How do you know when you're ready for your first horse

[bravelittletiger]

I've seen the most beautiful cob pony for sale locally (outgrown by her current owner). I've fallen in love with her and she sounds perfect for me and my riding. I've got a local yard who have space for her on full livery. But I'm a novice rider and have little experience of horse care although I am an enthusiastic learner!! Basically know how to tack, untack, catch, groom, muck out etc. Haven't done any of the practical stuff like deal with injuries, feed, clip/trim. I can ride but I'm a novice rider- three paces plus starting to do a few little jumps and hacking. My canter transitions can still
Be dodgy!!

In my case I'd been a sharer in full charge of a horse for about a year, paying all expenses and lessoning regularly. Since the horse was on full livery I had a combination of advice from the yard owner & manager, and my trainer.

You might be ready if you have a solid support system with a reputable livery yard with staff to advise you on horse care, and a trainer to advise you on the riding side of things.

Does the livery yard have instructors on site, or people there who can help and advise (some livery has the option of your horse being ridden which can he handy for if you ever need help ironing out some problems). Do you have an instructor or someone knowledgeable to take with you to view as horses are frequently not exactly as they might be described in the advert. Feed is important and can have serious consequences if you get it wrong but lots of advice is available. I know how to clip/trim but it's easier to pay someone to do it so I do. No need to really learn that or at least it's not a priority. Basic first aid is easy enough and your vet is on hand for more serious things. You'll be come more confident with that as you learn. Again having someone on site to advise is useful. I got my first pony aged 11 and had totally non horsey parents and diy livery with no help so if I managed you will I'm sure. I learned a lot from books and along the way

Thank you for this advice. It's really helpful. The yard I'm talking about has 30 boxes so there will be lots of other horsey types around for advice I'm sure (if they are willing) although it's not a school so I would have to ask my teacher at my current yard to come and teach me there (not convinced she would tbh!) or find a freelancer on the learning side.

In terms of someone to come and look at the pony with me I've got a family friend who has a horse and I could also ask my instructor to come along- I'm sure she would and she has a few cobs so is familiar with the type.

It's a massive plunge into the unknown so it's a bit scary!!

Just look at her though 😍💔

The yard I'm talking about has 30 boxes so there will be lots of other horsey types around

I am at a place that has 50 boxes at present and there's no guarantee I'll see ANY of the other liveries. Plus, you'd be counting on them to be friendly, helpful, and having the time to help. That's not a good plan.

it's not a school so I would have to ask my teacher at my current yard to come and teach me there

You'd not only have to ask your instructor, you'd have to ask the yard owner or manager. Usually there's a ring fee involved too, for use of the facility, if they allow outside instructors. Many places don't allow this due to the increase in insurance.

It IS exciting and she IS adorable, but you don't sound like you have the appropriate support for a novice horse owner in place just yet.

I think it's one of those things - a bit like having a baby that it's never the right time for one reason or another so you might as well go for it. If it's a friendly yard then I'm sure some people won't mind offering help but rem they are paying to be there too and not everyone will want to all the time. If there is a manager on site then that's a better option for help and advice (also it can be a bit of a minefield as people can have hugely different opinions and ways of doing things. You could end up quite confused). Good that you have a family friend familiar with the type as with all types/breeds they have certain things they are more prone to. Always worth getting a vet check too.

I got my first when it was literally all I could think about. I was totally committed had plenty of time to give and it was still a big learning curve. I think if you are not solid in canter yet it is a bit soon. Even well behaved cobs will try it on if they sense any weakness.
coukd you find a part loan/share through your current instructor?

A few things to consider, first and foremost can you afford it. It’s ruinously expensive, and even more so when things go wrong.
As a novice I’d recommend at least part livery if not full. So as a bare minimum you need about £500 a month.
Have you spoken to your instructor, a privately owned horse may really not get what you’re asking if by your own admission your transitions are dodgy. Important to get their opinion.
Would you be at a stage with your riding where you would be safe riding alone, especially hacking. Have you ridden on roads before?
Have you been to try this horse? Quiet in a riding school and quiet in the outside world are two very different things!
How much support do you have, if not much can you spot lameness/signs of KS/ulcers etc? I’d really not recommend on relying on other livery owners.

