Sharers...again

kc921

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Just thought I would share with you all my experience yesterday when someone came to try my horse for a share.

She turned up, a very nice person, however became cocky and a bit of a know-it-all very quickly. She was explaining her previous riding experiences to me, she's ridden ex-racers, arabs she has lots of experience, etc. so had plenty of knowledge and riding experience!

I got on my boy showed her his 3 paces, got off and asked if she wanted to give him a go. So on she gets and straight away I just knew something was off. She was trotting to the wrong rein (which didn't phase me much as that is easily correctable) but her balance was all off. She then starts a canter on the left rein and very nearly came off of him, she was leaning forward and to the right side in her seat and was not pulling back on the reins to slow him down so he was doing a half gallop.

I called out for her to stop and suggested she sits back in her seat when she goes into a canter, rather than leaning forward into it as it'll only make him go faster. So she tried again on the other rein, completely ignored my advice and off she comes and lands quite hard on her side! Luckily my boy is very gentle so he just stood still while she got out from underneath him. I asked if she was okay and if she wanted to get back on and she said yes she was fine and no to getting back on and started to say it was my boy going to fast "blah, blah" the fault was clearly her own, lack of balance, so I said no to her sharing him.

I seem to be getting alot of people saying they are experienced and can handle my exracer, they try and ride him and then they come off within 10 minutes! He doesn't buck, rear or bolt!

So I was just wondering.... has anyone else had any bad experiences with sharers or potential sharers coming to try their horses for a share/loan? As it seems they all keep coming my way!
 

Pinkvboots

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It's not uncommon I had a friend that had a friend looking for a horse to ride, she kept offering said friend to help me ride so I gave in, so I thought I would get her on the easiest one, she turns up telling me how great she is done this done that, I rode him first he went foot perfect, she gets on can't get him to move so when I say to get him more forward, she starts getting after him bouncing around on his back, reins like washing lines so I say if you get after him shorten your reins, too late he decides his had enough and shoots off throwing a few bucks in, how she stayed on I do not know!
 

ester

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Fwiw on the continent they trot on the other side ;) falling off definitely not a good start though.

I wonder if anyone ever checks out what people say, references video etc? I’d always happily provide video/test sheets/references if asked.
 

kc921

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It's not uncommon I had a friend that had a friend looking for a horse to ride, she kept offering said friend to help me ride so I gave in, so I thought I would get her on the easiest one, she turns up telling me how great she is done this done that, I rode him first he went foot perfect, she gets on can't get him to move so when I say to get him more forward, she starts getting after him bouncing around on his back, reins like washing lines so I say if you get after him shorten your reins, too late he decides his had enough and shoots off throwing a few bucks in, how she stayed on I do not know!

Same with my boy, I rode him first all 3 paces and he was as good as gold, didn't put a hoof wrong!
She gets on him, he is doing everything she asks him to do, even with her balance off and her bouncing around on him!
 

Pinkvboots

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Same with my boy, I rode him first all 3 paces and he was as good as gold, didn't put a hoof wrong!
She gets on him, he is doing everything she asks him to do, even with her balance off and her bouncing around on him!

It was out of character for him to shoot off and buck, but I think he saw an opportunity to let off some steam and took it he was worse as she didn't have hold of him, I have 2 people that help ride one is really experienced the other one is not so much but she copes, when I advertised I got a lot of novices reply so I took the advert down.
 

kc921

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It was out of character for him to shoot off and buck, but I think he saw an opportunity to let off some steam and took it he was worse as she didn't have hold of him, I have 2 people that help ride one is really experienced the other one is not so much but she copes, when I advertised I got a lot of novices reply so I took the advert down.

Same as me I have put in my advert he needs an experienced rider, yet all that seems to turn up is novice's I've just stopped advertising for the moment
 

JennBags

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Sorry but if your horse needs an experienced rider, you're probably going to have to pay someone to exercise him. There are good, experienced riders out there looking to share a horse, but they are few and far between. Most people wanting to share (IME) are either wanting the step up from the riding school or they're looking to return to riding after a break. Anyone who can ride well and is known to be looking for a ride generally have their choice of horses to ride as they'll have people biting their hands off.
 

kc921

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Sorry but if your horse needs an experienced rider, you're probably going to have to pay someone to exercise him. There are good, experienced riders out there looking to share a horse, but they are few and far between. Most people wanting to share (IME) are either wanting the step up from the riding school or they're looking to return to riding after a break. Anyone who can ride well and is known to be looking for a ride generally have their choice of horses to ride as they'll have people biting their hands off.

