How is it decided whether or not to back a pony?

[SnowRose1]

Hi everyone,

I’m looking at rehoming 2 small ponies through a charity. I have visited the ponies, they seem very affectionate and good tempered, good to catch, pick up feet etc. The gelding is age 7 and the mare age 11; they are non-ridden - and best friends!

I am curious about one thing: these ponies don’t seem to have ever been backed. I’m wondering why not? The two I’m looking at don’t have health issues and don’t come from a welfare background either. Maybe no one’s got round to it? The charity hasn’t been able to provide that level of investment in them? Or is there some kind of criteria I don’t know about that a pony should meet - a certain level of intelligence / aptitude? - before they are deemed suitable for backing (other than age & health)?

To clarify, I don’t mind that they’re not backed, I just want to understand more without coming across as challenging or arguing the point. My plan is to keep them as companions / pets, take them for walks, lots of grooming, see if they can do a little groundwork.

TIA x

There's no set criteria as such. Any responsible person would make sure the pony is in good physical health and has no significant behavioural issues before commencing backing them, particularly a little pony that will be ridden by children. Other than that pretty much any horse/pony should be capable of being successfully trained to be ridden (provided the training is done in the right way of course). It's harder as they get older and more set in their ways but you can back an older horse even (e.g. sometimes mares are used as broodmares between the ages of 3-10 ish then backed and ridden at a low level once retired from breeding).

But some people do breed and keep ponies purely as pets with no intention of ever riding them (particularly miniatures) and that's fine too so long as they're well looked after and exercised too. Or sometimes people buy a young animal with the intention of backing them but their child ends up not interested or life gets in the way or finances don't allow (professional backing isn't cheap). So with your two if they're not welfare cases I'd guess something like that has happened?

Most charities don't back their horses at all IMO, they usually don't have anywhere near enough time and resources to do so properly. If an animal comes in already backed/ridden (rare) they may be able to assess it, and often they'll get the handling basics in place if the horse comes in feral but full backing is a long winded and tricky process. Plus even if they did make that investment they still couldn't just chuck a newly backed horse out to a novice ridden home, particularly as a child's pony, it would still need to be a very experienced and careful owner with a lot of time and effort to spare to bring the pony on anyway. So they might as well just re-home as 'with potential to be backed' if the pony is up to it physically and mentally and let the new owner start from scratch with the backing... One of my rescue mares had been very ineptly started under saddle late in life by a cowboy 'rescue centre' (I use the term lightly, it was a well intentioned person's hobby rather than a proper professional operation) and they'd done a really terrible job of it, the poor mare was extremely confused and frightened and not only needed complete restarting by someone who knew what they were doing but remained all her life with the habits she'd been inadvertently taught. So really rescues are better off not even bothering unless they happen to have someone there that really understands how to back properly as they're often hardly starting with ideal raw material...

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your reply. That does explain what’s probably happened with the ponies I’m looking at. Thanks again for your help 🙂

If the charity has said that the pony is unsuitable for riding and is rehoming as 'companion/unridden only' then that is likely to be in the re-homing contract so you will need to stick to those conditions.

The larger charities (RSPCA/BHS etc) will assess all horses/ponies thoroughly by a team of vets & experts. If they find even a minor conformation or health issue they have to say the pony is not for riding. To be fair they have to ensure the ongoing welfare of the pony so do not take risks that private owners/breeders would take.

It is massively easier to re-home a horse/pony that is backed or suitable for backing so they wouldn't label a pony as not suitable without a reason.

If it's a smaller, local charity it might be that the pony has come to them as unbacked in which case it may be a possibility to back them but I certainly wouldn't assume that it would be possible without doing your homework & talking it through with the rescue.

Hi Serencwtch,

Thanks for your helpful info, much appreciated.

I was going to reply to you that I would ask the charity to give me a copy of the contract in advance,

But I’ve had a phone call today, the lady wouldn’t say it directly but seems like they’ve changed their minds and won’t re-home the ponies to us! Had second thoughts about my dog - wish they could have let me know sooner :(

I took my child and my dog on the visit, and that visit ended with the charity worker saying they’d be in touch to confirm the date the ponies would be delivered to me, but probably very early Jan. That was 3 weeks ago and they’ve let us get our hopes up, only to suddenly back out. My child is going to be devastated…

Just wondering if we’ve been unlucky or if the charities are known for messing people around like this??

Anyway, thanks again for your post x

I've only had good experiences myself with the big national rescue centres (particularly Blue Cross, I'd recommend contacting them if you're still after some small unridden/companion ponies). Smaller more localised operations can be more hit and less in terms of 'professionalism' (I put that in inverted commas because these are usually very much volunteer run and led so not really reasonable to expect a 'professional' service from them). You get a whole range IME, from those that do an absolutely stellar job on no money at all (in fact I suspect the volunteers fully fund as well as run them) to scam places that only exist to cream money off the unsuspecting and/or which are so over stretched and incompetent they're more likely to cause the animals to need to be rescued than to do the rescuing, with lots of small scale, 'hobby' and slightly oddball ones in the middle.

Disappointing for you OP but I wouldn't take it personally, the people who dedicate their lives to running horse welfare/rescue charities are far more likely to be 'horse people' than people-people, if you see what I mean, and as you may discover if you get deeper into the horsey world, horse people are frequently socially odd, downright rude and/or borderline certifiably insane when forced into communicating/dealing with people. A lot of the volunteers do have high standards for rehoming, to the point where they don't really want to rehome a lot of their animals at all, as they're emotionally attached plus also worried about their longer term welfare TBH (and there is a lot that can go wrong with a pony, more so than a cat or dog) so often do find sometimes quite seemingly trivial excuses not to rehome them at all...

How old are your children? I ask because if there is any chance they may wish to ride I wouldn’t want to commit to two ponies that cannot be ridden. Small ponies can live into their 40s so it’s quite a long term commitment. You would be able to groom, lead and do ground work with a rideable pony. You might be able to pick up an older pony in need of a slow pace of life quite cheaply.

I rehomed through Bransby quite a few years ago, the pony was unbacked and they were happy for him to be if necessary but I only needed a companion so never did more than get him used to a bridle. They have a few companions available and quite a lot of information on their website which might be of interest. Bransby rehoming

Hi, so sorry for late reply!

Thanks so much to everyone, at least now I understand what has happened here. I was genuinely interested, but now won’t pursue this - I’m just not willing to subject my child to another rollercoaster ride. We had such good experiences acquiring our other pets this has been a nasty surprise. I really appreciate the replies though x