Horse share.

[Janey99]

Hello!
I have recently taken on a horse share at a local yard. Pony is lovely and cuddly, has few funny behaviours but nothing dangerous.
However, he is not easy to ride, needs a LOT of leg and has a hedge eating habit which I'm not sure is going to change.
My quandary is....its costing me £120 a month for which I'm scheduled to undertake yard chores for the other 9 horses on the yard. I love this, so don't mind. BUT, I also still pay £40 a week for a lesson at my regular school to continue to improve my riding. I've started jumping, and aiming for my BHS Stage 2 and usually book at least 2 riding holidays a year.
There is a person at the yard who is quite critical and can ruin my time there if he's present.
My question is...should I continue here with this share, or should I pack it in and volunteer at a horse rescue instead?
Thanks for reading...I guess it's all a learning curve!!!

 

[carthorse]

I'm not clear why you're doing yard work for the other horses, that seems odd to me.

Hedge eating and getting him more off the leg is usually a rider issue, once he realises you mean business then that should change but you have to mean it when you ride this type of character or you'll spend your whole ride with him snacking. What does the owner say, have you spoken to her about it?

The other person at the yard is someone you need to deal with. If he's being critical turn round and politely say that if you feel the need for help you will ask then walk away. Why do you care so much about his opinion?

Only you can decide what to do, but I suspect that if you volunteer at a rescue there won't be any riding involved.

 

[newforest]

You do mind because you wouldn't be querying this, which I don't blame you.

Can you find a share at the school you ride at? you should only be doing chores concerning your share, not the whole yard. So I would stop that, even if you say you don't mind, I would ask for a reduction in your share cost for the extra work.
That's the grooms job.

 

[Janey99]

I'm not clear why you're doing yard work for the other horses, that seems odd to me.

Hedge eating and getting him more off the leg is usually a rider issue, once he realises you mean business then that should change but you have to mean it when you ride this type of character or you'll spend your whole ride with him snacking. What does the owner say, have you spoken to her about it?

The other person at the yard is someone you need to deal with. If he's being critical turn round and politely say that if you feel the need for help you will ask then walk away. Why do you care so much about his opinion?

Only you can decide what to do, but I suspect that if you volunteer at a rescue there won't be any riding involved.

Yes, I'm happy not to ride as continuing with my regular lessons. I don't know why I care about his opinion, but it does make me feel rubbish when I leave the yard. Thank you for replying, I value everyone's thoughts x

 

[Skib]

If you are getting 4 rides for £120 that works out as £30 per ride.
If the RS or other local prices arer £50 or £60 per ride, the difference in cost to you may be being made up by the hours of work you do.

However, I would be cautious of any share offered by a RS. It benefits the sharer to have the same horse (unless you dont like that horse) but it benefits the RS a lot to have a regular paying customer tied to them rather than free to shop around for the most suitable horse and teacher for their stage of learning.

For many years I hacked a particular RS mare, riding her twice or even three times a week but the charge each time was only for the one or two hour hack.
When I was eventually offered a share of her, the pricing simply didnt make sense, even for a half day.

It was the same when one asked to buy one of their RS horses. They priced it too high to make sense, in order to deter people.

As for the hedge eating. Any horse will do that, if you let them. Horses a geared to maximise food input and minimise output of energy. Beginners are told to hold onto the outside rein to keep the horse from drifting to the centre of the school. But you need to hold the inside rein tight while going along the hedge, or ride an inner track, a metre away from the hedge.

If he wont listen to yiur leg ride 5 steps walk, 5 steps trot, reducing the power of your leg aid each time.

 

[newforest]

If you are happy not to ride them I wouldn't be sharing one that includes being ridden.
You can offer to help at the stables where you have your lessons, even using that money for more lessons if you wanted.

 

[Jessey]

Paying and taking care of the whole yard seems a bit steep, unless you’re getting loads of riding everyday or something?

Re the critical person, you really need to tell him to back off. Unfortunately it’s a bit of a fact of life that there is someone on every yard who will have a different opinion to you and will make it known, and to put it simply you do have to develop a bit of a thick skin to survive it. It may not be considered fair in the modern world but as with anything where you put lots of people in one pot with their prized possessions, there are going to be disagreements about what’s best, who’s best etc etc and people will criticise to make themselves feel better/more important.