Hi

I am hopefully going to be having a pony on loan from my friend, I was wondering how much the going rate is to have a pony on loan? She is living, and will stay, at my friends yard with her 2 horses. She will still be feeding, mucking out and generally looking after the pony and I will be exercising the pony whenever I want. I know full livery is approx £70-80 a week on the Isle of Wight (where I live ;-) ) but  how much would this set up cost me weekly? I don't want to rip her off. My friend has not got the time to exercise her and bring her on, she is a youngster. My friend is concentratng on her Hannovarian and arab and her daughter has lost interest in the pony.

If anyone can help I would be greatfull, if not could anyone suggest a decent horse forum where I could maybe ask someone on there?

Thanks in advance

Hi there,I used to go on the Arabianlines forum and found them really friendly and helpful.You dont just have to have an Arab to go on there.Try that one,they will give you all the advice and help you need,I know they did for me.

Thanks Ponk, I will check it out :-)

Hello Tigerlily,

Could you clarify what question you are asking? Are you asking if you should charge your friend to exercise her horse?

Having a pony on loan usually means that you take on the looking after/mucking out etc as opposed to just the riding. I had a horse on loan all last winter - I did not charge the lady, she did not charge me, and I paid for the upkeep. We had a written contract - e.g. I paid for shoeing/routine vets/dope for clipping, whereas the owner paid for emergencies (thankfully none happened).

I've also exercised horses ... could you PM me with more details on your question and I'll see if I can help?

Thanks guys, I was wanting to know how much I would pay her. As I wouldn't be mucking out etc I know I should pay her for letting me ride, even though I would be helping her out. Sorry, if I was unclear.

Hello again!

I would work out how much you are able/willing to pay per week. And then have a chat with your friend and see how much she is expecting you to contribute ... and then see where to go from there.

Whenever I've exercised horses (solely exercising, no upkeep) I've mostly done it for free (for friends), or I've been paid a nominal amount. Mostly people are so happy that you're reliable and will ride their horse regularly and competently that they wouldn't think of charging. But this is only my experience. :) :)

I know there are other arrangements though around horse sharing and stuff ... so maybe you could try this forum as well ...
http://www.equine-world.co.uk/fhome.asp

Hope that helps ... :)

Thank you very much Aussierocks (sure that's not your real name ;-) )

My friend is on her way now for a chat and a coffee, i've even got butterflies! We will talk it over and see what happens.

Where it is me who is asking to help her out, rather than her ask me, I feel I should offer something, do you know what I mean? The ammount I would have to pay if I went to a stables would be rediculous, it is also a 2way thing, I really want this, to be able to ride whenever I want without having to book etc.

I'll let you know how it goes, fingers crossed for me.

I've got my fingers crossed for you .... :) :)

Well it went brilliantly, going to the yard on Saturday to have a ride and see how we want to take things further :-D very pleased, thanks for your help.

I was in the same situation as you earlier this year - in that I was riding a horse for a lady however she was still doing all of the mucking out etc etc (she had had an accident and couldn't ride but still wanted to be involved no matter how much I said that I was happy to do everything).  We set a price of £20 a week for me to ride.  I though that was fair as prior to this I was paying £20 a week for an hours lesson so it was great really - the same price for unlimited riding!!  :-)

Hi Tigerlily,

Hope you don't mind me butting in on this discussion, just wanted to wish you luck with the horse sharing/loaning with your friend.

I don't want to put a dampener on things, but just wanted to share my experience to make sure no-one else gets caught out :( I had horses all of my life until a couple of years ago, and when I was at college, I found that I didn't have time to excercise her as much as I would like, so when a friend offered to ride her I jumped at the chance. She paid me a bit towards the keep in return for being able to ride when she liked.

Anyway, she had a (thankfully minor) accident while out on a hack, which meant that my horse had to have some stitches and be on antibiotics. One thing that we hadn't checked was the horses insurance, and i don't know if it's the case with all insurance companies, but mine wouldn't pay up, because my friend was regularly exercising her and not me, they classed the horse as being 'hired out', which apparently makes the insurance invalid.

I'm not saying anything like this will happen to you (heaven forbid), but even if it is just quite a casual arrangement with your friend. it's best just to double check things like tat so you don't get caught out.

Sorry - can't recommend a good horse forum, but it looks like there's quite a few 'horsey' people around here anyway :)

Claire
(sorry for the long ramble!)

Thanks Claire,

After reading that I will definately get my own insurance, so if anything did happen both myself and horse would be covered.

Hi Charanda

It is awkward isn't it? I was thinking of roughly £20-£30, cos as you said I have also paid more than that for a lesson/hack. She will be doing the mucking out etc as she will still be looking after her other 2 horses. It is purely the exercising part she needs help with. Which is good for me :-D

Looking forward to Saturday now :-)

Good luck :) Sounds more like a Share arrangement to me than a loan. She's very lucky to have you. Finding a reliable, competant, paying sharer is very difficult these days.

Good horse forum: Kelly Marks - IH and Click on Discussion Group :)

Horse and Hound

http://www.saddle-up.org.uk/forums/
Dawn.

Thank you everyone for your help :-)

Hiya Tigerlily

My family own around 16 horses and we loan ponies out etc for free. We currently have some kids who come up and look after the horse etc but dont actually pay for anything unless they want to. Basically if someone wants to have the horse on loan they much out etc and ride that particular horse as much as they want but if they dont want to have to pay for a horse they basically get which horse we give them. So they dont pay for the loan of the horse they just pay for their up-keep. I wish someone would ride my horse regular cos its so difficult when you've got a full time job!! My sister has been riding him and apparently he broncoed (?sp) with her and it scared her so she hasnt rode him since (which means he'll associate bucking with her jumping off and Ill have a right job on my hands!!!)

Is there any other full time working horse mums out there and how do you cope? I havent seen my baby for about 2 months!!

I can see why you don't have time. I don't work but I do have 2 small children, one at playschool the other just stated big school :-D So have some actual spare time now. But my friend who I will be helping out works full time and she has to muck out in the evenings after working a 10 hour day. Don't know how she does it.