is it ever the right time to buy a horse?

minkersmum

Active Member
Aug 4, 2009
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Scotland
Have planned to buy a horse in 2 yrs once youngest child goes to pre school.

Will be first horse. Plan to keep it at RS that i have my lesson at. Their most basic diy livery involves them bringing them in, turning out, feeding haylage etc. This is what id choose. Means you don't have to be there unless you want to ride/groom/play with horsey.

All my head says is waiting is best plan but

Have just found what looks like my ideal horse, below budjet. They seem to never come up in Scotland and now here one is. Owner says perfect first horse, easy to do all ways and he looks gorgeous.

My well meaning horsey friend keeps saying, there is never a right time, they hardly come up at all let alone in SCOTLAND!! I can't help feeling a bit like i want to:p

So is there a right time???
 
There's never a right time!

I didnt even go looking for a horse... I just kind of ended up with one. I always thought owning a horse was something that everyone else did, and something that I would only dream of.

I've ridden for the past 15yrs or so, and a couple of years ago I went on holiday to the west of Scotland where I went horse riding. A week later I had agreed to having the horse I rode on a 6 month loan period, and ended up buying her!

I think you should go and have a look at the horse you have seen. Especially if it turns out to be as perfect as you think. I didnt go looking for a horse but I cant imagine my life without one now :)
 
When I was planning a horse, I couldn't decide whether to get one in summer so I got used to the routine with light nights, dry fields and warm weather, or leave it till spring or autumn so I had time to relearn everything I'd forgotten so I could have fun in the summer.

In the end, my horse found me. One week before last year's blizzards. :eek:

When the right one comes along, you just know and all your careful planning goes out of the window.

Hope this is your Right One and doesn't turn out to be a right one! :D
 
Just like when planning a family there is never a right time.

However, I started lessons again when my daughter whent to preschool and then bought when she started school. In hindsight I think I was right to do that. I simply couldn't have devoted the amount of time I'd have wanted to make it a success.

Even though I seem to have less time now and I have 2 I also have a bit more experience and a lower expectation of what they/I want.
 
For me i know that i would have more childfree time once little one in preschool and that would also give me 2 years to get to know pony/pony get to know me and then once little one goes to school we can get down to some serious hacking!!

My impulsive 'what if' side can't help thinking i found the ad for a reason and worrying that another 'perfect' (just on paper) pony won't be available when i decide the time is right.

My head says too bad, if the right one isn't there at the right time i'll just have to be patient and eventually it'll happen.
 
Can you afford it? Can you afford not to spend as much time with the pony now as you could once your youngest goes to school? If he'd be OK mooching around not doing a lot of work until then...? Not saying it's good advice but I'd be ringing up. Just cos I know what it's like to be desperate for your own and if it seems a good match no harm in asking :p
 
You know . . . I agonized over this for a long time. I started taking lessons about 8 years ago having spend a childhood riding friends' ponies, jumping on point-to-point horses in a paddock and generally messing about with horses and ponies my whole childhood.

I um'd and ahh'd for years and took on two share mares for a year (on DIY livery). When their owner moved them to France six months earlier than we expected our hearts broke and we decided that it was time to buy our own.

We started looking, tried about 8 horses and fell in love with the first advert we had seen (who had provisionally been sold but the sale fell through) and brought Kal "home" on January 9th.

Was it the right time? No. I lost my job a week after we brought him home. Do I love him? Hell yeah. Will we keep him? Yup. He may have to move from his cushy full livery yard to a field with some hard standing until I find full-time work, but it was the right time for us in terms of readiness and ability to take on and take care of a horse of our own.

I'm able to look at him and know how we need to work him . . . he has been ridden in draw/side reins and doesn't know how to look for the contact so we are working him slooooooowly and controlling with seat rather than reins. I've learned that much. I've learned that he's not a horse you aggressive with . . . he requires tact and firmness . . . get in his face too much and he'll freak out.

The right time? I think that is pretty personal. But I do think that for mature riders (like me - I'll be 45 in August) that comes sooner than we think. We oldies tend to be much more cautious and risk-averse.