Id personally really recommend sharing first, you get to do all the really shit stuff with none of the commitment if you really hate it!

Can you try a part loan first? You can't expect other people on the yard to help you out all the time (I know you didnt say you did) but you will likley be lookin advice, and I would look for a school that does livery too.

Tbf OP has said it's full livery which suggests there is staff but how much support a livery is able to give varies so that's crucial. Agree a quiet private horse is very different. I see that when friend of the dc that are at our years come up for a ride having been in riding schools sometimes for years and can't make our straightforward ponies go round the outside of the school or get them in to canter. They absolutely take the piss and wound get naughty quite fast if left to their own devices with this, however if it's a yard with frequently visiting instructors that is less of a problem as can keep you right. I'd certainly not consider if all of these things like the staff support and instructor aren't available. Maybe it's the yard you need to rethink rather than the timing. Agree with a pp who suggests livery on a riding school

I would first check to see if the yard definitely has space and how quickly you would need to reserve a spot. I would also make a good list of all the things you'll need to pay for every month (feed/supplements, bedding, farrier, vet - obviously not monthly but the routine stuff, worm egg counts/wormer, supplies, tack) and also what you would need to do time-wise on a daily/weekly basis, even if full livery.

I grew up with a horse from 10-25 years old and now have my 2nd and 3rd horses in my 40s. Cost is one thing (though the cost of bloody bedding right now is driving me bonkers), but it's the time cost that I really didn't fully anticipate. I love them, but they eat up all my free time - but I do keep them at home, so it's just me, all the time, 3 times a day, slaving away for them!

I do think if you haven't had a horse, being a sharer is a really good idea because I think if I'd remembered how much work it was, I might have been put off! That said, I did exactly what you are doing. I'd been looking and dreaming about another horse for 10 years. I found one. I fell in love with him. Despite it being completely the most not sensible thing ever, I put a deposit down on him sight unseen the next day and he was home with me 10 days later. I also (not very sensibly!) bought another horse in a similar spontaneous fashion. I do love them. Even if they are expensive buggers who suck up all my down time and poo a lot.

I think like others have said there's never really a truly good time, so it's down to when you are confident you have enough time, money and confidence/experience (and then you'll inevitably discover however much you have it's not enough ). Sharing first is usually a good first step if you can. This gives you a chance to practice some of the care stuff outside a school environment, and also crucially the chance to see how it goes riding alone without an instructor's input and guidance - the latter is surprisingly quite hard to get used to, it's not so much even what to do if things 'go wrong' e.g. horse starts spooking or napping or won't do what you ask but the very simple thing of knowing what to actually do when you have a horse in the arena for 30 mins and need to know what to do - thinking up exercises and a schooling plan that is tailored to both your horse's age, experience, fitness and schooling goals/needs and your own, going round and round the edge of the school gets boring very quickly for you and the horse. This can be helped a lot by having very regular lessons and/or have someone else ride or school the horse for you but obviously both of those add costs which you may not have factored in to your initial estimates.

There's also full livery and full livery, my own yard used to be really super hands on with their full liveries in terms of proactively checking their health, designing feed/supplements/turnout/exercise regimes to suit the individual horse and their owner, inputting on what clips and rugs they'd recommend, liaise with the farriers and vets and dentist on your behalf and so on. A lot of people used to keep their horses there who worked very busy full time jobs and/or involving a lot of travel so were only at the yard a few times a week max (or even less than that), or kids ponies where the parents weren't at all horsey so really if you were a novice or passive/absent owner everything really was taken care of for you (aside from riding/exercise which you paid extra for) and the yard manager effectively treated all the horses as her own (which had its pros and cons of course!) - then there was a change of yard manager, staffing difficulties and costs generally have gone up which means reduced staffing (and increased livery charges!) - now it's a bit more that they stick to the letter of the livery agreement, all the jobs are done consistently and to a high standard e.g. mucking out, turning out etc but the staff are much less experienced and proactive generally, they recently failed to spot a fairly obvious (thankfully minor) injury on my horse even though he'd been in all day and they'd pulled him out to muck out that morning, so I feel a lot less confident than I was if I'm not on the yard every single day that things will be spotted and dealt with promptly in my absence. And although they feed what you ask for, will clip (for extra £) if you ask them to, put on the rugs and boots and so on that you tell them, all the decisions are very much down to you as owner. Nothing wrong with that per se but if it had been my first horse I would feel much less confident and would I guess rely more on help from fellow liveries with questions or worries or spotting things wrong with my horse, which of course is less reliable esp depending on time of day you're up and so on. These things aren't always obvious from the outside of a yard as of course when they're trying to get you as a client they'll talk the talk about help and support but not always walk the walk - maybe see if you can find honest reviews or talk to current liveries about the reality of the yard and what input they give?

