Who has a sharer?

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EmmyMD

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Once we've moved and settled I was thinking about finding a sharer for my gelding. He is a 17.1hh ex racehorse but a really gentle giant and absolutely bomb proof, completely 10000000% in traffic; you could hack him down the m25, walks past people resurfacing roads, bonfires the lot without a single eyelid being batted. Straight forwards in the school, and on a yard with a floodlit one! Would be happy for someone to have lessons on him/take him to shows etc, only thing is he has a few niggles from racing, so wouldn't be suitable for someone who wanted to jump, he'll pop the odd 2'3" course but wouldn't be useful for much more and i'd probably find myself being a bit funny about someone else jumping him! Do you think i would find someone, and what on earth is a fair price to charge?!

If you have sharers how often do they ride, what are they allow to do and if you don't mind me asking how much do you charge them!
 
I'm sure you will find a loan! (i don't own but have loaned! :))

If your honest in your advert i'm sure you will have no problems and you can ask for references if needed.
From adverts i have been looking at its roughly £10 a day or £35 a week for 2-3 days, and some ask for half of the cost of shoes every 6-8 weeks.

But the final charge and days are up to you, he is your horse so you can make the rules :)

Good luck, not much help but didn't want to 'read and run'
 
No thank you! I was thinking about charging x amount for a few days, and maybe a bit more if they wanted to ride on weekends.

I'm not sure i've never done something like this!
 
I have a sharer for my pony. They are a mother daughter team (kid rides, mum looks after) and they have him 3/4 days a week. He is a competition pony and kid does byrds and competes dressage on him. They have their own transport. I charge them £150pm with no other costs.
 
I've had sharers for both of my horses for many years. The sharer of my old mare has been with us over 16 years, and we often joke that she knows more about her than I do! I've had brilliant sharers on the whole, with just the odd one that has had me tearing my hair out.

I've always charged a flat amount per month, the amount depending on how many days per week they have the horse for. I've never differentiated between weekdays and weekends. If I get the perfect sharer and they can't afford the suggested amount we have always come to some arrangement that suits us both - good sharers are worth their weight in gold and I'd rather have a good sharer for a smaller amount than a bad one that pays the full amount.

I've always encouraged them to treat the horse as their own and do whatever they want to do (obviously within the horse's capability), be that competing, having lessons or just happy hacking.

Always have a contract and always specify a notice period so you aren't left in the lurch at the drop of a hat. Mine pay monthly and have a calender month's notice period. You do have to "let go" slightly in some areas. No-one ever does your horse the way you do but as long as it isn't detrimental to the well being of the horse you do have to learn to bite your lip. You also learn tact and diplomacy so you can correct anything you aren't happy with in a way that doesn't make your sharer feel inadequate or "got at".

My sharers have been amazing over the years, and I couldn't hope to keep my two horses without their help. Good luck.
 
thanks, i've not thought about a contract before! Probably a very important point!
How was finding good sharers? I've not got the time to seal with numpties and tyre kickers!
 
I have a sharer, she does 3 days a week and I charge her £25 /week.

You should be able to find a sharer for yours, lots of people want a happy hacker - I turned a few away as we have all main roads around here and wanted someone who wanted to school and jump.
 
I have a sharer and I charge her £0.00. At the end of the day she is doing me a favour giving me my Wednesday and Thursday back and she is perfect with him and they adore each other.
She is always happy to help out any other day of the week and this afternoon she is clipping him .. well i cannot gush about her enough, she is not only great for him but she has become a great friend as well :D

I do appreciate that I'm very fortunate to have her so make sur you choose wisely and draw up a contract. He sounds very good so I'm sure you wont have any trouble finding one.
 
that sounds like an amazing arrangement! Sadly I have my doubts I'd be that lucky.

I'm keen to find someone but i'm worried about having half the local lunatics show up!
 
When I was looking for a sharer for my old horse i found it very difficult to find someone and most were novice riders. In the end I had to actually had to pay someone to ride him for me. I'm shocked some of you have said your sharers pay as much as they do!i was offering as many days as they wanted for free as they would be doing me a favour!a good sharer isn't that easy to come by.
 
I'm a sharer of a 16.1 ex racer. I am allowed to ride him however much I like and only pay for half his shoes. But I think I'm pretty lucky! He's kept at home so no livery costs and his owner works full time and has another horse so no time.

My first share I rode twice a week and paid £100 a month. He was a schoolmaster type and on DIY livery.
 
