Any MNers with horses out there?

[Longlegs1972]

and how do you cope?

I'm getting really down cos I never get the time to spend with mine....

So whats the one you ride?

He's an Irish cob, bay roan with a white face, rising 4 and growing like a weed! He's a right scruff at the mo with a long beard and unruly mane but he does live out so I've got an excuse.

Ahh! He sounds ace!! I would so love to have a pony for me and little dd! She's only 19months so bit early I suppose. I hope one day dh changes his mind and says we can. Got a great offer of cheap field etc so we shall see!
Are there any pics of your herd on your profile? I shall go and have a nosey!!

No profile page? Come on Pixel get on the case!

I don't know how to put pics on . I suppose I'll have to find out at some point!

Ok, well just for you Manuka I've found some pics and followed the instructions. They show when I go to 'my mumsnet' but not if you click on my name here so I'm stuck now. I've put them as 'visible to any mumsnetter' so I don't know where I've gone wrong.

Hurrah! done it

Just to let you know that we've started breaking in our palamino connemara mare (will be 4 in April) and she is doing just fine. 2 days after being first leant over she was walking and trotting and after 7 days out on her first hack!

DD (5 next month) is getting on well with her new pony. This time last year we got her a grey dartmoor to replace the lovely sec A mare she'd had since she was 2 but who had got sick, probably due to old age.

The dartmoor did well at shows but was proving too much for her and she wasn't enjoying him at home.

The new Sec a (strawberry roan 7yo) is proving to be fantastic. She is off the leading rein in the school when she has lessons and she has just started going to indoor mini jumping classes with the pony club. These take place every 2 weeks and are half an hour of flat work and half an hour of trotting over pole and going over mini x poles. She is loving mucking him out, feeding him carrots, leading him around the yard etc. It took us about 4 months to find him but worth it. We'd been to look at ponies as far away as welsh borders, Torquay and kent before getting him in North Yorkshire!

Hi Butkin, you've just solved mine and Manuka's mystery! Neither of us could remember who had the dartmoor.
So glad your dd is getting on so well with her new pony, he sounds fantastic and well worth the extensive search.
You are putting me to shame with your connemara who is the same age as my cob. Well, he is hacking out on the roads very nicely but we are taking things slowly due to my lack of nerve. When we get a paddock dry enough to school in it will help us come on a bit I'm sure, but even then we are on a slope so not ideal. He's a quick learner and my instructor says he has wonderful paces for dressage so I will have to get my act together! He is enjoying his work so far which is the main thing.
Ds hasn't really been able to ride as the poor little shetland has been very stiff with all this damp. She is 24 so to be expected but she has been on glucosamine for the last month and looks so much better which is a relief.

Hello!

Lovely pics Pixel - your roan looks wonderful

I have been offered a horse on loan out of the blue! Know very little about her - DH is a vet and one of his clients on Monday came in with a dog, and they were chatting. Turns out his wife has a bad hip so can't ride, and there is an 11yo mare, 16.1, 'very nice' apparently just standing about. Anyway the wife phoned me up in the evening, and said I should think about it... my danish isn't that good yet so I couldn't ask that many questions - will just have to wait til I see her.

Sick though at the mo with strep throat & feeling lousy, so it won't be this week

Fingers crossed it works out Hope everyone has coped with the storms... they have just come over the North Sea to us.

T
xx

You lot - who looks after your kids ( if they are little) while you are with your horses.??

I have had my horse, Babe (ironic, I know) since she was 3 - broke her in myself - she's 16 now!

I decided to put my girlie out on loan about 5 years ago when I was preggers with DS1 cos I just knew my DH woudn't stand for being left in charge - crap though that sounds. I also have three teenage step kids and he humphed and grumped about me going up the yard when THEY came to stay. He always hated me spending time up the yard and so as I now work only part time there is no way I can afford to keep the horse without cash help and there's no way DH will chip in! She's too fine coated to live out and has an allergy which makes her come out in hard bumps in summer if she is out too long. (I had her allergy tested years ago and she is basically allergic to being a horse - grass, dust, flies etc) So grass livery is a non starter!

My Mum looks after my 2 DSs the days I work so I don't feel I can ask her to look after them again while I ride. Also as I work I feel I shouldn't take any more time off away from the kids but spend tim e with them. I hope that when they are older and I can work a bit more and they are sensible enough to take along to a yard I could maybe get my mare back at a much cheaper yard (no school?) and perhaps a little pony on grass livery then we could do something after school.

It's really hard - I SO miss my horse and riding - I feel so down when I see folks out hacking around here - I would love to be doing that too!

To make matters worse - the woman who has her on loan is also preggers - about to have her first any second now and she is going to be able to keep her on full livery at a seriously expensive yard with every facility you can name!

GRRRRRR - The injustice of it!

Oh Marge, poor you! I had my pony already when I met dh so he knew from the start what he was in for and luckily for me he's pretty easy going. I think he also realises that looking after a severely autistic child is pretty stressful and I need something to get me out of the house and help me relax, otherwise I would be a basket case by now (some would say I already am ).
It's not easy with the dcs and I do struggle in the school holidays, especially with ds being disabled, but that's one reason (the other is financial) why nowadays I share a horse with my mum rather than having one each. As my sister has her pony in the field too there is usually one of us who can manage to get there. They are fed, checked over and the field cleaned every day without fail but as they live out with shelters the workload is considerably reduced from the 'old days' when we had them all clipped and stabled. As I work from home I can easily manage to nip over during the day when the children are at school and my mum and sister tend to cover weekends between them as that's when I'm a bit stuck. It works out ok. The only problem we have is getting time to do things with the ponies together!