I think if you're not confident in transitioning to canter and have never even done part-sharing before then you're really taking a big risk by jumping in at the deep end.

Sitting on a riding school horse with an instructor next to you is very different to going out on your own with absolutely no support if something goes wrong.

Would you know what to do it the horse spooked? What if you fall and it bolts? Are you confident/experienced enough to be able to deal with those things safely?

Can you spot the signs of illness - abscess, colic, laminitis etc?

Maxellys point about a full livery yard not necessarily being the perfect option for a novice is very valid.
A lot of times the staff will (understandably!) follow owners requests rather than make decisions and risk pissing someone off

Thanks for all your helpful and kind advice.

To answer the question about teaching myself I've done "loan week" at my stable where you can take the pony in the arena and basically teach yourself so I've thought up lessons for that with poles and things (mainly just working on things I've done in lessons or areas of weakness). You're all absolutely right that I don't know exactly what to do if she spooked etc when on my own other than just relax as much as possible and try to get back in control!! I did go on a hack where my horse got massively over excited on a very narrow track where we were cantering and starting trying to overtake the horse in front (which was super dangerous because the track was so narrow and had low trees/branches on both sides) and I did manage to calm her down and control her and make her hang back which I was proud of so I am a relatively confident rider for a novice. Since having my babies I've surprised myself at how confident I feel on a horse and how much I love it and want to get stuck in- I just feel so joyful when I'm riding and there's nothing like cantering through a field!

You're all right though that I do think it's probably too soon for me. I had planned for this year to be about improving my riding, volunteering a bit at my stable, maybe looking for a loan and doing some longer day rides or overnight riding trips and my instructor wants me to start jumping so probably that too! I've also started getting into watching cross country/trail hunting videos on YouTube which looks like basically the most fun ever so I think I need to probably work out exactly what I want to do on my pony before I actually commit to anything like that.

The livery yard I was looking at looks great in terms of hacking and location near home and my daughters school but it doesn't have an indoor school which I'm wondering is maybe an issue in the winter especially if we have more horrible ones with endless rain!

So I think my goals based on all your advice is: - keep improving my riding; -get a lot more practical experience of horse care; - build up my horsey network a bit more; - really think about the type of yard and pony I want/need for my riding and level of expertise.

@maxelly this is fascinating information about the different types of livery thank you.

In terms of cost and time I'm definitely aware of that side of things and know my limitations with time in particular which is why I would start with full livery and work backwards depending on time. I would hope to get down there three times a week to ride and help out but it would require a fair bit of juggling with work and childcare and kids and so on. I currently ride once a week effectively by skiving work but my yard is a bit too far to make that a long term prospect because I have to drive 20 mins to get there so I need to factor travel time too.

Someone mentioned checking the yard had space which I actually did yesterday (lol). They do have space and the costs are what I would have expected. It's an incredibly expensive hobby and obviously I need my husband to be on board too as it will impact our finances/savings. Luckily he actually seems very supportive of it I think because he knows how obsessed I am (eg "shall we talk about the mortgage" me: "yep. I'm just thinking about my hypothetical horse hang on a minute"...him "will you STOP looking at horse adverts on the internet and focus!!" Etc etc).

