Sharing..

S14Tobin

S14Tobin

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Pretty sure there will be other posts on this, but in my ignorance, I can't find any! I've been umming & arring whether to share my lad out partially... he's coming back into work now, but with my OH shifts, working full time myself and 2 young children, riding other than once in a blue moon is out of the question! Now I've moved him to his lovely new home I AM managing to lunge him every day, which is an incredible achievement, but I can't ride if I have the children there for obv reasons! So... been semi thinking about sharing him, would have to be someone older rather than younger, doesn't need to be an olympic standard rider, but would need to be confident handling etc etc.. maybe riding 4, 5 days a week.. I rather enjoy caring for him, so I don't mind if they want to do more riding than yard chores, but some would be nice! I've absolutely no idea where to start, do I ask for a contribution etc? If so, what? I'm lost :-) (not unusual)!!
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Wether or not you for a contribution is up to you! My last share horses i didn't make a contribution towards however, i did go and feed them alot when their owners couldn't. My current share horse i pay £20 a week for which covers his shoes each month. However i'm not expected to do any other "yard chores" as he is kept at the owners home. I also looked into a horse where the owner would work out the cost of keeping the horse each day and then you would pay the amount for however many days you would share the horse.

It depends on what you would want the sharer to do, whether you would want them to do any chores around the yard or not. if they are doing more riding you may ask for a contribution which would cover the costs of shoeing?
 
Place an ad in newrider/horsemart/whatever website is popular in your area & maybe tackshop/riding school/etc.

Should give details of:
- how horse is a all activities sharer may do (jumping/hack alone/handling/etc)
- facilites (school, (off-road) hacking, option to compete)
- which days/how many, if flexible say so
- times yard is open (and you wouldn't mind sharer there, e.g. I sometimes ride quite late after work)

Contribution will depend on all of the above and your location in the country.

In a 'posh' area (where I don't live!) I pay 20/week for 3 days but I do do chores (not many as horsey lives out atm) plus half (<20) for shoes every 6 weeks or so.

Also: rider insurance - not a bad idea to insist on this.

You can always start with a trial period. I visited and had a lesson on my share before we agreed everything. Owner had been a sharer before and recommeded instructor so she thought wd be good idea for us to do a bit w/o her around (but with instructor just in case!). So far, so good!

Re: age of sharer - I'm nearly a decade older than 'my' owner but much less experienced so be open minded! (Although you could always say something like 'would suit larger/calmer rider' or 'quiet adult yard' to put off kids)

One of the reasons I took my (ostensibly 'less suitable') share was the owner - really makes a difference that we get on. You can always not reply to responses to your ad that sound way off what you're after. If you get to the stage of a visit though I think always polite to say 'I don't think you really clicked with horse' or something if you don't like them & don't want to give a reason - but think saying *something* is polite.
 
Ok, thanks... that gives me a few ideas to go on...! I wouldn't expect anyone to go up if they weren't riding, and TBH was expecting / happy to go up as usual every day whether or not someone was planning to ride him which I guess means 90% yard work I would still be doing! I wouldn't be intending on bringing him in to brush down for someone else to ride though - so I guess on days someone else was planning on riding, I would do everything else BUT that! (probably still sneak him in for a quick brush and a fuss though :-) So I guess it would me 90% someone to just ride - he isn't shod, not can I see him ever being, so I guess, if someone wanted, say to ride, 4 or 5 times a week would I be reasonable to ask say £15ish a week? Despite my own limited time to ride, I wouldn't say I would have any restrictions on when they could ride...
 
Thanks all - lesson is def. a good idea - one I wouldn't have thought of until too late. It's a lovely yard, lovely floodlit menage etc etc, but adult, and I'm really not keen on the idea of having a non-adult on my lad - not that most of them aren't better riders than I am, but just personal preference. Would probably want a trial run (with no contributions!) whereby I was there when they were riding, handling etc just so I was confident they were singing from the same songbook so to speak... he's come on leaps and bounds recently, and I would hate to get any of it knocked back! On a lighter note, I lunged him today, and needed a jockey - so volunteered OH (he's 6ft3).... only in walk I hasten to add, but he really is the ultimate non-horsey OH!!!! He's gone to work now, probably not walking very well :-)
 
Trial runs are a good idea. I'm just coming to the end of my trial run with my share horse. My horses owner showed me some hacks during this time, obviously showed me where everything was and generally made sure i was happy with handling horse. It may also be worth writing out some sort of share agreement just so that both you and the sharer know what is expected from you both. My share's owner and i are printing off the BHS loan agreement and changing it around to how we want it.
 
Just as a thought, I actually pay one girl to look after my ponies (she is a good rider and schools/rides them in her spare time), and one pony is ridden by a friends child and they pay half the girls wages for keeping it fit/clean/fed, etc.

I posted this as it seems as if you are quite specific about what you want/how you want it done and money isn't the first criteria so if you can't find the perfect sharer, you may find that splitting the role means that you can have an easier life.

The person who helps out needs the money and is chuffed to have a horse they can ride when they want. The person who borrows the horse has clear definition of their obligations (pay, ride and do the stable duties they have time for) and I get nice, fit exercised horses when I want to ride don't feel guilty if I don't get to ride everyday and I truly love seeing other people enjoy the horses.
 
:-) Maybe also worth a thought... although I don't think I'm being too specific wanting someone who is more interested in riding than the care aspect! I think I would have chewed someone's arm off when i was young (but then again I don't want kids, so maybe you're not far off there :-) ) I certainly don't want him schooling - I guess just someone to enjoy him and ride for pleasure and maybe to improve their riding more than having a specific target! Or maybe I should just let him be a lazy lump with almost zero miles on his little clock - when I added up how many times he's been ridden since I backed him... it's rather scary!!!
 
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