Would there be interest for this share/loan?

[TreeDog]

I have a little cob that I'd like to get lightly backed this summer. He leads from my other horse and did a few successful long reining sessions this summer. Hopefully will be straightforward to back, although he can have excitable bouncy moments so needs to be a rider that can cope with this. Unfortunately I am a bit too big for him, he is only about 11.3hh and I am 5'6" and 60kg. I've thought about sending him away, but not sure that's worth it if I don't have someone to ride away once backed. I'm wondering whether to advertise him for share/loan to someone competent and small enough to be involved in backing, with close support from a professional instructor which I would pay for, who can then continue to loan him after backing (hopefully long term). He's only 3 so would only want him ridden 2-3 times a week and mostly hacking, but there would be opportunity to go to a few local shows and maybe to also ride my other bigger horse too. Does this sound like something that I could successfully advertise?

Alternatively I could send away to be backed, and then find someone to loan/part loan once backed. But I worry if there's too long a gap while looking for the right person I become one of those 'looking for someone to bring my horse back into work for me for free' people!

 

[Sanversera]

I'd look for the right person,tell them what you want,ie ride 3times a week at least to get him going nicely then send him away to be backed. Explain that you are looking for long term commitment which will also mean the opportunity to go to competition once the horse is schooled enough. A genuine person willing to get involved would appreciate a genuine talk about it all to recognise commitment I would have thought.

 

[rara007]

Being so small it’ll be a struggle.

 

[maya2008]

I have 11.2hh and 12hh ponies and we backed 3 this year with one in progress currently. I also had sharers when my kids were tiny, so am familiar with the standard of child you tend to get…

My thoughts would be that a child good enough to back and ride away a young pony, is a child who already has their own pony. My son did this for friends from the age of 7/8 after learning the ropes on challenging (but always safe) Shetland. Daughter was also able to do this from a similar age, but she’s not quite feisty enough for all the riding away work. Big brother steps in when she needs help, which works wonders.

In terms of standard of 5-10 year old child to ride an 11.3hh who is looking for a share, I wouldn’t put most of them on a newly backed pony. In my experience, most sharers come from riding schools and need a complete re-education in terms of balance and how to ride more sensitively. The rare unicorn of one who has been riding for years on shares, with knowledgeable parent, would be fine, but nearly impossible to find.

I currently have a variety of ‘backed this year’ ponies and a friend of my daughter’s who’d like to come ride with us. I’d trust nothing that hasn’t been ridden for six months already, and we’re going to need to practice being deliberately unbalanced on the one who has been ridden longer, so he doesn’t have a moment when the friend gets on. I will also pop the friend on after one of my children has ridden first, so pony is tired and more tolerant, until friend has developed more balance.

Sorry I can’t be more positive- pony needs time in a home with competent children before being asked to carry a less experienced sharer. You might have more luck if pony becomes a lead-rein and you do a ton of desensitising work though? Less skill needed for a lead rein pony than off the lead, especially in the early days.

 

[bouncing_ball]

I have 11.2hh and 12hh ponies and we backed 3 this year with one in progress currently. I also had sharers when my kids were tiny, so am familiar with the standard of child you tend to get…

My thoughts would be that a child good enough to back and ride away a young pony, is a child who already has their own pony. My son did this for friends from the age of 7/8 after learning the ropes on challenging (but always safe) Shetland. Daughter was also able to do this from a similar age, but she’s not quite feisty enough for all the riding away work. Big brother steps in when she needs help, which works wonders.

In terms of standard of 5-10 year old child to ride an 11.3hh who is looking for a share, I wouldn’t put most of them on a newly backed pony. In my experience, most sharers come from riding schools and need a complete re-education in terms of balance and how to ride more sensitively. The rare unicorn of one who has been riding for years on shares, with knowledgeable parent, would be fine, but nearly impossible to find.

I currently have a variety of ‘backed this year’ ponies and a friend of my daughter’s who’d like to come ride with us. I’d trust nothing that hasn’t been ridden for six months already, and we’re going to need to practice being deliberately unbalanced on the one who has been ridden longer, so he doesn’t have a moment when the friend gets on. I will also pop the friend on after one of my children has ridden first, so pony is tired and more tolerant, until friend has developed more balance.

Sorry I can’t be more positive- pony needs time in a home with competent children before being asked to carry a less experienced sharer.

11.3hh cob might take a small child older than 10?

 

[maya2008]

11.3hh cob might take a small child older than 10?

I figured if 10 is the max age to start to share you might get 2 years out of a small sharer before they move on, which would be enough time to train sharer to train pony so the next sharer is easy to find. Also bearing in mind that pony is 3 and children get heavier as they get taller.

To be honest though, the younger the better. It is much harder to divest a riding school teenager of their million bad habits than it is to retrain an 8 year old!!!