I've had sharers on and off for years. Sienna is a pretty fantastic horse and a great schoolmaster but I don't ride her any more apart from using her for the odd lesson, like every couple of months and I hate to see her wasted.
I ask for £80 per calendar month, which covers food & shoes, sharer (loaner really) gets unlimited use, lifts to shows, lessons and as much or little day to day involvement as wanted.
 
There are good sharers out there but as Bluecat said they can be hard to find - if you can find anyone word of mouth that is best. I charge £100 per month for pretty much all the use of one of mine as I concentrate on my youngster and my other one gets a good rider who i trust implicitly to look after him.

Good luck, a good sharer is great for you and your horse
 
don't be afraid to write an edvert and say things like no one under 21, no novice riders, must have BHS 3rd party insurance and sharer will be a trial .... You should scare off a lot with just the insurance request to be honest, lol
 
Sorry for late reply. I found my sharer through word of mouth. I got in contact with PC dressage organisers etc. they are perfect and look after him so well. I do charge them a lot but I'm on a decent yard with good facilities and use of a genuine and safe competition pony that they can take wherever they want too and have only come back with reds so far!
 
I've given up trying to find one! I had one recently who was quite a reasonable rider, but after the novelty wore off after a couple of weeks, was seriously unreliable. I would never know if she was going to go up or not, and she wouldn't tell me if she didn't, as she knew I would be annoyed as the horse wouldn't have been fed or checked. So I ended it with her and found two university students, but again, seriously unreliable. And not experienced enough riders to be left alone with the horses, never mind hack them out. I was actually willing to work with them so they could gain experience but they also kept cancelling - whats the point? I wasn't even charging, I think people take it more seriously if they have to pay.

Its strange, because there is a riding school near here which leases horses monthly to people for about £400 a month ie similar to what full livery costs, but its not your own horse and they still have to comply with riding school rules. Its very popular, so perhaps all the more reliable potential sharers have gone there!

The only decent sharer I had was years ago and she was a teenager!
 
I've had a few sharers over the years. I echo the experience of difficulty finding reliable people, let alone capable.

Current sharer however grew up with ponies and is a very knowledgable, no-fuss person. It's a joy to have her involved, and a couple of extra children riding out on the ponies is good for everyone.

I ask for a monthly contribution of £30. Asking for a DD seems to put off the kind of people who will turn up twice and lose interest. For this, sharer can ride any time, and use the other ponies for their mum /friends. We're quite laid back about what they do. I've yet to have a sharer who'se dared to drive them!

Be very careful not to end up in a situation where you are 'groom' for them - taking tack to meet them, catching the horse for them, showing them how to put a bridle on again and again... My tack is kept at my house, so sharer picks up tack from the house. This means neither is waiting around for the other, can go out independently and if tack is gone, horse isn't available - take another horse.
 
Tack would be on yard. Horse is on DIY but I have a mare too who I'd not put on share as while she is pretty straitforwards 99%of the time the 1% she is not she is horrendous. She's also an ex racehorse but had a very very rough time of it. So my plan was for the only chores the sharer would have to do is go and get horse from field, ride, put back in field, I'd get teir stables/rugs ready etc for night time as I'd have to go down after work any way.

I might get in touch with the local university riding club... My friend from the same area has warned me that the local riding school swarm all over adverts for good horses like that so might have to make a vv strict no under 18s rule as he just isnt a kids horse
 
I have a lovely sharer for my husband's horse. She has been with us just over a year now. She doesn't pay anything but helps out on the days that she rides and will cover the yard if one of us is ill or we are away a day or two. She is a genuinely nice lady who was very honest with us, saying she was more novice than we wanted (she was) but she listens and learns and I really trust her. I think of her as a friend now.

I had a sharer last year for my own horse, a bit like the one Mithras had, very good rider but very flaky. She only came on the day we have a groom so that she wouldn't have to do any jobs. It very much felt like everything was fitting around her life rather than a give and take system. Since then I have looked for another sharer but been faced with a lot of very self centred riders that want all the good times of riding a decent horse that they can compete on but not wanting the fittening work etc that is needed. I've also had a lot of very novice people that thought that they were very experienced, and the horse would have wiped the floor with them. At the moment a friend is riding her when I'm away. Her horse has just had to retire, so until she finds another she is riding mine. Its working really well, I wish she wasn't getting another!

One thing the two good sharers have in common is that they both live within two miles of my yard. Quite a lot of potential sharers lived about 15 miles away, which caused issues in bad weather..
 