I've had experienced sharers have him on a share, but due to family reasons or because I have had to move yards they have had to stop sharing him.
I have had a girl who wanted a step up from a riding school, share my horse and she was great, looked after him really well and rode him well.
It just seems more recently complete novices are getting in contact with me! It's why I have now taken down my sharing posts :)
 

Annagain

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My boy is much more difficult to ride in the school than out hacking. If he feels you're not good enough for him, he'll charge off in a really fast trot or just pop into canter and, while he won't get any faster or do anything dangerous, won't stop. So, of course, I'll test a new rider out in the school before taking them out on a hack. I had one girl who couldn't stop him for toffee. She ended up turning him at the fence to stop him. Luckily, he stopped but I couldn't be 100% certain he wouldn't pop the fence and take off across the field. The scariest thing was she didn't see any problem with this and wanted to take him on. I had to be quite firm in saying no before she'd listen, she kept saying it didn't frighten her so she wouldn't be frightened on him out hacking. I ended up saying "Well I would be frightened if you were out on him and I don't want to be!"

The person who shares him now is a much more novicey rider but she's been very aware of her lack of experience and has been very happy to have lessons. A just seemed to take to her straight away and behaved for her in a way he never did for others who tried him - even really good riders!
 

Fred66

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We've had two horses that we have had people come and try. One of which with an unbalanced rider slowed almost to a standstill as it was extremely suspicious of what was going on up top , the other was the complete opposite and got faster and faster (edit:very much like the post above)

It can be quite a fun spectator sport. ;)
 

ihatework

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The problem is that often novices don’t appreciate how novice they are.

You can tell the real novices in the first 30 secs they are on board. That is if you haven’t clocked them before they get to that stage.

Honestly, you should have stopped the viewing immediately you could see they couldn’t ride. Luckily this person wasn’t hurt in their fall
 

kc921

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My boy is much more difficult to ride in the school than out hacking. If he feels you're not good enough for him, he'll charge off in a really fast trot or just pop into canter and, while he won't get any faster or do anything dangerous, won't stop.

Same as my boy, if he thinks you don't know what you're doing/how to ride, he will go straight up into a canter but he does get faster if you don't stop him, he has a soft mouth though, so a half halt will stop him!
 

FestiveFuzz

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I agree with JennBags, the good, experienced riders out there often have their pick of rides for free, that's not to say there won't be someone out there for your horse...they're just harder to find!

As for sharers, I'm naturally cautious of anyone who bigs themselves and their ability up as most competent riders I know tend to do the opposite as they don't want to find themselves on a complete nutjob. With novices it's quite often the case that they don't know what they don't know.
 

Cinnamontoast

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Had a very novice girl turn up: the first time she came, she wore pumps. Apparently she hadn't expected to have to ride. 🤔 We got her sorted with boots and the horse almost immediately took of in canter and she couldn't stop him! Luckily he responds to voice so I stopped him. She hadn't asked for canter, she said. He is very sensitive to the leg. Oddly, I didn't take her on.
 

scruffyponies

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Had the complete opposite yesterday:

Child of about 7 (potential sharer), out with us for the first time. She went on what would normally be a 'step up' kind of a pony, but who is sensible on the lead. It turns out she's had a few lessons and suited the pony very well. She had the poor leader jogging to keep up most of the way (collected canter on the lead rein), and came back beaming.
 

kc921

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My sharer rides better than I do 😁 As well as hacking out we go to clinics, fun rides and camp together and I feel very fortunate that I have such a trustworthy person sharing my ponies.
You're very lucky! This is what I would love to do if I could only find the right sharer!
 

Shay

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There really should be an app to help us "vet" enquirers. You get the same sort of thing when selling as well - I do sometimes wonder if people do it just for a free ride. If there was something like glassdoor or trip advisor for buyers / sharers....
 

