Horse share: sensible for teenage DD?

[OrmIrian]

DD wants a pony. It's not going to happen sadly. She has been taking riding lessons for 6 years and is a competent and confident riders. She has plenty of experience grooming, tacking up and cleaning out etc. We have found 2 horse shares within easy distance of us. She is really keen to contact the owners but I have some concerns. She has never ridden alone - with these two ponies she would have to.

Also can you get public liabilty insurance for minors?

Advice welcomed please!

when you say 'ride alone' do you mean with no adult supervision at all, not even nearby? in the school or hacking?

am sure family membership of bhs provides that cover, check though

I think it depends on the set up tbh and also how old your dd is; if the horse is kept at a livery yard there may be scope to ride out with others, or you could get a bike to go out with her? I'd phone the owners for more information on the set up. I wouldn't dismiss it without more information, a pony share is a great compromise.

Public liability insurance is a must, but as Alameda says, BHS gold membership gives you that

Thankyou.

I will check out BHS gold membership.

As far as I could tell from the ads, it's a lone horse in a private stable. First one, the owner is too elderly to take him out often. In the other too busy. So I guess she'd be riding alone - I could go with her I guess.

i agree it's a fantastic chance - she is yearning for more horse-time. I feel so bad we can't buy her her own so this seems a good compromise.

We have a nice girl part-loaning our outgrown pony. Sometimes we can take her out riding with us, other times her Mum goes out on foot with her and runs . I lost two dress sizes taking gd out hacking before I got my horse. Also, if there's a school/manege or a field she can do a mixture of schooling work/jumping and hacking. Bear in mind though that she'll still need lessons.

Do you ride? If so, could you find two to share so you can ride together?

Erm...no I don't ride. I love horses. Just prefer to love them from ground level

I was thinking of running too - don't have a bike and I am getting back into running again.

Lessons will continue.

I had riders insurances with EandL as a teen. It was about £35 per year and public liability was included.

I really enjoyed part loaning. I think it's a brilliant compromise as many kids/teenagers do not realise what work is involved with having their own. I've seen many a mum up the yard alone in the bad weather because their teen doesn't want to bother in the bad weather, Or because they want to go out with friends instead.

How old is your daughter?

When i started part loaning i was 14 and my mum only let me hack out alone once i was used to the horse. Before that i would go out with one of the older ladies on the yard.

The great thing about a share as well is that if you do find that it's not manageable you can always just give the owner notice and end the arrangement, so if it was me I'd give it a go

She's 13 thequeen.

I am not deadset against at all - I just wanted to know what horse-experienced people thought. I am happy to accompany at least for a while - but no idea what to do if horse bolts/throws her off and gallops off into the wide-blue-yonder! DD tells me that doesn't worry her at all but as I'm the (supposed) grown-up I guess I just want to be reassured that this is a normal thing to do.

Many thank for your responses.

My loaner rarely hacks out alone. Shell ride out while get friends walk or I take her out with my horse. The rest of the time she rides in the school area. Seems to work ok. Itd be worth speaking to the owners and seeing both horses as well. Sounds worthwhile but have you thought what you'd do in winter etc? It's sadly not just fair weather when they need doing.

Definitely a great opportunity for her, but would agree with others that she shouldn't go out hacking alone until she is very well used to the pony and confident on it.
If you're not a rider yourself, it's worth asking her current teacher for advice / to have a look at the ponies with DD.
Also, would DD be able to use her loan in the riding school / to take to competitions? If not, then it would be worth finding a loan where she could do these too. While lovely, it can get a bit boring if all you're doing is hacking out or schooling on your own.

Check your home insurance-we are covered for public liability on ours so didn't need to re insure.Also the Pony Club covers you too.

It sounds a like it could be ideal for her to part loan.As Trebles has said,accompanying a rider sure gets you fit.I walk out hacking with the dds and we cover between 20-30 miles a week and I use that as an excuse to eat more cake.

Good luck-we bought 1 pony and are loaning the other one and at the minute it is working well for us.

Yes definitely take your daughters instructor along to a viewing - They will be able to spot things that you may overlook - Also, And i did this myself as a teenager desperate for her own horse, The instructor will be able to make an unbiased opinion of suitability - I've seen a lot of teenagers ruin their confidence in desperation to make themselves suitable for a pony that just isn't right for them.

If the pony is suitable and a part loan agreement does commence, I would recommend sticking to the school and spending time getting to know the pony from the ground before she hacks, Moving onto supervised hacks and only when you are confident about the hacking available and your daughter ability to hack safely and stay in control of the horse consider letting her go alone, And on agreed routes only.

A share is a great way to have more horsey time and with the right combination everyone wins, the owner gets help, the sharer gets to ride and the horse gets ridden.

There are a couple of things you should keep in mind when viewing: ask as many questions as you can, some people are idiots naive and won't mention obviously dangerous things such as that the horse bucks for Britain until after your DD has been bucked off! Make sure you see the owner ride first, if they give you any excuses be very weary of letting your DD get on. Your DD should firstly get on in a safe environment, e.g. school and if all goes well should return for another ride, e.g. a hack with another safe horse and experienced rider.

