advice re young pony please

[booksinbed]

hi we are going to look at a pony tomorrow- he is 4 rising 5 - is it a bad idea to buy a young pony - not bought before but had sort of thought we wd gofor 8 years plus .what could be the disadvantages or indeed advantages..help please ...thanks !!!

If its your first horse I wouldn't unless you have a lot of experienced help on hand.

Depends what you want, who you want it for and what you've done before!

also very dependent on the pony. I used to ride a 3 year old who could have been 23 he was so good.

While you will always get the odd story of a very young horse turning out to be suitable for a novice owner, for the most part it goes very, very wrong. Young horses/ponies need an experienced handler and rider, they need facilities, support from a trainer, time, patience and the ability to bounce because sooner or later they will test you.

Green and green makes for black and blue - says it all really.

Sorry to be so negative but best to walk away now than face the disappointment of having to re-home an unsuitable pony after you have both lost confidence.

I agree with what BooBoo says, and would add that you also have to bear in mind that if you ruin the pony through inexperience and bad handling (and I'm not saying you will), that pony will become unsellable and may well end up at a sales and go for meat.

Depends on what it has done. If he is a 5yo that has already got a proven record at whatever you want to do (showing, pony club, jumping, hunting, hacking or whatever) then I wouldn't be put off because hopefully it won't have too many bad habits.

However if you're buying an unbroken or green pony at that age then you may need some experienced help.

Tell us more about your potential pony.

Even a well schooled youngster can cause problems, mine is rising 7, bought last year with a proven show record, he is still trying it on now and again 11 months on. I've lots of experience, last horse was bought as a yearling off the field and I broke him and schooled him on myself, and even I'm glad of my instructor with the current horse!

Well maybe I'm reckless but I bought a four-year-old for a first horse for myself and my daughter....

I wanted a bombproof 10 year old, oh, and not a grey, so what did I buy but a spooky grey four-year-old .

2 years on and we've had our ups and downs, plus a few falls, but to be honest so have others I know who've bought older horses. There is hardly a horse on our yard without some issue - hard to catch/fizzy in fields/headstrong over jumps/stubborn on hacks, and this includes the 18 year olds as well as the youngsters. I love ours to bits and even at his worst I've never seriously considered selling him. He's made gradual progress - would have been a lot faster I'm sure if we were more experienced - but he's basically moved in the right direction. We found a couple of great instructors and we do have regular lessons, and we're on a yard where there are often more experienced people around who give us advice - often conflicting, however, so sometimes we just have to make our own minds up!

He has improved hugely - and so have we as riders and horsepeople .

My first loan horse was a 4 year old. We got on amazingly and it really shouldn't have worked but it did. It was one of the best times of my life and i miss him terribly!

However, I also believed i was invincible which helped. Young ponies and horses require vast amounts of skill and well as a truck load of confidence for when they have a tantrum/are scared themselves.

Also, You say pony - Don't be fooled into thinking a smaller pony = safer/more manageable - The smallest i've fallen off is 13.2. The biggest i've fallen off was 17.2

The 13.2 left me with life long problems - The 17.2 put me on my arse and i got back up laughing.