As someone who turned her bike into a pony when she was 8, waiting until I was almost 45 to buy my first horse is pretty conservative ;)

N
 
Realistically at the moment i wouldn't be able to ride during the week only weekends. In the summer i could ride a couple of evenings a week maybe once kids gone to bed and hubby home.

The livery place doesn't require you to be there every day so not a problem everyday. Part of me did think i'd be giving myself plenty time to get to know him before expecting to do too much.

I also considered that perhaps he'd be a suitable pony for some sort of woring livery. I would do this as a way to ensure he was being kept in regular work rather than cost.Cost will always be an issue, we are far from rich but i know we could manage. We won't be any better off if i wait 2 yrs. Not sure working livery is even an option but would ask. Means i could ride him in my twice weekly lesson, a short hack after one of those lessons and i'd be content. But again i don't even know if this is an option i'd have to speak to RI. I trust her otherwise wouldn't consider it at all. Certainley wouldn't have considered it at my previous RS.

One of the biggest most important factors is my family and my hubby would rather i wait til our dogs are 'away' (he means dead, sounds awful doesn't it) They are both old one is 15 and other is 9 but great dane so old, also incontinent so hard work. 15 yr old is deaf and becoming blind/senile/frightened. Its hard work in a small cottage containing 2 lrg adults and 3 small kids + the geriatric dogs, so i can totally see his point but i do remind him the pony wouldn't live in!! And in many ways is less restricting in terms of holidays etc (haven't had one in a long time because of dogs)

Its these bloomin Fjords, i'm just hooked:D
 
I agree, Scotland is kack for horses - took me months to find Flip.

Funky haircut, what a cutey, you're lucky I've got buyers remorse from ikea on Saturday, otherwise you'd have competition - he's just down the road from me!
 
I agree, Scotland is kack for horses - took me months to find Flip.

Funky haircut, what a cutey, you're lucky I've got buyers remorse from ikea on Saturday, otherwise you'd have competition - he's just down the road from me!


Maybe you'd like to nip down and take him round the block for me?? See if he is as 1st pony material as they say.:p
 
Are you suggesting a reconnaissance mission?!
Mmmhmm, I think you should phone, don't know how much use I would be but If I can ride him then I'd consider him suitable for a novice. (My riding is total pants!)
 
As I understand it school these days is all knives and STIs so you'd probably be doing him a favour taking him/her to see a nice wholesome pony :) I think you should go............

Hee hee Fortunately he is only 5 and its a rural school with 32 pupils in total!! But i'm sure they'd understand:rolleyes:, one kid comes to school on her pony every morning!!
 
Are you suggesting a reconnaissance mission?!
Mmmhmm, I think you should phone, don't know how much use I would be but If I can ride him then I'd consider him suitable for a novice. (My riding is total pants!)


Just the thought of even phoning (bet he is sold) is giving me butterflies. Honestly i think when i do buy one i might just pass out on the spot! I am so tempted to ring. I did email to ask about his suitability as a first pony which just made it worse because she said he'd be great, thats why they bought him (just last March.) If he was nearer i would definitely go even just to talk to them and meet him (how cautious am i? i don't even want to ride him at the first visit!!:D)

Now if you happened to have been to see him as a second horse for yourself but found him too ploddy, now then i'd be on my way down!!:p
 
I think you should go for it! I definitely wasn't planning on buying a horse (thought I wouldn't have time, etc.) but the right one came along and I threw my 50 year-old nerves out the window and went for it - haven't regretted it. He does look lovely.
 
Ha, too ploddy - Flip's too fast for me and he weighs 750kg!!
Have a think, I'm pretty busy moving house at the mo but have a mate who lives in Stirling so don't really need an excuse to go annoy her (and avoid furniture building!) Only thing I don't have anyone horsey to take with me - I'm not so sure about the solo missions - but up for the challenge. Give them a call and see where it goes.
Is it a dealer, or RS? Would be easy if its an RS - I could go for a lesson!
 
As someone who turned her bike into a pony when she was 8, waiting until I was almost 45 to buy my first horse is pretty conservative ;)

N

Well, I'd only admit it here, but we had a large rock on the shoreline at our family cottage and I painted a saddle on it and pretended it was a horse :eek: Was probably about 8 at the time.
 
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