CavaloBranco

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I've been lucky, over the years I've had 2 good riders through the local university riding club. The only downside is that they graduate!
Right now I have health issues but my instructor introduced me to a potential sharer and she's been riding for nearly a year. She's perfect! She loves my gelding and has lessons with said instructor, she rides him better than me, but is respectful of the fact that I'm the owner.
Even better, she buys lots of expensive supplements and mucks out! 🙂
 

Lintel

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There really should be an app to help us "vet" enquirers. You get the same sort of thing when selling as well - I do sometimes wonder if people do it just for a free ride. If there was something like glassdoor or trip advisor for buyers / sharers....
I'm sure there was a invention thread about this not long ago!
 

FestiveFuzz

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There really should be an app to help us "vet" enquirers. You get the same sort of thing when selling as well - I do sometimes wonder if people do it just for a free ride. If there was something like glassdoor or trip advisor for buyers / sharers....

I think the trouble is it's all relative. For every rider that exaggerates their ability there'll be an owner with a warped view of their horse either through their own lack of experience, dishonesty or simply not realising their own influence on the horse. When my boy arrived I was told that he was strong to hack and fairly neurotic so much so he was often hacked in draw reins. I on the other hand haven't found him particularly strong and keep a handle on his spookiness as I just laugh at him when he has a moment, and because I don't flap he doesn't either...I often hack him on the buckle and we regularly nanny other horses. In my experience he's a super safe hack, but I know with someone else he might not be the same as he's very much the sort to thrive on a 1 on 1 relationship. There's also those that deem buyers/sharers as timewasters because the horse was 2 hands shorter than advertised, greener than grass or in my personal experience almost went over backwards on the poor rider who was showing her to me and as such I said "thanks but no thanks" without even setting a foot in the stirrup (FWIW she was advertised as a safe schoolmaster). So just like trip advisor it would be hard to ensure the validity of the reviews, with the added difficulty of not knowing the reviewers own experience levels.

The same goes for ability, at 18 I thought I was a great rider as I had an amazing horse who knew her job and kept me out of trouble...it was quite the shock when I got something that wasn't push button. At my old yard people thought I was a good rider as I "sit pretty" and had quiet hands...3 years on a competition yard training with a professional rider has taught me I was mostly a passenger back then (albeit one with a sticky bum). I'm now at a stage of knowing what I don't know, but for years I fell into the trap of thinking I knew a lot more than I did as I'd been riding since a small child and could stay on the naughty ones.
 

Annagain

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I think the trouble is it's all relative. For every rider that exaggerates their ability there'll be an owner with a warped view of their horse either through their own lack of experience, dishonesty or simply not realising their own influence on the horse. When my boy arrived I was told that he was strong to hack and fairly neurotic so much so he was often hacked in draw reins. I on the other hand haven't found him particularly strong and keep a handle on his spookiness as I just laugh at him when he has a moment, and because I don't flap he doesn't either...I often hack him on the buckle and we regularly nanny other horses. In my experience he's a super safe hack, but I know with someone else he might not be the same as he's very much the sort to thrive on a 1 on 1 relationship. There's also those that deem buyers/sharers as timewasters because the horse was 2 hands shorter than advertised, greener than grass or in my personal experience almost went over backwards on the poor rider who was showing her to me and as such I said "thanks but no thanks" without even setting a foot in the stirrup (FWIW she was advertised as a safe schoolmaster). So just like trip advisor it would be hard to ensure the validity of the reviews, with the added difficulty of not knowing the reviewers own experience levels.

The same goes for ability, at 18 I thought I was a great rider as I had an amazing horse who knew her job and kept me out of trouble...it was quite the shock when I got something that wasn't push button. At my old yard people thought I was a good rider as I "sit pretty" and had quiet hands...3 years on a competition yard training with a professional rider has taught me I was mostly a passenger back then (albeit one with a sticky bum). I'm now at a stage of knowing what I don't know, but for years I fell into the trap of thinking I knew a lot more than I did as I'd been riding since a small child and could stay on the naughty ones.

