Why can’t I find a pony!

[isheisnthe]

I’ve decided to take the plunge and buy my daughter her first pony. I’m looking to spend up to £5k and I’m in the south east. I was thinking maybe a section D or Connemara between 14.2 and 15.3 but I just can’t find anything, and anything I have found always seems to go or the people selling don’t actually want to sell it as they don’t reply!! Any top tips would be appreciated! We have a livery yard set up waiting to house our new pony but no pony 😢

I think it's your budget at the end of the day sadly (isn't it always the way). Unfortunately a safe, sound, easy-keeper, middle aged 14.2-15.2hh for amateur / PC type activities is exactly what everyone wants and sellers can price accordingly. This has been the case for a long time now, the days when you could pick up a native or cob for peanuts because people were breeding them cheaply on a small/hobby breeder scale are a thing of the past. My friend was looking for similar last year and ended up spending north of £10k on her perfectly nice but no world beater connie. You're also looking at not the best time of year, lots of people wouldn't sell in the winter so there may be more on the market in spring but TBH even then a nice bombproof 14.2 for under £5k in the SE will still be snapped up so you'll need to move quickly.

If increasing the budget is not an option I think you're going to need to think outside the box and make some compromises. What those are obviously depends, age is one, although very young and green not a great idea for a first pony, and older horses come with increased costs and the need to commit to them for life even after ridden career over. Size could be a possibility depending on your DD's likely adult height, to get out of that very popular 14.2ish height bracket. If she will likely stay small and lightweight you could look at one of the more medium and less fashionable native breeds, I know some small adults who comfortably ride a full-up 13.2 forester or fell pony with plenty of bone. Or if she's likely going to be tall a bigger horse could be a better bet, so long as quiet of course. Or depending on your experience level maybe you could look at a horse with quirks or management needs, for instance a horse that isn't a good hack will often be sold at a discount which can be OK if you don't love to hack. Or some breeds command less of a price tag than the natives and cobby types, TBs are the classic example, sometimes the stereotype is true of course that they can be difficult and needy horses but not all and if you could find say an older small TB with lots of years in an amateur home and maybe needing plenty of TLC you might get it in budget?

You might need to increase your budget and be prepared to drop everything to view it asap, before someone else does.

We sold ours last year. She was amazing and exactly what you're looking for, but we had so little interest from serious buyers. Not sure why. I even posted about her on here, but again got no interest. We literally had no tryouts. Maybe people thought I was lying and she sounded too good to be true. We ended up selling extremely cheap to the girl who was sharing her and loved her. They are doing everything together now, so she was worth a lot more. Perhaps you'll get lucky with a pony like ours.

At the moment we're looking for sharers and again it's so hard to find anyone decent.

Try and find a dealer. They have a legal responsibility to ensure they match you to the correct pony. And if the pony does not suit they will often given you an option to swap. Dealers can have a bad reputation but if you go to one that has been operating for years they should look after you.

Not our experience unfortunately with a very well-known dealer.

I think your budget is very optimistic , Connemaras are really popular at the moment . How much experience do you have as a family as a section D could be a brave choice for a first horse / pony .

I agree your budget is the issue (or one of them. Looking for a pony is fraught with issues). The pony you are looking for unfortunately is likely to be 5 figures not mid 4’s. Whilst the market is slowing down, prices are still high and coming in to spring the increase in ponies available is also met by increase in demand. Get on all the Facebook pages, ask at local pony clubs and be ready to act fast but at the same time don’t rush in to it. Contradictory I know, sorry! 😬

Quite. The section D at our yard is highly opinionated and very strong, which is quite typical ime.

I would think carefully about about a section D ours was a pain in the arse and would have taken a nervous child’s confidence.luckily our daughter was as stubborn as her pony and learnt to sit to pretty much everything. For example he would plant and refuse to go forwards every time she put her leg on he would buck numerous times. He was a shocker and we never let another child so much as sit on him.

To echo everyone else, it’s unfortunately your budget, you’d really need to add a few more thousand on, especially as you’re SE.
You don’t mention your daughter’s age or riding ability in your OP but Connie’s and Section D’s are often not ideal first ponies. Apologies if you’re super experienced tho!
Best of luck with your search.

Totally agree about the Section D for a child.
May be slightly biased, but have you considered a Highland OP?