When you decide on a horse make sure you have very clear arrangements with the owner. The BHS do a great sample loan agreement which can be adapted to shares and will prompt you to think of various situations and make decisions in advance. Clarify when you can ride, how often, what you can do with the horse, etc. as well as what your duties might be and whether you need to pay for any costs. Also clarify the period of notice for ending the share. A detailed agreement in advance may save you a lot of heartache later on.

As far as I understand it the horse's owner should take out public liability for the animal. The rider should take our personal injury cover. However I may be wrong and the BHS may be able to advise you further.

You need to get proper advice regarding the Public Liability Insurance. You can't make a PL claim against a minor, so if someone tried to claim against your daughter, it would probably revert to you as her responsible adult. (as I have personally discovered) You could possibly take out the BHS membership yourself, as the PL covers any horse you own, handle or are responsible for.
As for E&L, it stands for 'Excuses & Lies'!

I think BoobooStoo is right in her last paragraph. Owner covers for PL.you cover for personal injury.

Saggy - I did not know that!

My mum just took it out for me at the request of the owner of the horse i was part loaning. I can't remember who we had insurance with for my own pony.

A Pony we had borrowed to take to a show kicked the mother of one of the other kids from our yard. silly cow, sitting amongst the ponies on a deck chair, wearing shorts and platform sandals she tried to claim from us. Dd had rider insurance including PL. The insurance company said it would revert to me. Basically their over wasnt worth the paper it was written on. Thankfully, due to the circumstances of the accident, it turned out that neither Dd or I was liable, but it was a very unpleasant few weeks. I now have Bhs membership in my name. It covers every pony I own, handle or am responsible for. I get a certain amount of personal accident cover and most importantly for me, a free legal helpline.

Hello again

thanks for all the advice.

I am bit concerned about the idea of getting her teacher to have a look at the horse and taking it to the riding school for a few rides. We have no means of transportng a horse anywhere except on it's own 4 feet! And I am fairly sure the instructor won't have the time to visit the horse - he teaches at an equestrian centre attached to the college and only fits in a few non-college ridings lessons.

this is clearly going to more complex than I thought....

You'd be surprised! Also, he might be able to recommend someone else to come have a look if he can't make it. Having someone experienced look at the animal is probably more important than being able to transport to lessons for extra development.

Lack of horse transport shouldn't make the loan impossible, just means DD's confined to hacking, or setting up makeshift fences wherever the pony is based (should she want to jump it).

If your DDs regular riding instructor can't come, Perhaps find a recommended freelance who can? Even if they don't know your daughter personally a professional is better than no professional at all.

When i loaned my first pony the owner of the yard observed me riding him when i went to view and she was excellent - If she'd not been there i probably wouldn't have gone for him but she gave me a few pointers - She rode the horse herself you see so she knew him very well, And it worked brilliantly.

I ended up having lessons with her weekly and she taught me so much more than i ever could have learned in a riding school.

Freelance instructors will come to your yard to teach you and i didn't pay that much more than what i was at the riding school tbf.

I've never been able to take an instructor along when viewing horses, and it's not as though you're buying the horse and taking on the responsibility for its future health and well-being. You could have a chat to her instructor as to whether he thinks she's ready for this next step

You're going to be more concerned as to whether the horses are safe and suitable for your dd. I'd meet the owners and get a feel for whether they are people you'd trust your dd's safety with, then see the horse ridden first, then you have to take that leap of faith and let dd get on board. Assuming you trust the owner ask them to be honest about your dd's ability, and see if the owner will supervise for a bit.

As far as transport goes, it's not essential to get out and about. If you do get to that stage you can always hire for the occaisional trip

I'm sure you could borrow a box from somewhere!

Also, Farmer's Union do horse insurance very reasonable.

We've never been able to take an instructor to look at ponies either,and still managed to pick two good ones.

When we viewed ponies [and I've spent the best part of 12 months looking for suitable steeds] I found that asking the owner if there were any quirks we should know about was very interesting.It isn't as 'outright' as asking if it has any vices and we learnt a great deal from owners by just asking that.

Also,some people are very very honest and almost over exaggerate their pony's bad points.Our current loan pony is meant to be wary around large vehicles,but we've seen no evidence of this at all-they behave differently with different people too.

As for freelance instructors,they can be very reasonable.We have the local PC instructor come out and give the dds a lesson and it is half what we paid for private RS lessons.

Oh my lord! I am giving up now

We found 4 potential ponies. Two were a bit further away than I would have liked but would have been prepared to consider. Of those only one responded to their email. It would have been a 40 mile round trip and the owner wanted us to do it 3 or 4 times a week. And for me to pay 50% of costs. The only other one that replied was refreshingly honest! He said his horse was not suitable for a 13 yr old girl - he (the horse not the owners!) had already 'scared off' one woman rider who was interested and he already had someone else on trial.

So..... DD is walking round with such a sad face and I am beginning to wish she had never heard of the phrase 'horse share'......

Basically we are too broke for this game. She should have found herself wealthier parents

I didn't want to be negative, but honestly I think it would be really difficult. I know somebody who had a horse for a few years. It was a total enormous amount of work and cost the earth. This wasn't a share. But we thought she was mad. Up at 4.30 to muck out in the snow. The very thought!! OK if you live on a farm but otherwise no. I just said absolutely not to DD and she had lessons for about two years and then had a nasty fall and stopped. She was OK but really shaken and bruised.