New pony.. what would you do please

[Lucie390]

We recently bought a very sweet little mare 6 years old. I have many years of experience owning horses but since having children not had a horse in past 15 years. Daughter has been riding on and off since little but only a year ago got back into it properly.
An opportunity came up for livery very local to where we live (very scarce, very few vacancies ever come up) we visited a few ponies wvtb and ended up getting a little 12hh mare via a dealer (read reviews of dealer, contacted others who had bought).

Daughter is v petite 13 year old and liked that mare was easy to handle for her, also should say we loaned her for month to get to know her before purchase.

I realise it probably sounds impulsive purchase but daughter is having some issues and is looking at home schooling I thought this would be great benefit to her life.

Long story short is mare is very green, daughter is a novice. Dealer said she had had sufficient schooling, basic school work would be fine but would need some work for anything more. I thought ok great we can work with that. We rode her whilst on loan and whilst she was quite nervous, we put it down to being new, she was easy to handle and quite laid back. even took her out on roads on lead reign and I felt confident she’d be fine.

Past 4 weeks we’ve done no more than lunge, lead reign and bare back whilst we have been waiting on saddle. Pony was calm but nervous no problems. Today she’s pretty much bolted and my daughter had quite a nasty fall. It was terribly windy and I know she doesn’t the wind but I’m worried we’ve taken on more than we can handle here. We are having to lunge before riding everytime to get rid of the freshness, even then I’m finding she’s still to fizzy to ride calmly.

Im really upset, for one I feel I was mis sold her, today shook me up seeing my daughter really hurt and but also my daughter is so attached to the pony, been going to turn her out religiously and doing everything for her.

I feel so stressed that we’ve made a massive mistake here.

I asked a riding teacher to take a look this afternoon and she said she’s just very green, whilst I’m ok with working on her and spending time doing this properly, I don’t want my daughter to be the one to do this. What are my options here ?

Horses are very different with different riders/carers ! I have had my boy since he was 6months old…I have two sharers and he’s different with all three of us - good and bad !

I don’t think your pony was missold as the dealer told you she was green. I’d get someone more experienced to ride the mare and work with her.

plus some horses take ages (months and months) to fully settle

Hmm it's a tricky one. Most of the ponies on our yard are a bit fresh atm. Weather has been weird and I'm not sure if we have autumn freshness or spring fever happening.

Id do as much work as you can with pony, even if it means dd on the lunge or lead rein. And a lesson as often as you can. Soak hay to reduce sugar and cut all fees except balancer. Pony is probably very green, but with help and support it's solvable.

Lunging her will only make her fitter and keep her adrenaline high. You need to do some ground work to establish a relationship and find strategies for keeping her calm. Take a look at Ryan Rose on YouTube. I've learnt some very easy and effective techniques to deal with my drama queen of a pony.

Long story short is mare is very green, daughter is a novice.

Sorry, but that's a bad combination. No the horse's fault, not your daughter's fault. The mare needs an experienced rider, your daughter needs a been there, done that pony.

And the pony is only 6 - without being rude, she was always going to need work.

Depends on your dc really. Assuming she has an instructor when she’s riding and as a novice she isn’t attempting to school a green horse without support, then some dc love the challenge and couldn’t care less about bad days, or falls or anything else. Other dc will be left with their confidence and their love of riding destroyed. And neither is a reflection on her or the pony.

Today has been a strange one. We have a new pony too, also green which we knew and we gave up today very quickly- first time he'd ever put a foot wrong. I actually thought he looked like he was going to bolt too. Someone else on the yard to give up with a schoolmistress mare too as she was just backing up away from the rain, dd ended up letting go when leading in the usually bombproof 20 yo pony in because he was diving about, and she's really very competent. Taking everything back out to the fields was more like flying kites. I'd not judge your pony on this one incident if you've had weather anything like ours. It's not an ideal combination though to have a nervous novice and a green pony, 12hh is a small pony to get for even the smallest 13 yo too. would she be better with something slightly bigger and older maybe? I don't think this pony has been in anyway mis sold given what you've said as they told you was green and you've had a month to try too. Maybe not the best fit but that isn't the previous owners fault really l.

Yes absolutely, we have a very experienced teacher who has broken/trained for years giving us lessons.

Yes that was me, I loved breaking my pony in when I was 16, thought it was great fun falling off and everything that went with it. We broke her in successfully and had her for years as a family pony but this was over 20 years ago now.

My daughter doesn’t have same confidence so this is something I’m worried about.

Ok thank you will try this. She is on molly chaff of an eve, gesture feed AM, hay overnight night and out all day.

She has put on a bit of weight last month, would you recommend balancer only no other feed. She’s a greedy cob.

If a dealer told me that a horse had basic schooling I would literally assume they could go round the school in walk/trot/canter and do a 20meter circle and not fall over. That would be it.
I don’t know about you but the wind where I live has been in the high 20mph, if she’s hardly ridden hopping on today in these conditions seems daft.
Personally I don’t think you’ve been missold I think you’ve over estimated how much “basic schooling” would cover.
While you get people saying they bought and unbacked horse after two months of lessons and went on to jump BE Novice, in the main green horses ans novice riders are a disaster.
It usually results in a confused frustrated horse acting out because it doesn’t understand what’s asked of it, and an increasingly terrified rider

Yes weather has been terrible but I think your right.

Size wise she’s a chunky cob and my daughter is v petite at around 5.5stone.

What do I do then ? Yes the mistake probably lies with me then.

