No transport, can't do anything with pony

[ReallyBadEyeDeer]

Just feeling bit fed up. The weather is finally glorious and I have no transport to go out and about anywhere. Pony is quite spooky alone despite lots of efforts trying - sometimes an angel, sometimes downright dangerous - and there's nobody on my yard to hack with. It involves riding on quite busy roads to get anywhere around us. There are some nice people nearby but they only go maybe once a month. So I'm starting to feel a bit bored and worried pony will get bored too.

She's in her mid teens so doesn't really "need" schooling, especially as we don't compete. Our routine is currently lunging once a week, schooling twice and some sort of hack once. Would be more if I could persuade anyone to go with me, otherwise it's a very brief 15 min one on my own. We never get off the yard apart from hacking.

Anyone have any ideas or similar experience?

Can you change yards? Busy roads and poor hacking with a spooky pony doesn't sound like much fun.

Tons of yards in our area have closed so this is the only one now - plus its actually a lovely friendly yard with nice school etc. I just feel a bit stranded. They even have nice fields to ride off road but my pony is just a bit of a menace alone

Does anybody else have transport that you could borrow/hire? Could you see if anyone fancies a trip to the beach/local leisure ride/arena hire and team up with them?

If this isn't a goer - and you can't hire transport locally at a decent rate - then maybe think about doing some other stuff with your pony at the yard. There is a online horse agility group that I've just joined so I can do something with a companion pony to keep him occupied, and they have monthly tests at a variety of levels that you can video and send off for points etc. https://www.thehorseagilityclub.com/. Again, this would be more fun if a couple of you at the yard had a go at it at the same time.

Oh what a pain. Although good that the yard is friendly. Do you have a partner/friend/child you can get to ride a bike as a lead? My spooky mare would go back to being a dobbin with a bike to follow.

Yep what’s she like with someone on the ground, Ive a mare who is SO spooky alone, dobbin in company and somewhere in between with someone on the ground.

Mine's the same. My family aren't exactly keen but I may have to grovel!

Look at E-riders online dressage. You film & submit your test at home so don't need to leave the yard. We don't compete but fund it gives me something to focus on in the school.
There's prix caprilli & dressage to music classes.

I've done a lot of positive reinforcement/clicker training which can be done on the yard. Ridden or in hand.

TREC GB usually do an online TREC challenge over spring/summer. Some of it you would need to be out & about but the obstacles can be improvised at home.

Look up Lyla Cansfield on Facebook and her spooky horses programme. All her courses are online, she does regular free tasters and you’d get the structure of a course/teaching as well as seeing an improvement in the spooky behaviour so you can get out a bit more. She works with all types of horse, has a very practical approach (it’s definitely not all groundwork in a rope halter) and decades of experience in the field. Last time I looked her courses weren’t particularly cheap, but equally compared to box hire/competing aren’t ridiculous and there are sometimes offers.

When we didn't have transport, we hired. It's much cheaper to hire self-drive or if you can tow a trailer - hire a trailer. We used to hire with drivers but that was ridiculously pricey.

We then bought a horsebox for £2000 🙈as we go to shows a lot and hiring was getting too expensive. Our lorry is a pretty basic van conversion but it does the job (although I had to spend probably another £1K on it to ensure it's sound).