Would you buy lead rein pony that nips

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Mishymoo

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Hi,
We went to view a pony today for my daughter small 11h pony.
He generally was lovely & great with her inexperienced self bopping around on his back. But when being lead around I noticed he was ‘nipping’ his leader, and he also did it to me once when I lead him around too. He doesn’t actually bite, but just like ‘goes too’ if that makes sense. It’s almost mischievous.

He didn’t do this when my children were grooming him, or when stood in his stable and stroked over the door. The little girl who owned him was also cuddling him and he was tolerant, and calm.

My main question is, would this be a deal breaker for you / put you off.

Is it fixable? Hes 8.
 
I forgot to add owner mentioned this is quite common for small lead rein ponies, is that the case? I’ve never owned a pony this small before.
 
My son had 2 ponies that were lead rein. Neither of them nipped and I've not heard that it's quite common either! I would suspect that the 'inexperienced' person has allowed bad habits to creep in. Not something I would want for a childs pony to be honest. It's fixable but I would wonder what other bad habits pony may have.
 
I did, bought ours from a RS and she was a very cranky mare in the stable on viewing. We’ve had her 4 years and consistent handling, routine and a change of girth (padded leather contour girth) and she’s lovely, anyone can approach her in the stable now and the only thing she grumps about now are doing the front rug straps.
 
😂 my mother would have brought this for me…so we could sell him after teaching him not to nip.

I remember getting a mouthful of welsh pony after she brought a fat Thelwell type that took chunks out of my arm and planted in the show-ring, refusing to move (to my mortification).

Needless to say, 6 months later Marcus the Brute was a well mannered, forward going, sweet pony and was wanted for some other darling jockey.
 
WrongLeg said:
😂 my mother would have brought this for me…so we could sell him after teaching him not to nip.

I remember getting a mouthful of welsh pony after she brought a fat Thelwell type that took chunks out of my arm and planted in the show-ring, refusing to move (to my mortification).

Needless to say, 6 months later Marcus the Brute was a well mannered, forward going, sweet pony and was wanted for some other darling jockey.
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Haha awh I love that. This is what I’m confused with, do I walk away & potentially miss out on what could be a great pony if it wasnt doing this, because ultimately everything else was great. He allowed my kids to bath him with a hose and stood still like a complete saint.
 
Mishymoo said:
He’s 2.5k, which seems to be a good 1k cheaper than anything else I can find for his age/size/breed. It’s a difficult one as he seemed great in all over aspects.
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I would go for it…anything that is safe in all other respects is difficult to find.

For 1K, you could get a lot of help sorting this.

…unless he’s nasty as opposed to badly trained?

I always wait for the horse to look away from me before I hand feed them anything….step back before I give them a bucket.
 
HopOnTrot said:
She ticked all of the boxes ridden and is now a first ridden (daughter was 2 when we got her) and absolutely one of the best kids ponies I’ve ever known (I may be biased 🤣)
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If the pony is perfect in every other sense buy her, my Louis nips sometimes I think its a bit of excitement but I now know when he does it so I move my hand out the way or say nooo😄
 
No. My daughter had one that nipped. All her friends were able to spend ages faffing and plaiting etc where hers would nip so she very quickly stopped wanting to to do anything with her. Previously she would spend ages brushing and fussing round with them.
 
My cousins first pony nipped. It was irritating and to this day I swear he plots ways to annoy me but she loved him and he was an excellent first pony for her. They had a lot of fun together and was a “character building” type 😂
 
My sister's little welsh objected strongly to being led. He was perfectly happy to carry a tiny child and just follow or walk alongside my sister but attach a leading rein and he bit, hard. Didn't stop him being a brilliant lead rein gymkhana pony and he won a lot once he had a more experienced child on top. When my sister did gymkhana with him he reverted to biting, Ride and Run was funny.
A pony that just pretended to bite or just nipped a bit would not worry me as long as it was good with the kids.
 
Mishymoo said:
I forgot to add owner mentioned this is quite common for small lead rein ponies, is that the case? I’ve never owned a pony this small before.
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That's not true, so be very careful to check everything else she told you.
That said it's fixable.
If it was me, I'd go for it. He's cheap enough to pay for a vetting, a good dentist and trainer .
 
Sanversera said:
It wouldn't bother me and I'd buy the pony,BUT it is a concern for you otherwise you wouldn't be asking about it on this forum,so if I were you I wouldn't buy that pony.
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I think this is a lot of sense and is how I feel too. Especially as the pony is good with the riding and the kids faffing. Sounds ideal.

Not saying that you are deficient, at all, just that you have spotted something that concerns you and you have seen the pony whereas we have not.

I 'sounds' like the pony is just expressing an opinion rather than trying to bite. The opinion may be that the lead rein is tickling his chin, or that he is in pain, who knows?
 
Some RDA ponies over the years have nipped the leader, they know the leader can't do a lot about it with a disabled rider on top. They also tend to only do it with particular leaders, usually it's pretty harmless. If everything else about the pony is what you want, I would buy it and train it not to nip the leader but it doesn't sound as if it nips in any other circumstances.
 
I have two/three that nipped, one would take a chunk out of you if you dropped your guard, and I do not care if they are safe ridden. One used to do it out of boredom, nipped judge, one only nipped me but was fine with my daughters, and the snapper just wanted his own space so if you were in range and peed him off there would be a snap. They were all safe ridden and did PC etc.
I think it useful to teach children that they are not toys, and the front end bites and the back end kicks, but the adult is supposed to supervise children at all times. Many of these ponies because they are so good in other ways put up with hours of being stood and messed with by children, and an adult is an acceptable target from their POV.
I would have its teeth checked.
 
It's hard to say without seeing the pony in action. Safe with your children is paramount. My first pony would nip - carefully, never harmed a soul. With little ones, it was when - e.g. - I 'trotted him up' in such a way that I jerked his head around. With too-big kids, he'd turn and hold their leg until they got off again. With adults, I suspect it depended on who he respected! He was 'real', you had to treat him like a living thing, not a toy, and I think that's important to learn. Children were his calling though. If you find one half as good as him, you'll have children who end up like me, hopeless horse addicts, broke and broken half a century later... Hmm. Perhaps don't buy!
 

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Mine was never “ nasty” when she nipped, there was no desire to hurt IMO just a reminder to be gentle, if it was a pony biting, moving back at speed and then swinging their bum at you it would be a red flag. Ours was always more of a doink to indicate her displeasure.

She’s absolutely fine now and just needed gentle consistent handling, I just ignored it and now she’s good as gold.
 
The fact that he was good with the children on the ground would indicate to me that he isn't a bad pony but something is annoying him or sore whilst being ridden so I would be tempted to buy and try and work out what the problem is. That is a good price for a safe child's pony so I would invest in having checks done on tack, teeth and back etc to make him comfortable assuming a vetting is ok. I would definitely vet as although he isn't an expensive pony I would want to avoid heartbreak for your children if there is an unseen problem.
 
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