Opinions Please!

[Honeybee111]

I own a wonderful 18-year old gelding who has given me lots of confidence.
However, he absolutely despises schooling or being ridden in the school. We used to compete (dressage) but I have come to the conclusion that I won’t continue with this if it makes him so miserable.
He’s incredibly keen out hacking, on sponsored rides etc. and absolutely blossoms.

The thing is, I’m not ready to hack only, I still want to improve my riding, have lessons etc. but don’t want to make my lad do something he hates.

I am in a position to buy an allrounder type horse but can’t afford livery for two long term.
I will not sell my boy but am considering a full loan hacking home.

However, I feel so guilty even thinking of getting another horse and loaning him to someone.

Am I overthinking his feelings?! Or should I just stick to hacking out and keep him?

Other horse parents’ options are greatly appreciated!

Have you considered a sharer and keeping him where you have him now?

If he’s a safe hack you’ll have people queuing up to loan him. If possible I’d see if you can find a loan to keep him at the same yard or within a tight radius.
i have a mare on loan at the moment and it’s great. She’s on full loan to her long term sharer at a yard near mine and it’s worked super well

I’d either get him a sharer or a full loan but to stay at current yard so you know exactly what is happening to him .

Have you thought about competing in endurance @Honeybee111 ?

I did BD (and hacking etc) with my boy for several years. He then had an injury that required a v long walking based rehab (I’ve written about it on a post about injuries further down the page).

By the end of the rehab, when he was signed off by the vet, he was so so fit and we were covering such distances I thought I’d give it a go. I’d never been interested before but we had so much fun.

I wasn’t quite ready to ‘just’ hack and enjoyed training for something and competing. We still had something to work for. I love having a goal and being able to measure our progress. I used a wonderful trainer (involved in the British endurance team) who helped us improve/continued to work on improving my riding etc. It was genuinely the friendliest equine sport (had done PC, local UA showing/SJ/DR and BD previously). You don’t need an Arab to do well unless you’re aiming for the absolute top of the sport. There are all sorts of horses competing at novice and open levels. We were aiming for 50km when he got an unrelated field injury and retired.

It might not float your boat, in which case I agree with all PPs, re finding him a sharer/loaner, but just another option to consider.

Could you just keep him and have a lovely time hacking, and in the meantime pay for riding lessons on a horse owned by a riding school?

I know it’s not ideal, but surely less than the outlay/purchase of another horse, shoes, feed, worming, dentist etc?

I imagine you have friends who are also very equestrian? Would it be poss to school one of their horses once or twice a week. I’d be delighted if someone wanted to put in a bit of footwork with mine :D