Don't know what to do

[HortyLewis]

Hi all, happy new year! Newbie member :)

So, I have a 13hh 5 yr old pony that was a rescue at 2 yrs old.
I absolutely adore him & can't wait to break him in next summer, he's come on so much since I've had him.
The problem is since having DD 14 weeks ago I'm really struggling to find the time for him, especially now winter is setting in.
He's kept on a DIY yard that I share with my friend.. I've been really lucky for the last few months in that my friend has been doing my boy in the mornings for me (turning him out & popping him some hay) but she has recently bought herself a youngster & has decided to move to a yard with better facilities to start training him.
Now I'm stuck & don't know what to do.
Realistically I know that I can only get down the yard once a day to muck out & do the jobs..
I've tried advertising for a sharer before & not had any luck. I did have a 20 yr old girl helping me but I arrived at the yard one day & found her down there with a load of her friends & a stranger riding my greenbroke pony round the slippy muddy field. So obviously was very annoyed by that!.. It just seems so hard to find a reliable sharer, especially since my pony isn't in regular work at the moment until I can safely say he's broken fully (he needs work next summer)

I don't know what to do.. I know it would be easy to say sell him as I haven't got the time for him but can't bear the idea of that as he's such a special pony. He's going to be ideal for my DD in the future too if she would like to ride.
Any thoughts appreciated... Or anyone know someone willing to help out in suffolk are of easy Anglia? :)

Good morning Horty and a Happy New Year!

All seems a lot of stress for you with a new baby etc. We're in the process of buying a 13 hander but our DD is nearly 11. You have to think that your DD will need about another 10 years before she can realistically ride your pony and surely you'd like to have her on a Welsh A, or similar, well before that.

I would suggest moving him on if you can although hard to sell at this time of year and he really needs to be broken and ridden away first.

Try Preloved? There are lots of ads in our area offering help with horses.Also,you might not want to hear this,but your daughter may not want to ride or have any interest in ponies,so it is a long while to keep a pony just in case she does.

Could you put him on loan for a year or two? Then you can have him back if your daughter does show an interest.We bought a 13hh pony when my DDs were 6 and 7 and still have her now,although she is DD2's [8] pony now as DD1 [10]has moved up to a 13.3.

Good luck,I hope you find a solution.

Happy New Year.

Is grass livery not an option? Much easier on you and it will be good for a youngster to be out 24/7.

Er, the pony might not be for the tiny baby daughter, maybe Horty wants to ride her 'special pony' herself? Plenty of ponies can carry a small adult and at 5yo he is more mature than most newly-broken ponies.

The first thing that springs to mind is to wonder if there is a reason why the pony can't live out. While twice daily visits are obviously preferable,it isn't always possible, and many ponies manage perfectly well on one as long as they have all the essentials, good fencing/water/shelter and plenty of hay to last them through.

Thankyou for your replies!..
Even though I am hoping in future he will be ideal for my little one.. He's also small enough for me to ride.. Hate the idea of selling & being horseless! Id be lost without my little ponio.
I have the option where I am to keep him out 24/7, the only problem is all the other horses come in at night & he is quite the escape artist if left by himself. He's gone through electric tape/ jumped post & rail etc. the only thing we've found to work to keep him in is a lorry battery with 4 strands of electric & bringing him in at night with the others.

I tried to advertise him for loan when I first fell pregnant but realistically noone wants to put the work in on a greenbroke pony for loan not buy.

Thanks for the suggestion of pre-loved I'll have a look.

I thought id have people biting my hand off to come up & help out with him (I know I would have when I was younger!)
But there doesn't seem to be anyone that wants to help but not ride at the moment.

Realistically, there are lots of people wanting help with unrideable horses/ponies, and theres not that many parents who are happy for their children to go off and work with an unbroken pony everyday for no benefit.

Could you move him to a different yard where he'd have others who live out?

Ah well, escape artists are a pain, I can see why you have avoided leaving out. Um, well how big is the yard? Is there anyone else you could make arrangements with, maybe they put yours out and you bring theirs in? Or offer them some money? If not I second looking for somewhere else where others stay out too, unless there is some way of providing him with some company another way. Last summer dhorse was in a paddock on his own for a few months but he had a sheep in there with him which really seemed to help (after he'd got over the initial shock and realised it wouldn't eat him ).

ok think along these lines, I was taught never to break a horse and school it yourself, either break or school it. Then you don't get a horse that you can only ride yourself. So how about send it away to have it broken it will buy you some time.

Littlebigbum has a very good suggestion.

I know about having a young horse and a tiny baby - I bought my horse as a 3 year old when my baby was 8 weeks old (having a baby does something weird to your brain, is my excuse and to be a bit fair to me he was advertised as a 5 yo.) I was lucky enough to find a couple of helpers - they are out there, you have to be either lucky or look quite hard. I had spent years with a previous horse not being able to find suitable help.

My horse is now 7 (as of today!) and I still have my original helpers. At 5 years old your horse should easily be ready to be broken in now. If it were me in your position, with a young baby and an unbroken pony, I would be seriously considering sending him away to be broken in and while he is away spend some time advertising for and looking for a helper. A rideable pony is a much better prospect for a sharer than an unrideable one. I can't think of many people who would want to be coming down daily to put in the hours and dirty work for a pony they can't ride. If you found somewhere to take him for breaking now, you would be getting him back about the time the clocks go forward. You'd get a break from the chores in winter and while your baby is very little, and you'd be getting a pony you - and crucially, a helper, can ride - just as the evenings become lighter.

When looking for helpers, be prepared to put in some initial supervision of them until you are satisfied they are doing things the way you want. Also, try to be less picky than you would like to be (and then train them!) My helpers are an experienced but young person, who sometimes needs a bit of a, ahem, motivational talk to get her moving in the right direction, and a more mature but much less experienced person who has a lot of enthusiasm and a similar approach to life as me. There is very little a helper can do wrong with steady hacking, and that's what many of them seem to want, as long as you set a few groundrules and make sure everyone understands them - one of my main rules is don't gallop in the same place every hack, I don't want a horse that tanks off everyone in anticipation.

If you can afford to, look at moving him to a yard that offers livery services. I know these can add up but if it's a short term option till pony schooled enough to be offered as a share (although this is a very difficult height to find a reliable sharer for - most adults want something bigger and child sharers can be unreliable, to put it midly!), and will mean you can keep him rather than sell, then it would be worth checking out local yards.

Alternatively, look for a yard that offers grass livery/24-7 turnout?

where about in Suffolk are you?

The sending away option sounds like a great plan.
If you sent away for 6weeks that would bring you to the end of Feb and I always feel better once March hits (even if the weather is still rubbish) the days are longer and getting up early doesn't seem so painful. Do you not have any, even un-horsey family/friends who could help in the short term. My husband and mother both helped a little when dd was very little (poor horses got treated slightly like cows when dh was in charge) Failing that I used to wrap/carry dd in a sling (she was a Christmas baby) then put my husbands big coat round both of us I could muck out do feeds etc (she used to happily sleep in the sling) then just pop her in the pram in an area of safety (just in case) while I got in/turned out etc. (fields are very very close to yard)
I also got into the routine of turning out very early before dh went to work, muck out, bring in mid morning (my ponies aren't fans of winter turnout in bad weather) then either dh/me or my mum could just skip out/feed/hay later in the day. I had 2 that year living on a private yard.
Good luck and it will get easier (well until dd wants to help muck out)