Tickle, sorry you're not feeling well but the horse sounds pretty exciting!
We're still having storms here, today has been dreadful. The roof on our house is leaking and I have yet to break the news to the landlord that the fence he put up last summer (grudgingly) has started to come down already in the wind. Everything is madly flying around the garden!
We've had a big tree down in the field, luckily without casualties and all the horses are pretty spooky. One of them crashed through about 4 fences the other night and ended up in someone's garden.

Great photos Pixel!! Very impressed! They all look fab horses!
How come yours is the only name that appears as purple??!
Marge - thats a really shitty situation. What are you going to do? Is there anything you can do to change things??

Where is it purple?

Thanks -I don't know what I am going to do other than hope to God I will be able to afford something cheap once DS2 is in Reception. My bro and sister-in-law live right near the yard where my horse now lives. I sometimes leave DS2 with sis-in-law while I pop in for a hug and a kiss with my horse. If only I could afford to share her again with the other lady it would be OK - but I can't! I know the lasy who loans her loves her to bits and really wants to keep her - but she hasn;t had her baby yet, and we all know how your priorities change when that happens.

My horse is 16 now - I just hope in a couple of years she will still be OK to ride as she has had her share of soundness probs! I am imagining she will be pretty much only up for happy hacking by then. I would love to get back into some riding club competitions though!

At least I haven't sold her - I would hate to think of her ending up somewhere horrid with horrible people - especially as she gets older. This way I know for sure once she is no longer rideable I will have her back - even if it's only in field with a shelter.

Hi Marge, if the lady who has your horse decides after she's had her baby that she doesn't have as much spare time as she thought she would , would you be able to afford to share her if she agreed to move to a cheaper place?
As you say, at least you haven't sold her and you can visit her when you want to so you know she is ok. And 16 isn't old nowadays!

Thanks Pixel, feeling better now, but still haven't had time to see that horse Interesting article on older horses.

Marge - maybe once the lady has had her baby, she will appreciate you riding occasionally for free, & mucking out etc, cos she won't have as much time. If she still has the money, then it could work out for both of you On the plus side, Babe has someone loaning her who obviously loves her to bits, so at least she is in the best position

Thanks Pixel,
I know 16 isn't really that old, but she has had some problems with her forefeet and her hocks ( steroid injections) and her top-line has VANISHED in the last 5 years - especially quickly in the last 2. The loaner woman is a big lady and if I admit it probably a little too heavy for Babe. I went to see her after she had had her a little while and had to ask her to up her hard feeds substantially as from what she was telling me she was being fed and the work she as doing it was no wonder she had lost so much weight. loads of aerobic work - they have a canter track - and not enough work in the school. I asked her to change the way she worked her and up the hard feed and she is doing better now.

She has gone in the last 5 years from looking superb - all muscly in all the right places - going quite nicely on the flat (70%s plus - in dressage - only novice level riding club stuff) - and jumping really well to what looks like an overworked riding school nag. I know it's the quality of work she has been getting. She has had a few loaners to start with, actually. All left through no fault of Babe's - one broke a leg - one got divorced - one bought her own horse - To be honest she is not an easy ride. Not nasty or dangerous in any way but you need to get the nack of her to get her working correctly. (Typical chestnut mare - will do the work but only if you work harder!!) so people have not managed to push the right buttons and so she hasn't had the work to keep her in shape! The woman who has her now has been the best with her so far. She can get her round but she has lost her sparkle and leans on the bit and looks a bit 'flat'. Ooooh listen to me moan on!

I had her 3 years before I met DH so he too supposedly understood the 'deal' but the sulking doesn't half get to you!!!

How frustrating for you, I bet you have to bite your tongue a lot! This loaning lark can be a bit of a minefield can't it? Still, it's good that you were able to make recommendations about feed etc and the lady actually listened to you and did as you asked. A lot of people would probably have nodded and smiled and then carried on going their own sweet way, oblivious to your gnashing of teeth!

Ah - can see I cross posted there Marge - not such a dream loan after all! Is there no hobby that DH is itching to do - so you can get lots of brownie points by letting him do that? Or teach him to ride LOL

Hi all, have just found this thread and had to join it! I am mum to 2 dd's aged 5 and 2. I have the most gorgeous ID x TB 6 year old gelding, a welsh 17 year old pony, a 10 year od dartmoor and a 7 year old miniature shetland. I absolutely love it!

My eldest daughter is pony mad and rides whenever she gets the chance, she joined pony club last year and loves it - her pony is the welsh one. I am very lucky and have the horses at home, so I just have to walk out of the back door to muck out and I can see them when they are turned out from my kitchen window.

I wish I could ride more, but I always get 2 days when the youngest is at nursery and have got a friend with a school so I take my horse over to her and she entertains my daughter with her son while I ride, which is perfect! My dh is not terribly understanding about my riding, but he is a farmer and most farmers I have met seem to hate horses as they cost money and don't make any.

Look forward to getting to know you all.

Waves Can I join in? Two beasties. 26 year old ID x TB, and 6 year old Welsh Section A that is a bit of a field ornament at the moment. (Oh the guilt), but at least my old girl enjoys being a field ornament.

Hi toratora and Reamhar!
Always good to meet more horsey folk. There seem to be quite a few of us here who pop in from time to time.

Hello Toratora and Reamhar, nice to meet you .
I hope everyone has been making the most of this fantastic weather. I abandoned dh and the dcs and went out for a ride with my sister, it was lovely, a real spring day. The ponies loved it as well as they were complete angels.