I wouldn’t bother with any feed, I believe very few in light work need anything but forage. Unless they are in full work, elderly, poor etc I only give a literal handful of whatever chaff I have so they aren’t left out when the rest are fed.
I too wouldn’t judge too much in the wind. Even the elderly schoolmaster and pc superstar were tits today, admittedly because they wanted to join the general fun rather than any valid reason, and I will say that the lot of them have impeccable manners regardless of how many legs they have on the floor, but I can’t say wind is the weather that showcases their calmest behaviour!

Ok thank you

I do hope this workable and can be put down to a bad day. I know we’re going to hit stumbling blocks but when you see something dangerous it’s so worrying.

We do have a good teacher so fingers crossed.

Do you have anyone else small enough to ride the pony? With a youngster who's had a fright someone confident on board for a couple of times might make a huge difference

Came on to say you need to change her feed and work her on the flat and calm her down a bit.
The weather is hard going though. My mate in her 20's would still be a right pain in gusty weather . It's hard because you want to stick to a robust routine of schooling then you can't because it's windy or whatever and the horse is having a melt down.
I think you have going to be up against the nervous rider and skittish pony combination for quite a while yet.

Throw as much money as you can at having lessons - if possible two or three times a week for the next couple of months. And if you can also find a competent lightweight teen to school the pony as well that would be helpful. My dd was constantly being asked to ride green ponies who’d been bought for novice children. It helped the ponies as she was very clear with what she was asking then to do and it helped the novice children as they could see that their pony wasn’t actually a feral monster who couldn’t go in the spooky corner of the school. I also don’t think you were missold but with hindsight you probably misbought. It’s not irretrievable now but you need to build up confidence in both your dd and the pony and I’m afraid that’s not going to be cheap.

Agree not all is lost but you might have to step backwards a bit. Long reining is far better for this issue than lunging. Won't make them buzzy or dead fit but builds all the right muscle in a youngster whilst giving confidence and getting them used to surroundings. If she tries to bolt after her last fright no one is on board. Re the feed I agree with the balancer. Ours is on blue chip lami light which is said to be calming too (suitable for horses on box rest) and then just a handful of chaff. I'd avoid the mollichaff - ponies don't need molasses. I'm not sure what the other thing is? But also 2 different feeds isn't ideal. If using 2 things then half them both and feed together twice a day.

I don't think you have been mis-sold. You just bought a 6 year old and unfortunately one with a nervous disposition (which you knew about - that would have been a big fat red flag to me TBH as temperament is everything). Assuming she was backed 2020/2021 she's a COVID baby pony and they are more backwards. I have one. There is so much of the world they need to get out and see and a massive amount of hoof holding necessary. It's not the dealers fault they only know so much about the pony. With young horses the quirks are still to come out the woodwork. Add to the fact she's moved from original home to dealer to you. She's fried and unsettled. I think it takes 6 weeks to 4 months for them to bed in.
I got my Fat Cob at just 5, he's a diamond, but he's still had to go through his teenage phase. He will hopefully be a novice ride but likely not until he's 8. You have to let them grow up. I didn't worry about circles for the first year. I did lots of hacking, traffic training, spook training (plastic bags, flags, tarpaulins), cow herding, boxing up and hacking different places. At this age I think they are better with a sensible nanny horse if possible. Difference with my cob is he's brave and has his head screwed on. He doesn't always like things but he will tackle it rather than bolt.
I think your problem is that your daughter is not you. She is a nervous novice. You were going ho, happy breaking horses and falling off. Your daughter is not. My DD is the same, nothing wrong there but I have to be much more cautious as to what I put her on. All I can say is confidence is hard won and easily lost. It's not worth putting her off completely. I don't think ultimately this is the right pony for you mainly due to the nervousness. Personally I'd sell it and find an older steady school master she can relax and have some fun on. If you must keep ker consider getting a pro rider on her or send her for some schooling.

@EverestMilton you’ve hit the nail in the head.

My daughter was like how I was but that was on a school pony, a plodder who she was 100% confident in, I made the mistake thinking she’d be like this that on the new pony. In lessons, pony days (also had a prev plodder on loan) if she had any near falls they didn’t bother her but that was on v diff ponies, so this has really knocked her confidence and I feel it’s all my fault, my mis judgement.

Your completely right though she’s not like me.

I do agree I possibly wasn’t mis sold being told she was green, but I was told she has had significantly more schooling that I believe she’s had, that’s my gripe. There’s things she’s said she’s been schooled in but quite obviously hasn’t or had tried it once and box ticked. That’s all.

We are going to see how things go, lunging and having someone else ride her this week who’s experienced.

This I'm afraid. Always worth spending more money on a first pony and 12hh is far too small for a 13 year old.

I agree you have in no way been missold
They said she was green!
If your dd is a novice she won't know the right way to ask thr pony to do the things it's been schooled to do.
I'm not saying the dealer is an angel here but misselling is more serious

Get a better rider on her twice a week

Two feeds a day is way to much for this type of pony (even a gesture one) especially when you say she’s put on a bit of weight too!
Plus to be fair the wind yesterday was terrible, I didn’t even ride my fairly sane 13 year old.

A small feed of chaff and balancer once a day and a token handful of chaff in the evening is all she needs. I like to feed a balancer to all mine, they have that instead of hard feed/mix/nuts and one of them events up to Novice on it and one is a quiet hack. I buy the molasses free Happy Hoof and the cheap Spillers daily balancer for the plod who gains weight easily. Don't not feed her in an attempt to make her quieter but lay off the molasses
Hay not haylage if you can.

The most mad pony we ever had was an 11.2 Welsh that my dd rode when she was about 7 and the easiest and kindest was 17hh, so don't make the mistake of thinking just because she's small she'll be easy.

It's not if it's just sugar free chaff and a cup of balancer. No need not to give her vitamins and minerals (balancer), she's only 6