Why buy your child a pony?

From experience a great way to test the commitment of your child to horses it to invest in regular lessons at a riding school and have them attend a multiday camp where the majority of the care of the horse will be undertaken by the students eg mucking out stables, cleaning tack, cleaning up stable areas, setting up arena equipment. Usually these camps start nice and early in the morning! The supervising instructors will be able to report honestly about the enthusiasm remaining at the end of the week! So many little girls are shocked to learn that the real horse world is not like the Saddle Club series on TV or really as "Cute Pink Pony" as so many books about ponies make out.

Two tips for buying a pony -

First tip - A high level performance pony (no matter how small) is VERY RARELY suitable as a first pony. They are sensitive and clever (that is why they perform so well) it can be quite scary for a child to learn to master various aids when a pony has been trained to respond to very light aids, as most performace ponies have been. Also most performance ponies are quite forward moving as required in all disciplines and a normal forward trot and canter can feel very fast and frightening for a beginner/inexperience child (doesn't matter if they are quite confident). I really feel that this is true even if you yourself are an experience rider. Don't buy your childs first pony to boost your own ego - "Oh my daughter is only 6 years old been riding for 6 months and training Medium dressage/jumping 1m/eventing". Sounds silly doesn't it!

A steady less sensitive pony with good basics will be much loved and appreciated by all! It might not be able to do flying changes, jump very high or win a beauty contest but your child will learn to ride whilst having fun and gaining confidence.

Second tip - When you go to look at a pony or horse for a child or teenager have one thought in your head at all times. "What I am seeing from this pony/horse at this exact moment is the best it is going to be." Only VERY experienced and deticated teenagers are able to train and educate horses and ponies. Even if a child is a talented rider it is beyond their mental development to be able to train and educate a pony. If the owners of the horse or pony are having trouble or difficulties riding be especially wary. Only if you as a parent are an experienced rider who is small enough to ride the potential pony can you hope to improve it. Don't forget this would have to be several regular training sessions per week plus riding your own horse!

Children and teenagers can be SO desperate to own their own horse or pony they will summon up great amounts of courage on the day to look like they are competent enough to ride ANY horse. Then when you finally get the horse or pony home the wheels fall off in a big way!

BE WARNED many children will fall in love with the first horse or pony that you take them to see, no matter how unsuitale it turn out to be. So do as much research by phone, email, video and asking around as you can before you go out to visit. Any doubts DON'T GO! An afternoon of heartbreak from not buying a horse your child has known for five minutes is much better than hospitalisation with a serious injury or a completely losing confidence in everything equine.

Forwarned is forearmed so BEST OF LUCK with horse hunting!

By Meagan Pratt, 01 Jun 2010