Newbie looking at a horse share

[singlemum2025]

My daughter is turning 12 next month, she has been having lessons since she was 8, attends a weekly horse club where she has worked her way up (it’s a half day and they learn all about how to care for the horse etc) her friends from the club have had horse shares and she has been going along with a friend to one where she seems able and they are happy for her to share there (unattended by me but there are people around at the yard) however it’s just a bit too far away to make it feesable for every week.

i myself only have knowledge of attending a friends stables as a teen.

would we be suitable for a horse share? My daughter has all the hands on knowledge and me some basic.

Shares take different forms. Will be fine for a stable with a share scheme as there will be an experienced adult about but for a private share a 12 year old needs a horsey parent. My dd is 12 and we’ve owned her pony since she was 9. Had shares before that (I’m horsey). She’s incredibly competent but I still do keep an eye. I’d never allow any 12 yo totally unsupervised by someone knowledgeable

Thanks live for summer, I guess I’m just trying to figure out the name for what I’m looking for! And also really where we would find this? As they don’t have shares where she does lessons. Do the share schemes tend to be one day only? The one she could do is a weekend day anytime between 9-5ish.

I think you’d be better off looking at riding holidays where she would ‘own’ a pony for the week (Wellington Riding in Hampshire do fabulous ones for her age) or lots of riding schools have non-residential ‘own a pony’ weeks during the school holidays. If it’s not feasible for you to get her to a yard every week then that’s not very helpful to the owner - private horses are usually up for share as the owner can’t get to the yard every day and needs a hand. Also, a not quite 12 year absolutely needs to be supervised by a knowledgeable adult - when my daughter was sharing she couldn’t be on the yard on her own until she was 15 and by then she’d been volunteering and then working at a riding school for years.

Absolutely you'd be suitable but under the right circumstances. A share is the right word, or part-loan, or riding schools might call it a 'loan scheme'. A riding school share or loan is a great idea, these tend to be more expensive than the share of a privately owned pony but they're a great option for a younger kid with a non horsey parent as it's a guaranteed suitable pony (privately owned ponies can be a lot trickier to ride and handle than riding schools ones), usually the care/yard work jobs required are minimal and there will be people around to help and supervise, other kids to ride with (you may still be required to be present to supervise her yourself though, not sure if this is a deal-breaker for you?). You may find a private pony on livery who would be prepared to have your DD as sharer but a lot of people are understandably nervous about young kids out of riding schools with non horsey parents having sole charge of their animals and I think they'd definitely want the parent with her at all times.

From your previous post are you saying she can only do one weekend day? I think this will make finding a share hard as most people will want the pony exercised in the week as well, and riding school schemes usually specify less popular times i.e. again weekdays as usually the pony is busy with lessons on the weekends. If you can't get her to a yard even one weekday day a share might not be worth it, she may be better off sticking with lessons, pony club/stable management lessons, helping out at the yard and horsey holidays as Please mentioned.

No a weekday would be actually better for us it’s weekends we will struggle more to do a full day at the stables as it would have to be around her football match, the one her friend is at (where they wanted my daughter to join) is a 35 minute drive on a clear run - realistically more 45-1hour) so quite far to be travelling back and forth to when the day will be broken up with football and it’s only one day a week. However they will let her share there unsupervised as there are responsible adults there the whole time.

how would I go about finding a horse share? Contacting stables directly or are there websites they are advertised on?

If your daughter’s at school how are you going to make a weekday share work? At the moment it’s dark after school so unless the share horse is on a yard with an indoor or floodlit arena then she’s going to struggle to get any meaningful riding time during the week. People do advertise shares on local facebook horsey groups but to be honest it’s unlikely that something suitable would come up. Quite a few riding schools offer ‘share’ schemes - usually for a set monthly fee you get exclusive use of that particular horse for your days. Pros are she’d be supervised and it’s a relatively safe introduction to independent riding but the cons are the shares are often pretty expensive and there are usually quite a few restrictions on what you’re allowed to do with the horse, plus if you can only do one day a week it wouldn’t be cost-effective. You’d need to contact individual riding schools to see if that’s something the offer. In your position I’d be looking at getting another weekly lesson and book her on riding holidays to give her more time in the saddle.

Yes if it's a riding school scheme you're after I think you'll have to phone around schools in the area, most places that do them don't advertise as such as they're usually offered to their more experienced clients/helpers rather than just anyone - so they will probably want her to come and have some lessons and be assessed first. Private shares do get advertised, mostly on social media such as Facebook groups these days but a suitable one might be hard to come by and perhaps more likely to be found through word of mout. As Please says don't despair if you can't find something, a few more years of lessons and helping out will get her plenty of experience and she might be in a better to place to share when she's an older teen?