Help me understand loaning

[Ridingfree]

Hi there, I appreciate any advice please. I have a DD6 who is horse obsessed! Has been since age 2. She rides weekly at a lovely school and always on a particular horse, one she absolutely LOVES. I know little to nothing about horses, I totally take DD lead but obviously as she's 6 she's still little and not very strong, never tacked up etc.

The riding school have contacted me, the pony she rides is available for loan 2 days a week. It's a really reasonable price, not much more than we pay for her lesson currently. I'll speak to the school at the weekend but for anyone more experience than me - what other costs could I expect? Food? Vet? Etc what level of commitment like if I can't get there one day do I need to make arrangements for the horse to be fed etc?

I bee love the horses are in a field so not necessarily needing mucking out etc but again a question I need to ask, we always said we would loan a horse at some point but I imagined this being when DD was a little older and more independent. I'm happy to get stuck in with her but I'm not sure what is usually in terms of commitment and responsibility required for a part 2 day loan

Thanks so much

You don’t need to have your own pony to join the Pony Club. Centre membership is for children who don’t have their own pony

Good cal on waiting I think

Meanwhile the riding school can absolutely teach her stable management - at a cost of course but it's well worth doing alongside her lessons - in the 6-8 age gap. She'll learn not just the how to do things but also have to be calm and confident around horses. That really is the most important skill. And if she's a proper horse girl (sounds like she is) she'll love this bit just as much as riding. Especially in the summer

Looking after horses is shit in the (this) endless winter.

I don’t get the fascination with not putting her off , because of bad weather etc , I think it’s better to find this out early on before you invest too much money . In our case , we don’t sell ponies / horses on and we were quite happy that both of our children had given up by age 7 as it meant we only had one pony to house / pay for . ( pony and eldest child are now both 30) .

Thankyou
Her current stable doesn't do pony club so I'd need to look elsewhere, although I'm sure they would help her with some other stable management skills etc

You can find your nearest pony club centre via that link 👍🏻

I have a slightly different view to the majority, in that the question of her being 'put off' wouldn't worry me. It's only two days a week (not 7!) and I presume the school has good facilities for riding in winter - floodlights, indoor school? If she's really keen then she will continue to be, even in winter.

Plus we're now coming into summer anyway - had the riding school said how long a contract would be? I'd assume you could agree an initial 3 or 6 months to see how you found it rather than having to commit for a long term period.

I think the key question would be what she would be able to do on the non lesson day, which depends somewhat on her current level of ability. Certainly the more time she has in the saddle the more she will gain in strength and experience, but she would certainly need supervision and guidance when riding (by someone who knows at least enough). I would be discussing with her teacher - if they've suggested it and they're a good riding school then they should believe it could be beneficial for her, but I think you'd need to understand more about this set up and what provisions are in place to ensure the safety and well-being of both pony and rider - particularly if you're not confident yourself to supervise.

I agree. From the OP's update it sounds as though there really isn't a huge amount to be done in terms of yard jobs (just topping up water is what OP said which really isn't a big deal at all) so I don't think she'll be too put off by winter/bad weather (at the riding school I livery at a lot of the kids who 'share''loan' the riding school ponies simply don't come and ride when the weather's really bad, the school don't mind as the ponies get enough work in lessons anyway, the kids don't have any real care responsibilities and the yard makes their money either way as the parents pay monthly whether they use their full entitlement to riding not). So I don't think there's a risk of her being put off in that way after hearing the update.

BUT I do think if the riding side of the arrangement really is "book out the arena and ride" i.e. go in and ride only supervised by OP that is not ideal at all, borderline dangerous IMO. I guess the pony is very quiet and well behaved and there's 'help' shouting distance away but even the most well mannered and trained pony in the world can be spooked in an instant - and also as a PP said, parent trying to act as riding instructor usually doesn't work very well (even if parent is horsey). Like I said before the vast majority of primary school aged kids need near constant instructions (now walk, now trot, now change the rein etc) for their ride to be useful and fun for them and the pony, more likely than an accident is that she'll just not be able to think what to do or get the pony to do what she wants, OP quite naturally won't know what to say/how to advise her and it will become frustrating all round. Like others I'm really quite surprised the school are prepared to even consider this arrangement for a 6yo TBH, at my school there's an instructor in with the kids at all times so loan rides are much more like a (slightly less structured/more chaotic) lesson than anything, and they're all 10+, I can't imagine how a 6 year old would fit.

I think the way you're leaning (stick with lessons for now and loan in a few years) is probably sensible and if you can find a pony club centre (or a riding school that does their own version and/or 'own a pony' days) that would be great...