I’m sorry to be another one saying your budget is nowhere near enough for what you’re looking for. My daughter occasionally has a 14.2 Connie in to sell - the last two have been 9, they were low-mileage and inexperienced before she started producing them but after a few months they were ready to go to pony club homes and she had a queue of people wanting to view - they both sold for lower five figures - with any kind of competition record they’d have been a lot more. However around here (not SE) you’d be able to get an older Fell or Dales pony for your budget so there will be a pony out there, but probably not a Connie…

I don’t need to echo everyone else but if you can’t increase your budget, can you get those at your livery yard to put feelers out because you will probably need to rely on word of mouth for someone who is looking for the right home over price.

I’d also look at your daughter’s ability, height and future use for the pony to ensure you are really looking for the right breed and height.

Horses have gone ridiculous prices recently. 5k would have got you a lovely pony a few years ago but now you could double or even treble it before you would find much.

If you're near North London I can recommend someone who finds really good horses for very reasonable prices. She runs a jumping yard, and gets some superb ponies for quite cheap compared to usual market value. I haven't seen her find a bad horse yet. We bought two from her in the past, but you will have to increase your budget to around 7-8K.

My daughters 14 and been riding since she was 4 - we have shared a section D and a rather stubborn cob (with all the planting, napping at the gate and bucking you can imagine!) so she has a really good seat. Maybe we will have to review the budget then, but in an ideal world I wouldn’t.. watch this space, maybe we will get lucky 😅

Yes it's the budget.

Last year we paid £8.5k for a 15 year old gypsy cob who a few years ago would have been cheap as chips.

I was newly back into the horse world after a 13 year break and having not bought a horse for about 25 years and was gob smacked and the change in the horse market.

Anything flashier but still safe and steady was £15k ish.

There doesn't seem to be a cost of living crisis when it comes to horse prices 😂

I feel like I might have seen your posts on local Facebook pages.

One thing I would add is that you probably need to accept that you need to travel further afield if you have a limited budget.

Echo comments on budget. For context on our last horse search in the midlands I spent £5k on a green 4/5 year old just under 13hh mini cob with about 6 months ridden training done, if that, but nicely done. That was about 4 years ago and she needed a lot of education, completely kitting out with tack etc. We still have her and not looking to sell, I know she is worth double what I paid now due to her training and as a sound, sane and proven PC pony.

Honestly I think your budget needs doubling.

I won't reiterate the budget issue, as plenty of others have set it out.

But other hints, picked up when I most recently went pony shopping last summer:

1. scroll the sites all day, every day.

2. if possible take some time off work, give yourself a week/a few days where you can jump in the car ASAP to go to viewings. If you wait to view over the weekend etc that's when you risk losing out (I had 3 cancelled viewings because I couldn't rearrange work).
   Some people will plan a trip visiting a few (reputable!) dealers over a couple of days. Or once you have played viewings arranged post on Facebook asking if anyone has anything else suitable on your planned route.

3. be willing to travel. I ended up buying 120 miles from home, but it was worth it.

4. be flexible. I ended up buying a 14.2hh 4 year old, when I was initially looking for a 15.2+ 7-12 year old... The right horse isn't about breed, it's about behaviour, personality and suitability.

Hi I had similar problems when I was searching. I wasted so much time with failed viewings and also failed vettings. In the end I used a horse agent/finder. She was amazing. She took care of all the searching for me and chatting with sellers. I then went and viewed a horse which I went to buy. Even now a year on, she is at the end of the phone if I need any horsey advice. She also loves updates! She helped me narrow down what I was looking for and only sent me details of suitable ones. My budget was similar to yours and I had to increase mine to £6500 in the end. I travelled just over an hour for her. I’d suggest either using an agent, increasing your budget or looking for something older. Abbisfields Equestrian (on FB) is the lady

Have you tried Sophie Seymour. She’s pretty honest.

In your neck of the woods double or triple your budget and you might be about right. Anything £5k or under that is suitable for a kid, I would be extremely wary of. Having said that, if you don't mind a few health issues you might get a safe as houses older cob/connie/welsh in that price range.

The old horszeman's saying used to be something along the lines of... everyone wants a safe, sound and cheap horse but you can only ever get two out of three at any one time. You can get safe and sound, but not cheap. Sound and cheap, but not safe. Safe and cheap, but not sound.

And I think she has a connie for sale at the moment.