Visitors for old pony

[Olderyetwilder]

Had a phone call out of the blue on Thursday 'do you have a pony called Ben?' Turns out they owned him 14 years ago, as a 4 year old, and wanted to see how he was. They came over to visit today, lovely reunion for them, he was nicely behaved and munched his way through their mints. I'm glad he was looking really fit and well, be just typical if he'd chosen today to go lame!

They brought loads of photos, so it was lovely to find out more about his younger days. He hasn't changed much!

Twas lovely!

Oh how nice! Did you find out anything interesting?

Aww... I'd love to find out how my favourite ever pony is - although I suspect he's dearly departed now (or else he's 30-odd).

God he was lovely. I still miss him. Is there such a thing as a "Friends Reunited" thing for ponies??

Oh how lovely, I'm glad their search was successful, I suppose you never know if you are going to get bad news. We've never sold a pony so we've never had to track one down but we have done it the other way, trying to find out about their pasts. People are generally very pleased to find out they are still ok and often kindly send photos.
Older it's lovely to fill in some gaps about their pasts isn't it though you say yours hasn't changed much. I couldn't say the same about ours, I'm surprised the ex owner of our first pony even recognised him. He was walking through the yard one day having been visiting on business with the farmer and dpony was tied up. The man stopped dead and said "that's my !" (used his name).
Well, our pony was nearly 20 by then and fleabitten grey, with a pure white mane and tail. When we were shown old photos he was dappled grey with a black mane and tail and black points, like a little rocking horse!

Ahhh,that is lovely Older.I spoke to dpony's 1st registered owners and it was interesting to hear what they had to say.From the sounds of it she was quite naughty in the past,but has obviously mellowed with age. Some of the PC events are held at her 1st owners yard,so when we go to one,I'll pop in the office and see if they want to see her again.

Pixel that is amazing that your pony's old owner recognised him.What a coincidence too.

My old pony is probably long gone-she'd be 43 now.She was an appaloosa and originally been rescued from the meat man at Melton market and reschooled.She was a fabulous games pony but not fond of jumping.

amazing i just had to join having read this, i have been searching for a mare i owned years ago but she has to this point escaped me, i would love to ride her again, the thought of holding her long mane whilst being on her back is amazing. you give hope to those of us that have ridden something that is more than worth a second visit.

Love these stories of people finding their old ponies and current owners getting to hear of their history and younger days!

I had the chance a few months ago to find out what had become of my dearest pony of a lifetime, sadly it was sad news, I knew it in my heart given how old she would have been (in her 30's) but it cut me to actually find out. What was worse was finding out the 3 year old was preparing to break in when I lost the horses (long tale of woe involving a competitive riding career ending ankle break which resulted in 'my' horses being passed on to others to compete and produce as I could no longer uphold the terms of the agreements with owners, a fact that was quite right but was done in such a horrible horrible way, anyway, lets not go there), this lovely mare was going to be my star, so much potential, she was going to boost me up that next level but I found out that not only did she not get the opportunity to show the potential she had or even compete she is also gone now to, such a sad, sad shame.
After having a much less lovely experience of finding out how past ponies are it is lovely to hear some happy stories :)

I wonder if anyone could tell me why somebody would not respond to a current owner seeking information from a previous owner? My current project, a five year old gelding (who is turned away chilling in the field until I get back on my feet from this latest leg break!) came last November, the new owner wrote to the first registered keeper who had sold the pony on a year earlier after breaking, no response has been forth coming. It is not like if they had something bad to say the new owner could come back on them as they didn't sell the pony to them. He is a lovely little chap and it is sad we know so very little about him! I have wondered if it was worth a second try but would that just piss them off? (we are 99.9% sure the contact details are correct).

Oh,that is sad about your lovely mare,roadkillbunny. As for your gelding,if it was me,I'd try again.I found out that none of dpony's owners apart from the 1st ones,ever registered as her owners.They wrote their names in the passport,but never contacted the BHS.Her first owners said that the people they sold her to didn't 'because she could be naughty and they didn't want their name associated with her'.Perhaps the owners of your gelding thought something similar, and that is why they don't want contact.Perhaps if you write saying how much you love him ect,they'll realise that you aren't trying to contact them for the wrong reasons.People are odd.

youngerandwilder,welcome!

Yes do try again. The first time my sister wrote to her pony's breeder she didn't get a reply until months later. They'd been in the middle of moving and her letter had got put away and forgotten until they did a bit more unpacking. You may not have had much luck because people had other things going on at the time and didn't get round to replying.

I've got to have another go at contacting dhorse's last owner to try and find out more about him but I only have her phone number which isn't quite as easy!

We do get contacted about our old ponies and we're always as helpful as possible about their particular quirks etc.

We had a funny chat on Saturday. DD went down to ride her new pony which is at a producers yard. We happened to mention our old LR pony which we still have because DD loves him so much (12 now).

The producers said "oh we used to have him!". Turns out they had him for his (late) breeder and won the Lobster Pot at PUK with him as a 4yo. They went and dug out lots of old photos and, although he was looking very smart, he hasn't changed one bit. DD was absolutely thrilled to be able to talk about what he used to be like as a youngster. Such a coincidence.