By Steve Babb

The idea of owning ponies is wonderful, as is the reality most of the time. For me, I get a great deal of pleasure from seeing my two kids charging about with their jodhpurs on and spending time brushing and grooming their respective ponies. If somebody had said to me 20 years ago that I’d draw as much enjoyment as I do now I would have told them they were mistaken.

We are lucky enough to have our paddocks and a stabling area adjacent to our house so irrespective of the weather the kids can see their ponies and bring them into the stables if they want too. This has not been more important than in the last few months when we have had an incredible amount of rain turning the fields to mud baths most of the time.

This year has seen us starting to take the ponies to shows and seeing the look on the kid’s faces when they get a rosette is fantastic. It does not matter whether it’s a pony gymkhana, lead rein class, first ridden pony or something more advanced a rosette is a rosette!

We have been doing Mountain & Moreland classes as well as lead rein with our eldest daughter and her Welsh Section A pony. Very soon we hope to take our youngest daughters Shetland Pony as well and she can do the pony gymkhana at the same event.

So it all sounds rosy and in the most part it is but you have got to be aware of the practicalities.

-You need to have the time and the money if you want to own ponies

- Going for an hours ride at the riding school is very different from owning your own pony

-You need your own trailer as continually borrowing one is simply not practical

-You need to have either your own stabling or somewhere close at hand where you can bring the ponies in for grooming

Please look out for my piece on buying second hand horse and pony trailers so you can benefit from the hard lessons we have learned.

About the Author: Owner and lover of Ponies, Shetland Ponies and all Native Ponies http://www.theponytackshop.co.uk

Source: www.isnare.com
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