tell me about your routines for grass kept ponies please...

[ruckoff]

I'm in the process of trying to convince DH that a pony is doable for us. We rent land 5 mins away from home ( by car) for sheep and have more than enough for a pony as well. DH is self employed in agriculture and visits the land at least once a day, and is there all day sometimes working. Im a SAMH ( possibly returning to work part time next year) to two under 2. The problem is he is a typical farmer and is wise to the (expensive,"field destroying" !) ways of horses.. so im struggling a little. I (and DC's) visit the land regularly and it breaks my heart that we could easily (IMO!) have a pony there. DH is knowledgable about horses, had his own as a kid, so could easily feed, check pony if i was unable to.

Pony would have to live out ( with rugs, shelter etc) but we have buildings for stabling if required. So tell me please how you manage your grass kept ponies (with kids!). How much time do you spend just sorting them out, doing the basics in winter?How much do you spend on hay/feed etc? I am looking at natives from about 13.3 upwards ( DH doesn't know obviously!).

I'm just trying to build my case at the moment, he's not opposed completely and appreciates that if the DC's like horses he's stuffed and there will be ponies, but he just won't agree to me having one, yet :(
sorry this is long and i'm waffling! x

TBH, my grass kept pony doesn't have a routine - he lives out without a shelter, but does have a rug in the coldest weather (but could prob do without).

When we were on total DIY, if it was below freezing at night the water needed doing in the morning, and a lump of hay (10 mins tops), and 30 min at night to do water, hay, check over and rearrange rug.

At this time of year that reduces to a check only.

Dpony needed half a bale a week tops of hay - which is £4 a bale if we collect it. No other feed apart from a bit of chaff to put vitamins in - I'd give him a field lick if he wasn't obsessed with them

Would the pony be kept alone?
They much prefer abit of company being herd animals, so is there a possibility of a friend sharing the field too. Although sheep are better than nothing. But something to think about.

I have had a New forest who lived out. Checked twice daily.
In the winter,(twice a aday) chuck hay over , check water, pony, rugs, fencing etc. Possibly can be done in 15-20 mins depending on how far away field is from hay storage etc and how well you have your routine sorted.

As for kids, they make everything harder work. It will take longer, kids will want to stay and play with the ice mud etc. But it can be done!

As for the cost of hay. It varies year by year and who you get it from. You could be spending up to £7 a bale but if you look around then it should come in cheaper than that. A 13.3 pony would probably get by on 2-3 bales a week, again depending on the weather and grass etc.

Unless the pony is ridden I find that most native type manage compleatly fine without any hard feed, but sometimes it is nice to give them a bit extra. That's up to you.

Feet will need doing every 8-12 weeks, I would compleatly recommend bare foot. Cheaper and better for said pony. My farrier used to charge £15 for a trim.

• should say 1-2 bales of hay a week

Thank you ladies, I've no idea what the cost of hay is these days!
Pony will have company hopefully, a shetland/ section A type to be ridden by DC's/ DN's occasionally. Only problem is DH will have to reduce the amount of sheep he has to accommodate any ponies (conservation scheme which stipulates the amount of grazing animals allowed on the land, ponies are allowed though!) So really i want 2 ponies, but am only mentioning one at the moment, I will insist on a companion once he has agreed to pony 1! I know he'll agree as he is secretly horsey and knows a companion would be best.
Land is good, though not too good, and limiting grazing for any potential fatties natives would be straightforward if necessary.Ive been reading about bare foot and am very interested... meh, all i need to do now is convince DH that a pony is a good idea!x

Our new forest lives out with a field shelter. Routine is:
Dd1 goes and checks on him in the morning and probably gives him a tiny hard feed (even though I have told her not to and that he doesn't need it ). He wears a rug and she checks it and changes it if it is soaked. Checks his water. Fusses over him.

We bought 10 bales of hay in November and still have 6 left!

In the holidays she spends most of the day with him riding etc.

When she is at school I check him early evening late afternoon, don't do anything, just go and say hi.

Our paddock is currently divided into two with an electric fence so we are resting the other half.

He really doesn't need either the rugs or the hard feed but it is quite nice for dd1 to have soemthing to do with him. He is 6 and a good doer.

To be honest, he's easy (famous last words...)

Some ponies HATE sheep by the way... I had one that used to chase them :-/

My grandmother had a pony that killed sheep by striking at them - no one believed her until we saw the sod doing it. He was then given a goat to share with and he didn't even try. Assuming he's not a sheep murderer then he would probably manage with just them for company for a while.

A healthy pony can live out quite happily without rugs, extra feed or artificial shelter (subject to age and as long as the field has some decent hedges). My concern would be laminitis or general obesity. Hardy ponies are eating machines, my pony is on permanent restricted grazing as he gets SO fat, he's not laminitic just porky. So you'd need to think about grazing muzzles - no good for me, but I think others have had success - or a small starvation area.

Rugs are handy however for owner convenience!

