of the world if she isn't worked often throughout winter but I think it would be good for her to get light work all year round. I'm also not a happy hacker. I don't mind it as part of a weekly schooling routine for a bit of variety and fitness-building but I don't enjoy only hacking!

I would only look for a small contribution to keep (more as a token of commitment) and the sharer could come up as many days as they wanted (although, I'd prefer a minimum of 3 days). Ideally I'd prefer someone who had availability during daylight hours a few days mon-sat (I could ride during the day on sundays so mon-sat is preferable) in winter so they could continue to hack out. No chores except potentially poo-pick the field a day a week in summer and feed hay in field in winter if required. Horse is kept out 24/7 and only lightly rugged in winter so very easy to do. Obviously they would need to be understanding of her injury and capabilities as the chances are she will be limited to light hacking for the rest of her life.

Do sharers who want an easy-going hack and have availability during the day mon-sat exist? All I see are people looking for good all rounders when I have a look.
 
I don't see why not - I see plenty of ads for 'happy hackers' on full loan so can't see why there wouldn't be a similar demand as a share too. Might suit someone who is retired/self employed?
 
MileAMinute said:
I don't see why not - I see plenty of ads for 'happy hackers' on full loan so can't see why there wouldn't be a similar demand as a share too. Might suit someone who is retired/self employed?
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Thanks, good point I didn't think about someone who is retired or self employed, I did think it might suit someone who is part-time or perhaps on shift work. Maybe I'll have more interest than I originally thought! I was worried because, like I said, all the local adverts were all looking for all-rounders/RC horses. Fingers crossed :)
 
would have suited me too although a 14.2 lw cob would probably be a bit small for me, apart from that a calm horse just to hack out on is fine.
 
sounds like the ideal for someone who wants to get back in to riding after young children start school, especially for someone who does not have lots of money spare-would have suited me when my girls first went back to school or even when my youngest started pre-school
 
I am one of those sharers who was looking for a horse just like this. So yes, we do exist. And yes, my daughter starts school in September. :)
 
I have a sensible 14.2 22yr old that gets ridden once a week by a 60 yr old ex-pony club mum!! She said she didn't want anything more than a quiet enjoyable low-stress hack once a week for a bit of 'me time' for herself. She loves my little guy and she's been a star. So yes, go for it!!
 
Don't see why not. I finally found a sharer for mine this week and she wants to hack, mostly. I've told her mine won't be jumping due to arthritic changes and she's happy with that.
 
Initially, I thought absolutely not looking for the impossible, then saw the bit about charging. To my mind, if you found the right person (and I know they exist), I wouldn't expect them to pay. I think if they did it for free, that would be saving you the cost of paying someone to exercise, etc, your horse.

I don't mean this for just the OP, but it usually crosses my mind anytime I see things about sharing. If I was looking for a horse to ride, OP's sounds great - but I've never paid to ride a horse except at a riding school when starting out. Maybe things have changed these days?
 
I think the issue might be that there won't be masses of people who are available to hack in daylight hours during the week in the winter.

If these people are housewives, retired or students then they may not have the spare money to contribute towards the costs.

I think there are plenty of people who enjoy gentle hacking but if you are looking for someone to ride during the daylight in the winter and expecting them to pay especially when the weather is not as nice you will have a limited pool of people to choose from as a lot of people have to work and it gets dark so early.
 
For me personally the hours wouldn't work as I'm full time employed but in terms of a horse going through rehab that wouldn't necessarily bother me. It might take a while to find the right person (probably would for any share!) but I'm sure somebody is out there.
 
Thanks for all the opinions!

I totally understand that asking someone to pay might put people off. I have been bitten in the past by sharers before my horse was injured. She was a great all-rounder but benefited from some extra work as it helped to keep her weight down but I had several people who would say they'd be up on certain days of the week (again I was easy with whatever days they wanted to do) then not turn up and text me at the last minute to say they wouldn't be up because it was raining etc. I don't suppose paying guarantees that a person will be reliable but it does make it feel (to me anyway) that there is a bit more commitment. I do also think that when you advertise a share for free you get people who aren't at all suitable but who think "I'll just go for it... because it is free". Like I said, it would be a token amount (much less than what you would pay at a riding school for one lesson or hack) with unlimited days and to be honest if the right person came along then I would probably waive it if everything was going well. It does seem the done thing now-a-days that people contribute a little towards the keep of the horse in exchange for riding. I think if I was asking for chores to be done then I wouldn't ask for anything but I'd happily still continue the poo-picking/hay-feeding rather than ask sharer to do them (both work on a rota with those sharing the fields so easy to organise that). I'm not looking for someone to rehab my horse for me or to school/train her, she isn't a project that needs any work, I want someone who would just like to get on her and enjoy a hack. I won't advertise or look for a sharer until I'm sure she is coping with work ok and her fitness has improved so a sharer would be able to go out on a reasonable length of hack at a steady pace from the outset.

I suppose the times will be my problem because I know not everyone would be free during the daylight hours in winter but if they aren't then there would be nothing they would be able to do with her as hacking is the only option. People who work during the day wouldn't be able to ride so it would defeat the purpose for them really. I suppose just riding her at the weekends is the other option but then I can do that myself... it would be nice for her to get out a little more than that.
 
I think if you need someone who is 100% reliable and willing to hack out during the week days in all types of weather then you may have to pay someone. It will also depend a bit I suspect on what area you live in - where we are there is a lot of competition for week day sharers so the deals offered have to be good to encourage people to become sharers. Often they want flexibility and the choice not to ride if they weather is not suitable or they are busy and to not need to do any chores.

