Ah it’s our first blog post! Thanks for supporting us, we’re really excited with where this is going and delighted that you are joining us on our journey.
“You either have the time OR the money, never both “
Why Share Your Horse?
Deciding to share your horse is a big decision, your horse is your pride and joy and allowing someone else to come in and help can often be a hard decision to make. Often the decision to share your horse is due to time or financial pressures. There’s no getting away from it, horses are expensive! Finding the right sharer is so important to make sure that you enjoy the experience of sharing your horse, we’ll be putting up checklists for what to look out for in a potential sharer and what you can do to ensure that you and your horse are protected.
Why Decide to Share Someone’s Horse?
Your decision to start sharing a horse is often driven due to lack of time/finances. Horses are expensive and time consuming, unfortunately not everyone has the luxury of time AND money. Someone very wise once said that you only ever have the time OR the money, never both. Sharing a horse is a good middle ground as it lets you experience owning your own horse but without the financial or time commitment. I (Rosie, Share My Pony Founder) have always enjoyed sharing horses and it’s always been a good middle ground for me between owning and not having a horse at all! But there is not getting around it, finding the right horse can be a minefield, and once you have found one, you need to ensure you are protected. We’ll be posting checklists and tips to ensure you are safe, and most importantly, have FUN!
Keeping Safe…
So, you’ve made the decision to start sharing your horse, or to find a share horse. To make sure you keep safe, we’ve got some checklists for you to have a look at:
Sharing Your Horse:
– Ensure that your advert is as accurate and honest as possible. No one wants to arrive to see a horse that was advertised at 14″2 bombproof hack to discover it’s a 17″1 highly strung warmblood…
– When deciding how much to ask for ensure that this covers everything. You want to make it as reasonable as possible, never to make money.
– Make sure you show your sharer where everything on the yard is! Speaking from experience running around in the dark trying to find a headcollar to catch a horse you have never seen before is always challenging..
– Make sure you are happy with the insurance position, your sharer should have insurance to cover them in an accident but make sure you are protected to.
– We would strongly recommend putting in place a contract between you and your sharer to cover you both, this is a good template: https://www.liverylist.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Sample-Share-Agreement.pdf
Having a Share Horse:
– Be brutally honest in your riding ability and confidence of handling horses. It is important for your safety!
– Ensure you are happy with the commitment you are making. If you can only do one day a week then that’s fine, always best to be upfront.
– Ask questions! If you want to know something just ask.
– Consider getting insurance, you can get third party insurance from the British Horse Society which will cover you in an accident whilst you are on your share horse.
– Be upfront with your financial situation, ensure you don’t over commit!
– Your owner is likely to put a contract in place, make sure you are happy with what is stated and any ‘get out’ clauses.
Happy Sharing! We’d love to hear about your share horses, get in touch with us via email or social media.
Share My Pony Team x
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