Do You Ride Horses? V.4

[MoonLesbian]

So I want y'all's opinion on something and before I start, I'm aware it's not necessarily a good idea, but do I want to know if it would be a huge mistake xD

Now that I have more hours at my job I'm thinking about seriously shopping around for a horse soon--my lesson barn is close and board is affordable, and I think I have enough saved. My question is, as an advanced beginnerish rider (only been taking lessons for a few months but can w/t/c and go over cross rails and small verticals), could I buy a project horse? Not something totally untouched; they'd need to have been under saddle before at least a little bit and not buck and rear every time you get on. But knowing I could continue taking lessons on dead broke lesson ponies to improve and get guidance from my instructor with the project horse, would that be doable? I don't want to compete or anything, but I want to learn how to train horses and I'd think training your own horse first would be the best way to get into that.

Regardless of the horse I get, I'll be wanting to train them in liberty just because I think it's a good way to bond and keep ground manners maintained, if that makes a difference. I would like to jump with them at some point, whether they already know how or not, but I don't know how difficult that is to train if they don't so if anyone has experience with that, advice would be great!

Also: questions to ask when buying that people might not think about? If I see a horse I'm interested in then I'll be writing down a whole buttload of questions but I want to know if there's anything you guys have asked or wish you would have asked that aren't exactly standard questions!

[Verdana]

If you've only been lessoning for a few months, there are a bunch of other steps you can take before buying!

Before you buy: work out initial costs (horse budget, transport, PPE (possibly multiple if prospective horses fail it) possibly tack and equipment. Then add in monthly board, farrier visits, vaccines, tooth work once a year, routine vet visits, as well as having enough in savings for an emergency field injury or colic.

If you're still fairly confident that this will not impact your ability to do life stuff...

Keep all that money in reserve, and look into a half or full lease.

The transition between a dead broke school pony and a lease horse is tremendous. The ponies have a clear work schedule with people other than you. A half-lease may have another rider working the horse. In a full lease, that is just you. It makes a huge difference. In a lease, you are working independently and figuring things out, and it's a great way to test whether you run into trouble outside of lesson time or not, before taking on a horse with known issues who needs work. You'll still get to work in liberty, or jump, but instead of taking the risk on a project pony (and believe me, as someone who has both succeeded and failed with yard-owned projects, it is a RISK!) you have the safety of a lease that you can cancel if it's too much horse or the wrong horse, and it's a horse ready-trained with the skills you want. Any horse can improve their skills and doing that is super satisfying! Project ponies that you're paying for are a surefire way to overface yourself and see how un-fun horsework can actually be.

Rather enjoy working on you for now, and chat to your instructor about how to step it up a bit. For instance, I have a weekly lesson, but do groundwork and ride my coach's smaller, greener horses (because I'm small and light and brave) as a way to tune them up and practice my own skills an extra one or two times a week. I am still making mistakes which require these horses to be worked by someone more experienced than I am, to bring them back to where they were. At a previous yard, I'd do two lessons a week (one group, one private) and have a green baby or problem horse on the side who I worked as a mutually beneficial thing for me and the barn owner. Please, noting, that by the time I started doing this, I had been riding a good ten years, could walk, trot, canter, jump, had started some lateral work, could work a horse in decent (not perfect or fully consistent) frame and improve a way of going, sit a buck, sit a refusal, bring a bolt back to walk (and then the hard bit with all of these: continue the ride and finish on a good note), work horses inside and outside the arena, all fairly confidently without constant supervision.

I'm not telling you that to boast. I'm telling you that, seventeen years into this journey, I still wouldn't take the risk on a project horse with my own money.

TL;dR: Don't do it. It's expensive, risky, and a surefire way to knock all the confidence you've built. Look into a half or full lease (can drop it if it doesn't work out) instead. And chat to your coach about finding ways to improve! I'm sure they'll have ways to challenge you outside of lesson time if you're willing to be consistent or committed.

[alfiq]

i second what Verdana said! i actually ended up with a horse full time from only riding a few times a week, and owning and training a horse on your own is a massive leap from lesson horses. it was a real uphill battle for a few good years, and it was really demotivating at some points. it's best to have a really good foundation and knowledge before you go into it, because from my experience and talking with other folks, no matter how much you think you know you're gonna find a lot of gaps in your knowledge when you actually own a horse.

full lease or half leases are very good, theres esp a lot of people who are willing to sell later if you really click with a horse!

[Verdana]

i second what Verdana said! i actually ended up with a horse full time from only riding a few times a week, and owning and training a horse on your own is a massive leap from lesson horses. it was a real uphill battle for a few good years, and it was really demotivating at some points. it's best to have a really good foundation and knowledge before you go into it, because from my experience and talking with other folks, no matter how much you think you know you're gonna find a lot of gaps in your knowledge when you actually own a horse.

full lease or half leases are very good, theres esp a lot of people who are willing to sell later if you really click with a horse!

I got my first half-lease as a teenager, and half or full leased until I became an adult and couldn't consistently afford to do it. I wish I could. My first ever lease mare was 20+ years old, an absolute schoolmaster who pulled my frightened butt over any jump I pointed her at. She'd done everything and then some. The perfect babysitter horse for a kid building confidence.

She bucked me off at the beginning of every single lesson for months, I am still convinced just to make a point. And this was in no way a problem mare! In fact, she was brought out of a well-earned retirement to look after me. I learnt a huge amount from her, and in the years to come what she taught me made me a whole lot better as a rider and someone training a horse. The plus side was, she knew her job so well that even when I was confused and a mess and getting it all wrong, she could just ignore me and keep doing what she did.

