Horse mad dd. Help with gifts.

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

Her birthday and Christmas are days apart so I'm looking now at getting stuff in for her. She will be 9 on her birthday.

She loves horses and dogs. She watches Spirit on Netflix on a loop.

I've got the 3 main Spirit characters and their horses and a duvet set of the show.

Anyone able to recommend anything horse themed (or puppies!) That their dc love?

Silly question maybe but does she ride? If not a few lessons? If she does then can think of gift ideas.

Pony?

Playmobil have a few horse stables and farms.

Subscription to a Pony magazine?

Does she read? There are loads of brilliant pony based books, obviously I like the old ones, that I read when I was her age. The Jill series by Ruby Ferguson. My friend Flicka, that sort of thing.

If she rides, does she get chance to groom? If so, her own grooming kit? Nice riding coat, with her name embroidered (I'm out of touch but used to be very popular with girls at the stables I worked at)

Magazine subscription?

At the same age I got dd a sweatshirt with "born to ride, forced to go to school" on it. That was a big hit

Not sure on the intended age rage but growing up I was absolutely obsessed with the Sheltie the Shetland Pony books!

I would love to get her riding lessons. I am considering it. However they are incredibly expensive and im Conscious that it will escalate.

We are low income so funding riding as a hobby for a few years would not be sustainable.

Schleich horses make lovely display pieces for older children as well as being toys.

Day trip tickets to a pony centre? Near us we have a place where you can look at the horses, learn about them and have a ride. Like a sanctuary.

Books are a good idea. Also non-fiction books to learn about horse keeping.

How about a promise to take her to a horsey event. Where are you OP. There may be a competition centre nearby where you could watch cheap or even free and have a treat lunch in a cafe or from a burger van. Watching is tricky at the moment but hopefully things will be more open next summer.

Breyers! They're realistic models of horses, absolutely stunning. I think I topped out at nearly two hundred of them as a kid. I loved them so much.

Can you find a local stables she can go and help at? They often let kids stay and shovel pony poop for the day after the lesson.
Don't know how creative you are but show jumps are easy to make out of cocktail sticks for the top of a birthday cake. You can paint them either with food colouring or actual paint and rest them on starburst sweets to give a reasonably realistic jumping course.

I loved reading the Heartland book series

Have you looked into Pony club? You get a nice starter kit and lessons for us are £12 for 45 mins. Plus you could buy the tie and sweatshirt.

'Adopt a pony' gift from a charity. Get gifts and updates

Pony magazine subscription

There are some great toys out there (mentioned above), may need to try country stores to find them in stock or buy online.

Clothing with horses on and some jodhpurs

Lots of books out there for pony mad readers

Do you have any horsey contacts where she can learn some basics and eventually help out to earn riding? Much cheaper than years of riding lessons and likely to progress faster. Or pony club at a riding school may be a good option.

Our Generation horse riding dolls and horses. They’re expensive, but you could prob find decent second hand ones on eBay or your local FB group.

As a child I was obsessed with horses, and coming from a low income family could never afford lessons but I absolutely loved having horsey stuff for presents. Second hand bridles and bits, grooming brushes, hoof picks, boots, riding hats (obviously not for riding use). You can source lots of this at reasonable price on Ebay or Gumtree.

There also used to be a weekly magazine called Horse Sense you could collect. Is it still about?

It might be worth contacting local stables to see what is available.

I have a horse mad 9yo and we are currently managing some riding lessons, though it is expensive. We are managing by having a fortnightly lesson rather than weekly and my dds share the lesson. Our riding school will let you do a monthly lesson which is obviously cheaper again.

They also offer a pony club which you can book either regularly or as a one off where they do a mixture of riding, learning about horsey things and cleaning stables and brushing the ponies.

In terms of other gifts, she has enjoyed her zoomer show pony - like a robot horse you can teach to do tricks.

I was a horse mad kid too! And my family couldn't afford riding lessons either. I was obsessed with pony/horse magazines. They came with posters I could decorate my room with, facts I could bore my family with and sometimes had free gifts (like hoofpicks, brushes etc -amazing!)

I would have adored a subscription to one of the magazines when I was that age. Check out a couple first if you can to check its the right tone for your dd (eg not horse and hound). There will be plenty aimed at your daughter's age: "pony mad 9 year old" is a big demographic!

A magazine sub is a great idea and I'll look into Pony Club too.

Love the showjump topper idea for her cake!

Google Hiho jewellery - it might be a bit grown up for her now, but may be something to consider for next year?

Breyer model horses! There's a whole (adult) hobby around them too and it's a lovely community so if she grows out of playing with them, she can display them for a while and then grow back into playing with them as an adult

Shleich pony models and Breyer are a great hit in our house, as well as Playmobil. Mine are into making tiny accessories too, loads of help online. I would have thought the smaller models would last longer rather than our generation but depends what she likes. Lots of great books- Clare balding had a series. Sainsbury's sometimes has clothes with horses on from time to time. Magazines and books great too. Beware, I was pony mad and only ever had a couple of lessons a year but ended up working with horses!! You can get some good apps to play at looking after horses too.

I do feel for her that we cannot fully embrace this interest. Previous generations on DHs side were horsey people but that subsided. I wonder if has a genetic predisposition

How many lessons is appropriate? When she swam (pre covid) it was weekly but I think we could do once a month? Or would that be too infrequent.

I think to really progress in riding skills more frequent lessons are better.

However if she enjoys riding for ridings sake, then any lessons are better than none! Even occasional or a one off taster session would be fun. She's unlikely to become an Olympic equestrian on only one lesson a month.... but so what?