Would this put you off - Childs pony

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cjt1701

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Went to view a pony today. Daughter fell in love with her BUT - would you buy a pony that had seen little traffic? Small village location no heavy traffic.

Pony 6 years old daughter 14 this month. She has ridden on and off for last 6 years but is extremely nervous. We are also in a village location but also on a bus route.

In all other aspects pony ticks all boxes, nice calm quiet ride.

Would you consider vendors not being able to vouch that pony good in larger traffic a problem?
 
I would query why they felt the need to say it in the first place. Even small villages have tractors, combines, milk trucks etc as well as cars, unless its somewhere really isolated
 
I think a 6 yr old maybe a little too much for a nervous 14 yr old, but that's my personal opinion!
Do you have to do a lot of road work where you are? I would avoid it anyway and spend time with the pony and rider building confidence up. Is there a small confident rider at your yard who could take said pony around the roads?
 
I would find that a problem if your daughter is nervous, even the smallest village has the odd heavy vehicle from time to time and the sellers should have tried to introduce the pony to more traffic before now.
Has it seen tractors or a delivery van, how good was it when you took it out today did you meet any cars?

I live on a fairly quiet lane but take time to go out and traffic proof young ponies, it may mean waiting a while but eventually something comes along, if you are really keen I would go back again and see if you can go and find some traffic to see how it reacts but I would be very wary that the owners have avoided rather that not met any.
 
I think you need to find out from the seller what the pony has been exposed to as people have different versions of heavy traffic, I would classify heavy traffic as town traffic, fast cars and motorbikes, lorries and buses etc.

How would you feel if you did buy the pony and it was nervous about buses at first as it had not seen them before and your daughter was riding it?

Could you ask if the sellers were willing to box the pony to a place where there was buses to see if it was ok?

Obviously the sellers are not going to want to say the pony is good in heavy traffic if they have not tried it themselves even if they think it would be fine.
 
My pony is terrible in large traffic and perfect with normal traffic, she terrified me to the point I wouldn't hack out at all on any horse, be careful confidence is fragile
 
I'd rather have a 16 year old pony than a 6 year old, especially for a nervous rider. The traffic issue would also concern me
 
Totally personal opinion, but for me it would depend on the size of the pony and whether I could ride it (and introduce it to traffic) myself. I wouldn't let a very nervous child out on a youngster in traffic anyway until confidence had increased and the pony was thoroughly assessed, so in that time I'd hope to be able to sort the traffic issue out myself :)
 
Thanks for your replies. I was thinking along the same lines but it's nice to know I wasn't being the mean pessimistic mum that my daughter thinks I am!
 
this takes me back - I used to share a lovely welshie, but could only ride in the field, as he was no good in traffic.

If you are seriously considering this pony, you MUST see it led out in traffic (or similar) - but tbh, i would not take the risk. Simply not worth it, I am so sorry.
 
Just a little update. After voicing my concerns to vendor have now seen pony being ridden in busy village complete with artic tractor units, cars etc - didn't bat an eyelid. Thanks for all your replies and help.
 
shysmum said:
this takes me back - I used to share a lovely welshie, but could only ride in the field, as he was no good in traffic.

If you are seriously considering this pony, you MUST see it led out in traffic (or similar) - but tbh, i would not take the risk. Simply not worth it, I am so sorry.
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Agree with all the above you either do all the things you want to do or you dont know so dont buy.

A very young horse forget the idea of longevity of taking on a young horse it could be heartache in the long term. Some good advice. I would keep looking.
 
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