[MoonLesbian]

Thank you for the input! So yeah, no project horses for the forseeable future xD However I am fairly confident that I'm ready for ownership, as I have more experience with horses than just riding--I work at a show barn with ~30 horses and know how to care for them, handle unruly ones, etc. Plus I've done the math about five times to make sure I can continue to handle it financially when I move into an apartment in the near future haha. But I'm sure it'll take a long while before I find a horse I really want to buy and I am probably going to lease until I do! I wish there were horses available to lease at my lesson barn but unfortunately I'd have to go somewhere else to do it, which isn't the worst thing in the world but my lesson barn is so much closer to my house. It's also where I'd be boarding my own horse eventually so I'm kind of attached to it lol

[Verdana]

Thank you for the input! So yeah, no project horses for the forseeable future xD However I am fairly confident that I'm ready for ownership, as I have more experience with horses than just riding--I work at a show barn with ~30 horses and know how to care for them, handle unruly ones, etc. Plus I've done the math about five times to make sure I can continue to handle it financially when I move into an apartment in the near future haha. But I'm sure it'll take a long while before I find a horse I really want to buy and I am probably going to lease until I do! I wish there were horses available to lease at my lesson barn but unfortunately I'd have to go somewhere else to do it, which isn't the worst thing in the world but my lesson barn is so much closer to my house. It's also where I'd be boarding my own horse eventually so I'm kind of attached to it lol

Oh, okay cool! Sorry, with that extra context, it changes the vibe significantly. I see the limitation now, and why buying might be more viable than a lease. There are also home leases though! I don't know about where you are, but here it's a fairly established thing that people will lease out a horse on a different property, with all financial responsibility on the leaser, until they are formally bought or returned.

I'd still go with a lease, honestly. But if you're gonna buy, I do think you should be looking for a horse that has most of the skills you want set in place. Especially if you want to jump. It's not that it's more difficult to train a horse to jump? It's just that there are a lot more ways for things to go wrong. Like, it's SUPER easy to develop a refusing problem, even with an established horse. And if you don't have your eye in for strides yet (like, tbh, I still don't really) it's even harder to teach a horse where to put their legs and when.

[Hime]

I would have to agree with lot of things already said. In general really wouldn't recommend a project as a first horse, since projects can be overwhelming at times and if things end up too difficult it can be big hit on your motivation in general. The jump from lesson horse to a project horse is a big one, and the jump from lesson horse to owning one is already quite significant. Of course it would also depend on the project, like if it's just a fat horse that hasn't been worked in a while or a very green one that has been ridden for couple of months. Technically you could do okay with a project horse that has very good temperament, is healthy and is already trained, but has been off work while and would just need to be brought back in shape. But on other hand projects that have very little training behind them can regress in their training quite quickly if you can't stay on top of the training level they are at and also recognize when you can/need to move them forward in training. This is something I find quite difficult and I remember at first when I got my own horse the whole thing of actually being responsible for deciding what to do on each ride was actually bit of a shock. Riding is lot more complex when you really get into it compared to what lessons usually seem like at first. Like I remember in the beginning lessons were mostly: do a circle there transitions here and there etc. They didn't really get into why do we do this or how this affects the horse, or in general what's the feeling of riding a horse that is actively using it's hind legs, carrying it's back and being light on the forehand. Which is actually what we should be thinking most of the time.
What ever horse you do end up buying or leasing in the future I would also highly recommend taking lessons with it at least once a month during the first year or two.

[Huggles]

Hey everyone! Haven't posted for a bit. Coming back to see if anyone has advice.

I have a newly diagnosed arthritic pony. Luckily she is just a trail horse so her career is far from over. We caught it relatively early and believe it was an injury from before I got her, as she was pulled from a kill pen so we have no idea her past. She’s getting steroidal injections 2x a year and equioxx daily on top of she has access to a pasture so she can stay moving and keep stretched out. Im curious if anyone else has experience with arthritis and has learned any tricks to keeping your horse more comfortable? This is in her front right knee. I am working closely with my vet of course but wanted to hear from anyone else with experience!

[Fleabag.]

I bought a Kentucky mountain in November of 2019 and ended up getting 2 horses for the price of 1. Low and behold she was pregnant when i bought her and no one knew. Funny story, she had a blanket on her all winter because it gets cold where i live so i wasn’t paying too much attention to the way her body looked, by time spring rolled around and it was time to take the blanket off she walked up to me and she was ROUND. I sat there and looked at her very confused and called my mother over to see, and about 4 months later. My little boy Koda popped out. I ended up selling mom just because i simply cannot afford two horses. She was a good mare she just had a lot of problems to work out. She was 5 years old and barley green broke. (The man i sold her to broke her immediately and rides her regularly!)

Now on to my latest and greatest project, my now yearling Koda. He has been cut so he has calmed down a lot. Been working on a LOT of ground work, he has a lot of separation anxiety from my mom and grandmas horses. This is my first horse and I’m raising him from the ground up and i have little experience with training young horses but we are taking it step by step, day by day. I would LOVE any advice or tips on this and i do have some great people with loads of experience helping me out too, but anything helps :]

[arcadia bay.]

so im not really active here buttttt,,,
I ride at college and were assigned horses each semester, well I got a more jumper type (im used to hunter and eq horses) and he knocked a lot of my confidence out the window... im taking dressage lessons over the summer right now to try to build some confidence back up is that a good idea? I wanna continue jumping (and maybe even event now that im not a junior) but I felt like I needed a break from jumping as well... idk