There are some housewives who share horses during the week at the yard I am on and mainly hack but they would not want to hack out in torrential rain, heavy snow, high winds etc. They don't due chores so if they don't want to come due to bad weather no-one is relying on them to do anything.

Your horse might also suit a retired person looking for a quiet ride as well.

I expect it would be easy to find someone want to hack after work and at the weekends in the summer and whilst it is still light but winter is going to be difficult as it rules out anyone who works normal hours and even kids as it gets dark so early they won't have time to hack after school/work.

Luckily as your horse lives out hopefully that will help with keeping her moving around more.

I think the only thing you can do is put up an advert and see what sort of response you get and maybe ask farriers and others professionals to also put the word round.
 
It could depend on the area.

A couple of yards back I had just that for my tb, lovely lady who hacked him out once a week with her friend who shared another horse on the same yard. Worked part time, had lessons in a riding school but wanted to hack. I charged £50 pcm. My friend didn't charge as her horse was on DIY but the share did the horse on that day. If she cancelled she had to arrange and pay ym to put the horse on full cover.

There 3 other horses on the yard that had sharers (one horse had 2 so that's 4) All hacked daytime in the week. They all paid and some did chores as well.

We had very good hacking though which made a difference and all the horses were pretty reliable.
 
I think you'd be able to find someone. I work 9 - 3 term time only and although in mid winter the ride has to be a quick walk round the block or the adjoining field if it's not too muddy I make up for it at the weekends and school holidays. I don't worry if if can't always ride as long as I can spend time with her. I also pay pretty much half of everything and do all the chores on my days and enjoy the social life. So there are people out there good luck I'd also recommend advertising in local shops, pet shops etc rather than just horsey places.
 
I am an o.a.p. who was a weekday, hack only, novice sharer of an elderly mare retired from school work. I hacked solo W,T and C. till she died. It was bliss.
 
Should be doable. Have been trying to sell one of mine and all I am getting are people who want happy hackers. Unfortunately most of them are twice my weight which is getting awkward but there are plenty of people who just want a horse to enjoy and have a bimble on x
 
I started off by having a pony on share just to hack around on and had no other interest than to do that. Only been having riding lessons and it gave me a lot more horse time. I wanted something safe and reliable to get my confidence up. I'm a nurse and work shifts and started the share in October, so it was great i still got to ride in the mornings before work and straight after an early.

Infact I was looking for a share for ages and only ever found big horses that liked to do fancy things, so I took the opportunity as soon as I could! I'm now full loaning a different pony due to the original being retired, which has been a very new learning curve
 
SO1 said:
I think if you need someone who is 100% reliable and willing to hack out during the week days in all types of weather then you may have to pay someone. It will also depend a bit I suspect on what area you live in - where we are there is a lot of competition for week day sharers so the deals offered have to be good to encourage people to become sharers. Often they want flexibility and the choice not to ride if they weather is not suitable or they are busy and to not need to do any chores.

There are some housewives who share horses during the week at the yard I am on and mainly hack but they would not want to hack out in torrential rain, heavy snow, high winds etc. They don't due chores so if they don't want to come due to bad weather no-one is relying on them to do anything.

Your horse might also suit a retired person looking for a quiet ride as well.

I expect it would be easy to find someone want to hack after work and at the weekends in the summer and whilst it is still light but winter is going to be difficult as it rules out anyone who works normal hours and even kids as it gets dark so early they won't have time to hack after school/work.

Luckily as your horse lives out hopefully that will help with keeping her moving around more.

I think the only thing you can do is put up an advert and see what sort of response you get and maybe ask farriers and others professionals to also put the word round.
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That's the thing I suppose, she doesn't need the exercise, I just think it might be better for her longer term if she got a little more work than I can give her in winter (which is 1, maybe 2 hacks a week). If she doesn't get extra work then it won't be the end of the world which is why I wouldn't look for a rider and pay them. I don't have an issue if the sharer doesn't ride because of the weather but my issue would be that if the sharer said they'd go up on (for example) Monday so I then made a plan to do something on Monday then get a text on Monday morning to say it is raining so "I'm not going to show up at all" which would mean I'd have to reorganise my whole day at the last minute. It isn't so bad as my horse is out and can be checked any time but it happened last time when my horse was stabled overnight, sharer had agreed to go up in the morning so it was decided that we'd leave her in and sharer could turn out after riding. I got the text at 8am and I started work at 9am so had to rush to turn horse out before work (which was never a problem when I knew I was doing it and had given myself time!). That is the only thing I would ask the sharer to do really, a minimum of a feed and a check over on whatever days they agreed to go up. I'd be fine with any days in the week and would be fine with the days changing each week as long as I had a few days notice of what days the sharer wanted that week.

I don't really know what the sharer-market is like round here to be honest but there are a lot of all-rounders popping up for share on FB pages each week, which is why I thought that people would be more interested in them than my happy hacker!

Your right really, I'll just need to advertise and see what happens.

criso said:
It could depend on the area.

A couple of yards back I had just that for my tb, lovely lady who hacked him out once a week with her friend who shared another horse on the same yard. Worked part time, had lessons in a riding school but wanted to hack. I charged £50 pcm. My friend didn't charge as her horse was on DIY but the share did the horse on that day. If she cancelled she had to arrange and pay ym to put the horse on full cover.

There 3 other horses on the yard that had sharers (one horse had 2 so that's 4) All hacked daytime in the week. They all paid and some did chores as well.

We had very good hacking though which made a difference and all the horses were pretty reliable.
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Sounds exactly like what I'd be looking for!

sarahw123 said:
Hi op, where abouts are you?
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My horse is kept in Renfrewshire.
 
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