I had one last year for about 6 months. She did 3-4 days per week, stable duties on those days and gave me a financial contribution. Horse was 17yo, 17hh ISH, sharer was pretty much allowed to do whatever she wanted bar SJ/XC schooling. She did loads of hacking, some fun rides, took him to DR, and would have hunted him if I still had him. Jumping wise he was only up to really popping the odd log or rail on a fun ride or hunting, but he was still full of beans and I think she really enjoyed him. It was a great arrangement for all concerned I think. Even though my sharer is also a friend, we were business-like about the share and did have a contract in place. Most important thing is just to keep talking to each other - if you don't agree with something, if you want them to change something, and they should be able to discuss things with you too. We would discuss the horse's management, how he was feeling, feed, everything.

It can work really well IME, you just have to find the right person. Not everyone wants a super-duper competition horse, I reckon a fair amount of potential sharers would actually really like a sensible happy hacker who can school as well :)
 
Well, from a sharer perspective your horse sounds lovely and something I would for sure have rung up about when I was looking!

I have just taken on the share of a horse who is:
- Safe to hack out without being a plod. 95% bombproof and when she does spook it isn't unseating
- great to handle on the ground
- I'm allowed to school her to my heart's content (lack of place to school means I will be doing this on hacks)
- I'm allowed to have lessons on her
- If there is space on the lorry I can take her to shows
- Once I get to know her better I may be able to jump her
- 3 days a week for the cost of shoeing (works out about £10 per week)
- I much her out and help out when I am on the yard, however the lady I share from has a groom who puts her to bed at night

The only downside is she is 23... but don't tell her that! She looks and acts like a 10 year old!

As she has been kept fit and has been worked sympathetically throughout her life, this means that she is still in top notch condition, she just needs a slightly longer warm up than a comparatively younger horse as she has slightly stiff hocks for the first 5 mins or so. She used to be a 1.30 speed showjumper, and although there is no way I would jump that height, her owner says that if she is up to it I'm more than welcome to pop her over 80cm every now and again. Hopefully she will be able to teach me a little more about this whole jumping lark ;)
 
i did try to find a sharer for my boy, but she was too nervous and he picked up on it. he didn't even want to be brought in from the field by her! were as normally he is a dope on a rope and allows me to drag him in to ride any time! i realized i was probably too paranoid and protective of him really, and he is fine with less work. i have my mare as well, and i do my friends 2 horses and 2 ponies every afternoon, so i would always have to be up any way. however, there is now a new lady with us with her horse on box rest with PSD who now rides my boy with me on my mare once a week and he has never put a foot wrong, as she is relatively novice but relaxed.
there are a lot of people looking for a share, but agree with other comments that they are often novice especially with the horse care side of things. i think it is a shame riding schools don't teach more stable management as many young girls are out there who are at least capable of basic riding but are not good sharers as cant look after them very well
 
I'm extremely lucky I have a girl riding my horse two times a week

She took her own horse up to Inter 2 level , and was on the European dressage teams etc

She only schools my horse though nothing else. But her input into helping me and my horse is invaluable to me and I feel very lucky.

She normally charges people to ride but she has been really taken by my horse and enjoys riding it for me so does it for that reason her own enjoyment and not for money.

She thinks my horse could get to PSG level so I'm excited to have her on board

I just wanted a hand to excercise my horse I don't need money etc so for me it's a dream come true to have her along side me,
 
EmmyMD said:
Haha that's a good point! I was already planning to say no to teenagers!
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I have simply the best teenager who has been sharing my cob for 2 and half years. Recommended to me by my best friend who is the sharers riding instructor. She rides 2-3 times a week does showing and bit of jumping and general hacking. He loves her and her him. When he had a bruised sole and was lame in the spring, she would come down and brush himand take him for grass. I would let her ride one of my TBs but she wasn't bothered about the riding TBH. Now he has just gone lame again, we suspect arthritis but wont know till the vet comes out. I explained to her he may need retiring and maybe just light hacking if sound so i understand if she stops paying 100 per month. She could still ride others though. She said she would rather part loan/share him and never ride than have any other horse....and that the riding is just the icing on the cake.....I never had anyone else love my boy as much as me I was really touched.... Dont rule out teenagers some are worth their weight in gold....plus remember they have a lot more time and energy than us adults....School over at 3.15 at yard for 3.45 latest and don't have to rush home to cook tea, do shopping, look after kids etc.

I also have an 8 year old than part loans my daughters pony that she just grew out of. Its great because we get to keep a lovely mare who has been with us for a long time and guarantee her future she gets to keep fit and teach another child to ride. Amy competes her most weekends. strange for the pony though to go from jumping 1.10 with my daughter to jumping 1ft 9 with the eight year old. Sharers can be a good idea and maybe I have lucky. the teenager and my younger daughter are now best friends even though there is a year between them and they go to different schools.
 
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