Agree with all of this. From 13-27 I had a nutty but very capable and enthusiastic Section D. I thought I was the bees knees but it was only when he retired from jumping I realised I couldn't actually ride a horse over jumps. I had been a passenger for 12 years. He made all the decisions, did all the work. I would have said I was a very competent jumper and tried horses that were totally unsuitable before I got that wake-up call.

My friend used to tell me how strong her horse was. He was a TB and fast so I assumed he was strong too and was thinking if she can cope with him, she could probably cope with riding A. Then I rode her horse and realised if she thought he was strong there was no way I could ever let her ride A. He was fast if you let him go but he didn't try to go until you asked him to and would stop at the slightest feel on the rein.

I don't consider myself a particularly good or confident rider but when I look at what some riders worry about and what others consider a challenge or see others try to ride A and him royally but benignly take the p**s , I realise I'm probably a lot better than I give myself credit for!
 

Widgeon

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There really should be an app to help us "vet" enquirers. You get the same sort of thing when selling as well - I do sometimes wonder if people do it just for a free ride. If there was something like glassdoor or trip advisor for buyers / sharers....

Someone posted on here recently looking for feedback / advice on exactly that - they'd set up a website and were hoping to run it as the equivalent of a dating site (sorry, I can't think of a better way to put it!) for owners / sharers. I will find the thread and post it here as I thought it sounded like a great idea if they could get it going.

Edited - here it is. https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/share-my-horse-app-in-development.771427/#post-13914333
I don't think you get to see the original wonderful stock photo that had been used on the front page though. It was very Jilly Cooper.
 

Tarragon

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I took a daughter of mine and a friend on a "Fast Hack" at Centre Parcs a few years ago. The criteria was that you had to be able to walk, trot and canter. When we delivered at the stables we were taken into a school and presented with a line of ready to go tacked up ponies. In turn we had to mount our pony and then walk, trot and canter around the school on both reins. We all passed and while out on the ride I chatted away with the ride leader and asked her about the ability test. She said that over the years she can tell if someone is up to the job before they even get on the pony. Something in the way they approach the horses and attempt to mount already gives it away! She then said that even though she knows that they are probably not going to pass she makes them get on and attempt it just so that it hopefully dawns on them that perhaps they cannot backup their claims.
 

Skyscraper

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That's a shame, and really hope it doesn't put you off sharers in general. I have shared for a number of years as I'm not able to have my own. All lovely horses in different situations, found through word of mouth that I have trained on, and improved my riding no end, as well as helping the owners who have been short of time. I have loved them all as if they were my own and, but also learned to remain pragmatic and remember that they are not mine, so I don't tread on owners toes. I have given both financial and work contributions depending on the situation, so maybe that is something worth considering if you try again, as you may attract a more serious and honest sharer if there is a monetary/time commitment. I know other sharers like me, so there must be more out there. Hope you find someone for your horse.
 

Starzaan

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Not with a sharer, but I was a riding instructor for a long time and was continually ASTONISHED by how much people exaggerated their riding ability.

Luckily we always did assessments on the lunge initially and put them on totally reliable horses, but my god. Some of the numpties!

My favourite was a woman who claimed to have ridden all her life before having a break of two years to get married. Accidentally booted the poor horse into canter, and LITERALLY GRABBED THE WALL OF THE INDOOR SCHOOL to save herself. Pulled herself off the side, slid down the wall and landed in a heap. I nearly wet myself trying not to laugh, and I have never seen a horse look more confused.

Absolute nutters.
 

Skyscraper

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Wow!! That must have been quite something to watch.

Funny misconception among some people that riding is 'easy' and once you've sat on a horse a couple of times, off you go!! Quite a few non-horsey friends ask me why I still need training, and that surely I know how to ride by now!
 

D66

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I once watched a riding assessment for an equine college course. The teenager seemed a nice girl, she had been riding and helping out at a stables throughout her teenage years. She tried to get on the wrong side and could barely get the horse to trot.
I think the horse had all the correct buttons in place but wasn’t going to do anything unless they were correctly pressed.
I did wonder what sort of establishment she had been helping at, or whether she had just made it up. :oops:
 
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