Pony buying advice
May. 4th, 2023 08:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI wrote this in like 2015 in response to someone's reddit ask if they should get their daughter a pony. I moved it to tumblr but as we all know I'm not tumblr-ing anymore because I don't really suit tumblr format and honestly I just wish this were livejournal. #ihavetheolds
I am old and entirely un-fun. Once upon a time, I might have advised the non-horsey parent of a horse-crazy little girl to buy the horse-crazy little girl a pony. Now, I give the following advice: Don’t.
For a longer answer…
I’d hold off on the pony-buying thing for a while. Ponies live a long time (thirty years is not unheard of…), are difficult to get rid of if they don’t suit, and need to match up well to their rider in terms of size, temper, and ability. The pony that is a good fit for your kid right now, when she’s a very novice rider, will NOT be the pony that’s a good fit in two years, when she’s taller, more capable, and more interested in (for example) eventing at beginner novice or whatever. For youth that are physically growing and also growing in skill as riders, buying a specific pony is not really the way to go. When the rider’s size, ability, and interests are refocusing every year or so, that’s the time to rent ponies, not the time to buy them.
Wait until your daughter has been riding more than once a week for two years straight. The daughter should have a pretty reliable seat and confidence riding outside a ring environment. She should be reasonably capable handling horses on the ground, and experienced enough to be able to tell what sort of pony she likes. (Does she prefer a kick ride or a whoa ride? Mares vs. geldings? Unflappable vs. eyebally? Does she want opinions or not?) She should also have the agreement of her instructor that she’s ready for and capable of managing a pony of her own. At that point, you might agree to shopping for a “lease” pony that doesn’t really belong to you and that can be returned at the end of the lease.
Novice horsepeople face a bunch of challenges when shopping for horses. Assuming they buy an appropriate horse to start with (and this is a MAJORLY HUGE ASSUMPTION), there is still no guarantee that they will be able to keep the horse performing at a reasonable level. (When horses meet novice riders, horses tend to slip a little in terms of their behavior and manners because novice riders are not very good at correcting horses properly. I don’t mean that the novice riders are not trying their best. They simply lack the timing, ability, and experience to maintain a horse’s level of training. They are novices. It’s not WRONG to be a novice, but it does mean that novices should have some experienced support people to hand – instructors, trainers – to help them with the things they are not going to be able to solve on their own and may not notice until they are big issues.)
Let’s say you go ahead in spite of my good advice and buy the pony Lucky. Lucky is a twelve year old pony gelding with several years of experience in pony club and he’s a pretty solid citizen. Lucky is not a bad choice for a pony. He’s not super young. He’s a gelding and not a mare or stallion. He’s done the sorts of work that you might reasonably want a child’s mount to do, with a child rider.
However, your kid is a novice and Lucky is a pony, so… after a couple of weeks, Lucky starts to crowhop a little on canter departures. Your kid is looking down, leaning forward, and kinda slopping the reins when she cues him, so Lucky figures why not. (His previous kid sat the occasional mini buck in the warmup ring, spanked him firmly with a crop when it happened, and straightened his little ass out. Your kid, who is a novice, finds the crowhopping kind of terrifying and doesn’t correct it. In fact, your kid may plop off onto the ground when it happens so that Lucky gets to trot away, riderless, with his head held to the side to avoid tripping on his reins. Score one for Lucky, who is, it turns out, an old pro at this.) So, now your kid is afraid of Lucky and doesn’t want to ask him to canter anymore. At this point your kid is not having a good, safe time riding Lucky and so you have a problem.
Who’s going to fix Lucky? He’s not going to get better on his own. He will probably get worse if left to his own devices. (Lucky, I should point out, is not actually evil. He’s a pony lacking proper leadership and firm boundaries. His behavior change is more likely than not, particularly when he’s being ridden by novices with nobody watching over and/or stepping in to correct him.) Oh, and you can’t sell Lucky and get a new pony because your kid now loves him despite the fact that he’s a jerk.
All Lucky needs, here, is a reasonably-capable rider with decent timing who can get on him and sit his stupid little crowhops and spank his little butt and convince him that yes, indeed, he does wish to canter politely around the ring with a kid aboard because if he doesn’t, then he gets the more-advanced rider aboard and schools canter departures and flying lead changes until he quits being stupid. And he’ll need to be tuned up, occasionally, to keep him on the straight and narrow until your daughter is able to sit his stupid little crowhops and spank his little butt for herself. As it happens, by the time your daughter can pilot Lucky around a course of eight fences and make him look like the nice pony that you THOUGHT you bought, she will be ready for a newer, bigger, more capable pony (who will also be packing an undisclosed, undiscovered bag o’ tricks for your daughter to solve). Welcome to horses.