It's a weird old thing. I used to ride as a kid and whilst I was massively into it for a short time (I used to spend my weekends and mornings mucking our local horses for free) I was nervous and embarrassed at how rubbish I was at riding (I think lacking confidence) and soon gave up. Since taking it up again as an adult I just don't care anymore (or not as much) whether other people think I'm good or not and I love being around horses - the smell, the calming effect, the silky nose- so much that I am fully obsessed. For me it was such a joy to have something solely for me after two babies back to back and to be learning something new as an adult. It's the ultimate stress release. I always come back from riding in a good mood.

I would recommend you find a local yard that offers BHS stage training and look to get stable management lessons and even sit the BHS Stage 1 + 2 tests for stable management. Sounds like you might be a way off being ready to sit the riding test but again it would be something to work towards. By doing BHS training at least you would know you are learning how to do things properly and safely and it would cover all of the gaps in knowledge that you currently have.

Given your update re time limitations I'd say it's definitely not the right time. 3 days a week isn't enough especially when building a bond with a new horse and is it really worth all that money for 3 days. Things often come up so your 3 days could easily become 1/2 some weeks. A lot of horses need more regular exercise than that to remain happy and well behaved - things can unravel quite fast when out of regular work even for the easiest of animals esp during winter when turnout can be limited and they might be getting more hard feed. Some liveries might provide a service where your horse is ridden but this will cost more, unless it's a riding school where they use your horse in lessons etc, which could be an option but isn't for everyone or every horse although perhaps something for you to consider. Sounds like you'd be time limited when there too. I'd seriously look in to a share as these are typically 2-3 days and come with all the responsibility of your own horse on your days without the full time cost and commitment. Most owners will help with advice too, allow you to have lessons and you can see if it's realistic that you could have more time available in the longer term. Personally the lack of an indoor school isn't the biggest deal - it's a luxury a huge number of us can't afford. Those that have one will probably say otherwise.

Personally I would say got for it! I got my first horse at 48 (he was 27 and an ex trotting champion!) and didn't have a clue. He was on full livery for a year and I spent as much time as possible at the yard in that time, learning how to make perfect banks and how not to lose a thermometer when checking his temperature (baler twine has SO many uses).

I now have five at home - there were 10 at one stage - and don't regret a minute of it.

You only live once...

I would say that with 3 days per week there are easier and cheaper options. Is there anyone who is looking for a sharer for 3 days a week? It will be far cheaper, and less time intensive, you would have support and if it doesn't work out you don't own a horse at the end of it.

However, in terms of your experience, I would not worry as long as you have a supportive yard and community around you. And unless you are very very experienced, everyone I know goes through three months (at least) of thinking WTF Have I Done at the start of horse ownership. Everything takes longer, feels stranger (or scarier). Whenever you do it it feels like a bit of a plunge into the unknown.

Yep with three days a week I’d go for a share, all of the fun, significantly less expense and no handing over the families holiday money to the vet.

And talking of holidays you can simply say to the owner 'I won't be up for 3 weeks in July as we are going away' and that's as far as you have to go with that! 😆

Another vote for looking for a share - it’s a much cheaper and all round easier option. At our old yard the horse in the next stable had a long term sharer who came three times a week - took him hacking, had lessons, went drag hunting and basically had a fabulous time with him. Effectively on her days she treated him as if he were her own horse but didn’t have any of the real responsibility.

In your position OP I’d spend the next few months really working on getting to grips with stable management skills as well as improving your riding skills as many owners would want to be confident they could leave you in sole charge. Once you’ve successfully shared for a while - and if you could carve out more time for a horse - then you’d be in a stronger position to look for your own.

Also I know you say you are aware of the costs. I’d have a real think about how you would afford the costs if things go wrong. I’ve known horses wrack up £10/15k in a night due to emergency colic surgeries, my friends horse cost her more than her (very respectable ) annual salary in about 6 months.
My friend has a mare who needs very expensive remedial shoes which are £140 every 4 weeks (not including the regular shoes at the back!)

Also as you’ll discover owning horses and riding horses are two very different hobbies!!! Their remarkable propensity to hurt themselves may mean you ride less than you think

And if you want to do XC etc you’d need to factor in the cost of transport. 3.5t boxes are extortionate