 

[Abacus]

For these very early days of backing a small pony I wouldn’t use someone I didn’t know, and if you advertise it will be hard to find the right parent/child. You might be lucky. But not many parents want their small child to be cannon fodder for an unknown pony (no insult to yours; I’m sure he’s divine).

With regard to child age: Even though a cob his height might later carry a child up to 10, at his age and immaturity he’ll be weak, so I would consider rider weight carefully.

I did put my son at 5 on a 3 year old 11.1 pony on the lead rein and they grew up together, which is not ideal but he was just a saint of a pony. I was also in total control; my pony, my son (who was and still is gentle and quiet). I wouldn’t want to be responsible for someone else’s child on a young pony. I’d only have one to bring on if I had a suitable child to go with it.

Sorry, this is all negative rather than positive. In your position I’d look for a professional who deals with smaller ponies.

 

[TreeDog]

Thank you for your responses. Lots to think about. I think I'll ask vet what they'd recommend as max weight limit for him as he's solidly built but yes still young and maturing. I don't really know what kids weigh!

My worry with asking a share to commit before sending him away is they could easily change their minds while waiting (bearing on mind he might need to go on a wait list for the right backing yard) and then I'm stuck again.

I think the ideal would be a child who does already have their own pony but perhaps grown out of, and/or who would like the experience of backing a pony but parents can't afford to fund a second pony, or don't want to buy a pony that will be grown out of in a few years. But yes this will be hard to find!

Alternatively I could wait until he's 4 so more mature and capable of carrying more weight to possibly give more options. I could also look at breaking to drive instead but local roads are quite busy which makes this slightly stressful.

 

[Glitterandrainbows]

To be honest I think he would be ok for a young child if the mum is horsey as his size is perfect and most kids just hack behind mum when there riding there pony’s youngsters usually follow pretty well if my kids were older this is 100% be something I’d go for. Good luck finding his little person

 

[Maryann]

I used to weigh around 45 kg with a saddle in my thirties and rode away a very small pony for some friends. I used a felt pad and concentrated on short interesting rides round the village as they eventually wanted to break him to drive. I did look alarmingly large in shop windows but the pony was up for it.

 

[Sanversera]

another area to explore is a riding school, they may be willing to back the pony and keep him for say, a years working livery ,this would get him schooled and accustomed to alsorts for you.

 

[Roxylola]

another area to explore is a riding school, they may be willing to back the pony and keep him for say, a years working livery ,this would get him schooled and accustomed to alsorts for you.

I think they have to be 5 to go on the licence- so 2 years before the pony could earn his keep at all

 

[FinnishLapphund]

...
Alternatively I could wait until he's 4 so more mature and capable of carrying more weight to possibly give more options. I could also look at breaking to drive instead but local roads are quite busy which makes this slightly stressful.

I've never quite understood why not more ponies are broken in to drive, it opens up more alternatives for them with people too large to ride them. It's a pity with the nearby roads being busy, but is there no quieter hours during the day?

By the way, I know what's it called in Swedish, but not in English, when you sort of drive the horse but there's no sulky/wagon, and instead the "driver" follows behind or besides the horse. Isn't that done anymore? Maybe an option for an adult horse interested exercise fanatic.
According to this page in a quite old horse book, different countries used to have different models for how to do it, showing The English model, The Spanish Riding School model, The French model, and The Scandinavian model:

 

[Dexter]

what is the ultimate aim for this pony? That will have a huge bearing on what you do. But asking for a child to produce a pony that isn't there's is a big ask. The ones who offer to do it wont be the ones you'd want doing it

 

[ester]

FL we call it long reining.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

FL we call it long reining.

Thanks, now that you've said it, I remember hearing that before. In direct translation we call it reindriving, and I felt quite certain that you didn't call it that in English.

 

[Palindrome]

I have a little 11hh pony and what I did for backing is give her a bucket feed and pop a child on her back until she got used to having someone on her back. We then went for little hacks on the lead rein and I'd have some pony nuts in my pockets and give the pony some to distract her if there was something spooky or just as a reward for walking nicely/trotting next to me.
She was a bit scared of people at first as hadn't been handled much and I think this technique helped her to see the backing process more positively.
It has taken a few years for the pony to get more confident and I would now trust her off the lead rein as a 7 years old. She went to a riding school for a year to complement her experience and this helped but at the early stage keeping it simple on the lead rein I think works well. That way you are next to the child and can pick them off the pony if there is a problem.

 

[maya2008]

If you really cannot bear to part with the pony, and want pony to work as an adult rather than just being a field ornament, I would get the pony backed as a lead-rein, having done an actual ton of desensitising work first. So I would get pony used to saddle and bridle, take hacking with a giant Teddy on board, take to in-hand shows to get used to the atmosphere, do all the umbrellas/plastic bags/flapping coats (definitely stick one on the aforementioned Teddy!) etc desensitising. I would also walk out in-hand as a lead-rein pony needs to be safe going for hacks with mum/dad as their only companion.