Let’s say your daughter and her instructor get Lucky straightened out (with an assist from the capable efforts of fifteen year old Emma, who boards her showjumper with the instructor, has ridden forever, and works problem ponies as a side gig because she has a velcro butt and excellent timing.) and things are lollipops and roses for two years.
Now your daughter’s feet hang well below Lucky’s barrel. She still really likes him, but he’s pretty much maxed out at 2'6" and honestly, she’s ready for 3’. She’s been riding with Emma, and boy, does that showjumping stuff look fun, but Lucky can’t take her there. He doesn’t have the ability, the talent, the scope. He’s a beginner’s pony and that’s what he was bought to be. Lucky’s old crowhoppy tricks are far in the past because your daughter has his number and can solve everything he does, but she needs a bigger, more capable horse with more jump in the box. Lucky, for his part, needs to be passed along to a new kid, one who can learn and grow from what he has to teach. (And yes, sometimes it’s “Sit the stupid little crowhops which are truly not that terrifying and whap the pony on the butt because he’s not allowed to do that and then go canter anyway.”) But your daughter is in love with Lucky because he was her Very First Pony Ever and she can’t bear to part with him and honestly, there is no money for two ponies. Heck, it’s a stretch to have one. Lucky needs to make way for a new pony… and if he were a lease, it would be easy to get rid of him. But he’s not.
(Note that this is pretty much the Best Case Scenario when you buy a pony. This is the happy ending – kid gets pony, pony is a pony, kid learns to ride better, kid outgrows pony, kid sells pony, kid moves on to bigger and more interesting pony. There are a lot of other endings to the story, but this here is the most typical happy ending. In exceedingly rare cases, the pony gets to retire and do nothing in a big grassy field once the kid outgrows it, but mostly, child-rideable ponies work until they drop dead from old age.)
It’s not time to buy a pony, even if your daughter really, really, really wants one. It is not time yet. There will always be ponies for sale (and for lease), no need to hurry up before the world runs out of them. Give the horse thing some time. Let your daughter get some experience first and see if this is really A Thing or just a temporary enthusiasm.
I am old and entirely un-fun. Once upon a time, I might have advised the non-horsey parent of a horse-crazy little girl to buy the horse-crazy little girl a pony. Now, I give the following advice: Don’t.
For a longer answer…
I’d hold off on the pony-buying thing for a while. Ponies live a long time (thirty years is not unheard of…), are difficult to get rid of if they don’t suit, and need to match up well to their rider in terms of size, temper, and ability. The pony that is a good fit for your kid right now, when she’s a very novice rider, will NOT be the pony that’s a good fit in two years, when she’s taller, more capable, and more interested in (for example) eventing at beginner novice or whatever. For youth that are physically growing and also growing in skill as riders, buying a specific pony is not really the way to go. When the rider’s size, ability, and interests are refocusing every year or so, that’s the time to rent ponies, not the time to buy them.
Wait until your daughter has been riding more than once a week for two years straight. The daughter should have a pretty reliable seat and confidence riding outside a ring environment. She should be reasonably capable handling horses on the ground, and experienced enough to be able to tell what sort of pony she likes. (Does she prefer a kick ride or a whoa ride? Mares vs. geldings? Unflappable vs. eyebally? Does she want opinions or not?) She should also have the agreement of her instructor that she’s ready for and capable of managing a pony of her own. At that point, you might agree to shopping for a “lease” pony that doesn’t really belong to you and that can be returned at the end of the lease.
Novice horsepeople face a bunch of challenges when shopping for horses. Assuming they buy an appropriate horse to start with (and this is a MAJORLY HUGE ASSUMPTION), there is still no guarantee that they will be able to keep the horse performing at a reasonable level. (When horses meet novice riders, horses tend to slip a little in terms of their behavior and manners because novice riders are not very good at correcting horses properly. I don’t mean that the novice riders are not trying their best. They simply lack the timing, ability, and experience to maintain a horse’s level of training. They are novices. It’s not WRONG to be a novice, but it does mean that novices should have some experienced support people to hand – instructors, trainers – to help them with the things they are not going to be able to solve on their own and may not notice until they are big issues.)