Dpony is a welsh cross 13hh and lives out all year round.She is rugged in the cold and wet ,mainly for our convenience so she can be ridden.She has hedges and trees,but no shelter and will not be stabled.This year it was late Jan before we had to feed hay,but by the end of last month she was getting through 1 1/2 bales a week.We bought hay straight from the field at £2.80 a bale and loaded and stacked it ourselves .

Three weeks ago we turned her out into a fresh paddock,but only overnight as I don't want her getting fizzy or laminitic.She is 1 field away from our house and I go down in the morning to put her back in the starvation paddock,then down again after school for the dds to ride,then she has her tea whilst I poo pick and she is back into her new paddock overnight.She has no company at the minute,as we can't find a suitable pony,but she has some beast next to her whom she likes and was kept with goats before we bought her.

On the day she isn't ridden,it takes me 5 minutes in the morning,and about 15 minutes at night.The dds are 8 and 6 and if they poo pick it takes a lot longer and they are a bit slapdash,so I usually do it whilst they play in the menage.

My dad is a farmer and doesn't like horses,I've yet to meet a farmer who does.

Mine are out 24/7, no feed, no hay, no rugs, hedges for shelter, feet trimmed by me. They are on the lighter side of FAT at the moment, but the spring grass hasn hit yet, so I'm not worried. A pony can be content with sheep for company, but I have also seen ponies pick up and toss sheep in the air, they aren't always comPatible. Go native. Natives are very easy to feed, just DONT ever feed them!!!

thank you all! i grew up riding native ponies who got fat thrived at altitude, in all weather,on very little on a moutnainside, so im hopeful that if DP ever materialises that he/she will have a similar constitution! DH has had experience of sports horses, hunter types who were kept in and needed more looking after, im trying to get him to see that keeping hardy natives is a different ball game ( as long as they don't get ill/hurt...) but he's still being stubborn....

On the plus side im back riding a friends horse after a 2 year break, and it is brill, this horse is too far away for me to ride more than every couple of weeks, but will do very nicely until i force persuade my husband! there aren't any decent riding schools within 25 miles of us, we live in a very un-horsey area!

we don't have a very set routine either, both out all the time now (one had to live in for a while because of bog burn) pony is neither rugged nor fed and he's still fat, horse has a tiny feed (just to deliver supplements) and rug check/change whenever - after school usually, am trying to spend more time brushing them instead of just getting straight on when I bring them in

daughter spends almost all her time there at weekends, evenings and holidays if she possibly can but we are a bit spoilt because the water is automatic, all winter the farmer kept the haylage rack full and the field is too big to poo pick (plus am scared of the cow who shares it) so gets harrowed as and when - there is little actual work, I do ride round the perimeter every so often to check for escape routes, sometimes they go in the field next door to kick play with the sheep!

love how easy living out is but it was quite nice to do the mucking out/cosy bed thing too for a while :)

Also, if you Place your water trough and gateways strategically, your field shouldn't end up too muddy. It's big horses in shoes that do the most damage. My trough bathtub is in the middle of the field, and the gateways are not in corners, and are away from places where the beasties c

Congregate.

We have nearly 8 acres for our 4 ponies. They go out every day and live out from May to November.

We have two fields. One is divided into half with electric tape - top for Autumn and bottom for Winter. We have to take water up to them daily.

Our "Summer Field" has automatic water trough and oak trees for shade. We tape them off at the bottom (near the the trough) - hardly anything to start with in May - and gradually work our tape line up so the ground gets strip grazed and they don't miss any. In October and early November they basically have the run of that field.

In the Winter we turn out at 7am and get them in around 6pm.

We check them twice every day in the Summer when they are out all the time although they do come in for a bath and stable the night before a show or if the farrier is coming early.

Natives the way to go ..... I have a welsh d and a 1/2 shire . they share fields with another welshie and a dales.

Summer routine is easy peasy really ..... if not riding then we just give a check over, put fly stuff on, give handful of chaff with vits ( they are are on restricted grazing) , move the leccy fence and poo pick . NOt every day but do do tasks like clean out trough/ check fencing etc if got more time.

Winter is the bugbear due to frozen poos , frozen drinking water, hay to be put out, feet need more checking, hard feed done ( two of them getting a bit older) and one has a rug when weather gets real bad. At the worst of the winter had to take water from my house miles away in large containers to the field ( that is however rare lol)

Children do of course slow up the whole process even when they are being "helpful"......

Hay in our area is £4 .50 a bale but i Have heard of friends in east and southern england paying up to £8 a bale when hay was in short supply.

I have a Fell cross (I think with a gypsy cob) who lives out all year. She shares with a friend's Highland who also lives out and DH's Belgian Draft lives in the next field. They're very low maintenance, if I'm short of time I can manage to see to all 3 in about 10 mins. We're at livery though and they poo pick, fill water and give morning haylage when needed so that saves me a bit of time.