While doing this, you can ask around for a small rider - maybe even meet one on those walks and get chatting to the parent. Small kids are easy to whip off if something goes wrong, which is handy. You’d need an experienced parent who cannot afford a pony for their child, and I cannot imagine anyone would actually pay to put their child on someone else’s newly backed pony, so initial share for the first year or so will probably need to be free for the family.

Lead-rein in the hands of a competent parent is a much lower skill set in terms of child, as the parent is in charge. That will stop your pony ending up with horrendous bad habits and pony/child getting hurt as a result.

You may also be able to find an older competent child you could pay in some way (sweets even) to come and school pony off the lead a couple of times a week.

Think of it as if you had put up an adult advert - sharer wanted to back my horse (or potentially to ride once returned from backing). Contribution and chores required. Would YOU offer to school someone else’s horse and pay for the privilege? Surely they’d pay you, right?

The initial backing is the easy part, it’s the next year that’s hard. A jockey just needs good balance and kind hands to back a pony. To produce one? A ton of knowledge, talent and a hefty dose of perseverance.

 

[Winters100]

In the 1980s we kept ponies at a livery yard run by a well known producer. During school holidays I was there all day while my parents worked, and all the children in this situation were given an extra pony or two to ride and care for. Mostly newly backed, but when we got a bit older we would back them ourselves. It was 100% supervised, mostly ponies sent by clients, but some of YO's own who would be sold on. I believe that this resulted in lots of well rounded ponies who had seen and done it all, because we were encouraged to show them everything - flapping coats, water fights in their paddocks, gymkhana games for ponies destined for the show ring, taking anything reluctant to load in and out of the lorry until it became an every day event for them. Any spare space on the lorry when we went to shows was filled with a youngster or two and they were ridden round noisy showgrounds with the express instruction to see as many balloons / flags / generally scary things as possible, I know that times have changed, but maybe there is somewhere similar who could take the pony for a while and expose it to children?

Edited to add that reading this it sounds like no schooling took place, it did, and on a daily basis, but desensitising the ponies to things that they might be exposed to later on was also a big part of their education.

 

[ycbm]

The majority of ponies of that size have always been backed, mostly successfully, by throwing a bold child onto its back, irrespective of the actual riding finesse of said child. The majority of newly broken ponies sourced from travellers/dealers/Ireland? will still, I think, be backed that way. Do we just worry too much these days?
.

 

[TreeDog]

I've never quite understood why not more ponies are broken in to drive, it opens up more alternatives for them with people too large to ride them. It's a pity with the nearby roads being busy, but is there no quieter hours during the day?

Unfortunately not really, except on long summer evenings after about 7/8pm and early sunday mornings, and these are times I would struggle to find someone to come out with me. So not really feasible for regular work. I drove my bigger horse in covid times and really enjoyed it, but once traffic picked back up it was less enjoyable and more stressful until sadly I gave up.

I definitely don't want to part with him, the main reason for finding him a job is to assist with weight control, and to make him 'useful' if ever I did have to sell. He really enjoys going out in hand both in company or on our own, or led from my horse, unfortunately my horse doesn't enjoy it and finds him quite annoying so don't like doing this too much!

Think of it as if you had put up an adult advert - sharer wanted to back my horse (or potentially to ride once returned from backing). Contribution and chores required. Would YOU offer to school someone else’s horse and pay for the privilege? Surely they’d pay you, right?

I have done some desensitisation, more showing him things and seeing how he reacts which so far has been not very much. He's also very used to kids running around. However I think the above is a bit pointless to say as that's not what I'd be advertising - I would not be charging for the share and as said before I'd be paying for private lessons to help with backing (and ongoing riding) which surely has some value to the rider as well as the pony.

I think once I get advice on weight limit for him I will put up some fairly open adverts with an option that he could possibly go to a backing yard to do the initial 'sitting on', so parents can have some confidence their child isn't just being used as a test pilot and see what response I get. If I don't get any suitable interest I guess I will need to take up running again (typed as I eat christmas pudding) so I can take him running with me a few times a week to keep us both in shape...

 

[Anna Clara]

Instead of sending him away could you pay a small freelance rider once a week? That way they could keep him going while having a sharer? I ride for someone who has done similar with their 12hh pony (just never found the child sharer ha!). He was broken by and gets ridden by me once a week or so and does other bits of walking out in hand and taking out some lead rein children in between times, as well as some inhand showing/clinics with his owner. That way you won't have the break you are worried about and there will be someone to keep him ticking over.