Let’s say you go ahead in spite of my good advice and buy the pony Lucky. Lucky is a twelve year old pony gelding with several years of experience in pony club and he’s a pretty solid citizen. Lucky is not a bad choice for a pony. He’s not super young. He’s a gelding and not a mare or stallion. He’s done the sorts of work that you might reasonably want a child’s mount to do, with a child rider.
However, your kid is a novice and Lucky is a pony, so… after a couple of weeks, Lucky starts to crowhop a little on canter departures. Your kid is looking down, leaning forward, and kinda slopping the reins when she cues him, so Lucky figures why not. (His previous kid sat the occasional mini buck in the warmup ring, spanked him firmly with a crop when it happened, and straightened his little ass out. Your kid, who is a novice, finds the crowhopping kind of terrifying and doesn’t correct it. In fact, your kid may plop off onto the ground when it happens so that Lucky gets to trot away, riderless, with his head held to the side to avoid tripping on his reins. Score one for Lucky, who is, it turns out, an old pro at this.) So, now your kid is afraid of Lucky and doesn’t want to ask him to canter anymore. At this point your kid is not having a good, safe time riding Lucky and so you have a problem.
Who’s going to fix Lucky? He’s not going to get better on his own. He will probably get worse if left to his own devices. (Lucky, I should point out, is not actually evil. He’s a pony lacking proper leadership and firm boundaries. His behavior change is more likely than not, particularly when he’s being ridden by novices with nobody watching over and/or stepping in to correct him.) Oh, and you can’t sell Lucky and get a new pony because your kid now loves him despite the fact that he’s a jerk.
All Lucky needs, here, is a reasonably-capable rider with decent timing who can get on him and sit his stupid little crowhops and spank his little butt and convince him that yes, indeed, he does wish to canter politely around the ring with a kid aboard because if he doesn’t, then he gets the more-advanced rider aboard and schools canter departures and flying lead changes until he quits being stupid. And he’ll need to be tuned up, occasionally, to keep him on the straight and narrow until your daughter is able to sit his stupid little crowhops and spank his little butt for herself. As it happens, by the time your daughter can pilot Lucky around a course of eight fences and make him look like the nice pony that you THOUGHT you bought, she will be ready for a newer, bigger, more capable pony (who will also be packing an undisclosed, undiscovered bag o’ tricks for your daughter to solve). Welcome to horses.
Let’s say your daughter and her instructor get Lucky straightened out (with an assist from the capable efforts of fifteen year old Emma, who boards her showjumper with the instructor, has ridden forever, and works problem ponies as a side gig because she has a velcro butt and excellent timing.) and things are lollipops and roses for two years.
Now your daughter’s feet hang well below Lucky’s barrel. She still really likes him, but he’s pretty much maxed out at 2'6" and honestly, she’s ready for 3’. She’s been riding with Emma, and boy, does that showjumping stuff look fun, but Lucky can’t take her there. He doesn’t have the ability, the talent, the scope. He’s a beginner’s pony and that’s what he was bought to be. Lucky’s old crowhoppy tricks are far in the past because your daughter has his number and can solve everything he does, but she needs a bigger, more capable horse with more jump in the box. Lucky, for his part, needs to be passed along to a new kid, one who can learn and grow from what he has to teach. (And yes, sometimes it’s “Sit the stupid little crowhops which are truly not that terrifying and whap the pony on the butt because he’s not allowed to do that and then go canter anyway.”) But your daughter is in love with Lucky because he was her Very First Pony Ever and she can’t bear to part with him and honestly, there is no money for two ponies. Heck, it’s a stretch to have one. Lucky needs to make way for a new pony… and if he were a lease, it would be easy to get rid of him. But he’s not.
(Note that this is pretty much the Best Case Scenario when you buy a pony. This is the happy ending – kid gets pony, pony is a pony, kid learns to ride better, kid outgrows pony, kid sells pony, kid moves on to bigger and more interesting pony. There are a lot of other endings to the story, but this here is the most typical happy ending. In exceedingly rare cases, the pony gets to retire and do nothing in a big grassy field once the kid outgrows it, but mostly, child-rideable ponies work until they drop dead from old age.)
It’s not time to buy a pony, even if your daughter really, really, really wants one. It is not time yet. There will always be ponies for sale (and for lease), no need to hurry up before the world runs out of them. Give the horse thing some time. Let your daughter get some experience first and see if this is really A Thing or just a temporary enthusiasm.
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Date: 2023-05-05 01:40 am (UTC)