Should I sell him?

[CharlotteBeth]

I am 17 and going to uni next year, hopefully near to my house but I will be living in the halls, though I will be able to get a bus easily from halls to stables.
anyway, I have a 14.1hh Irish cob, he has a habit of refusing jumps, is extremely lazy and will not work in an outline and finds it difficult to bend.
I am thinking of selling him in the spring and buying a bigger, more forward going and that I can have more fun with.
So should I sell him and buy a new one or should I sell him and wait till after uni to buy a new one (which I really dont want to do, as I want to have a horse) or should I keep him and buy a new one after uni?
x

I have thought about a sharer, and have also thought about loaning some others, there are a couple at the stables who would be happy to let me loan, although I hate knowing that the horse isnt yours. I have shared before and it drove me insane!!

 

[b0508]

Have you not thought about getting a sharer for your boy to help you while your at uni?Or selling your boy and trying to find a horse on loan or to share so you don't have all the responsibility while your at Uni. Then when you finish Uni you can buy one of your own again which by then you may have more time available for a horse.

 

[DiamondSR]

I would say the opposite and make the most of the extra time you have when at Uni to keep riding, once you graduate and get a full time job it gets a lot more difficult to find the time to ride!

I kept riding while at Uni and had to get the bus to the stables as well. They weren't my horses though so I didn't have the full responsiblity which did help.

Agree re the sharing idea though.

 

[Achinghips]

When you're at Uni, you won't have time to look after him and it'll effect your new social life, and it won't be much fun catching buses everywhere in the first term when the weather's crap.
My advice is to sell him to someone who has the resources to be more invested in him, leave it 2 terms to establish a good friendship network at Uni (it's a lonely life in years 2 and 3 if you don't put in the initial work doing that) and if you still want a horse after that, get something more challenging to maintain your interest.

 

[Kenzo]

Your a uni, your going to be busy, sounds like you either you don't now or certainly won't when your at uni in putting the time in to sort out existing problems with your cob, so what is the point of buying something you can jump and have more fun with (take it you mean competing) if your limited time wise, keep a horse fit and good enough to compete takes a lot of time and dedication, basically what I'm saying is it might work better in your favour to put him out on loan or have a sharer, this way you still have a horse, they can put lots of work in and hopefully school any problems out of him so when you do go to ride him, hopefully then you can have more fun with him, plus he's getting lots of attention and it will ease things for you financially.

....everyone is a winner.

Then if you still find that a) you have more time and want to compete something else you can sell him and possibly to the person who's had him on loan/share or you may find that actually you don't want to sell him anymore.

 

[superpony]

It depends on how much time you want to spend at uni and especially how much time socialising.

I am at uni about an hour away from home and have 2 horses. I am very lucky in that my parents do them in the week. But i come home every friday night and go back monday night or tuesday morning (i have no lectures on mondays). I also come back some wednesdays as i have no lectures then.

I miss out on quite abit of the socialising but i wouldn't have it any other way, theres no way i could cope without them.

I think it depends how much you want to keep riding compared to how much time you want to spend at uni. Also remember if you do sell your cob and buy something bigger, they generally cost more money to keep.

 

[Roody2]

Don't under estimate how busy uni is - as Rotchana, KK and starlight have already pointed out, uni will take up a lot of your time.

If you want to keep riding I would keep hold of the horse you have as you sound like you won't be too upset to part with him - that way, if uni starts to swamp you, you can sell/loan him and free up some time. Rather that than get a new horse, fall in love with it and be heartbroken if you do need to make more time for uni later on.