Posted 2008-05-04 5:29 PM (#83107 - in reply to #83064) Subject: RE: Weanling Purchase
Expert
Posts: 1723 Location: michigan
You were not bashed but you were given sound counsel , good advice and information. What you choose to do with it is up to you. However,if your going to ask for advice and counsel, get a tougher skin. I can understand how your 9 yr old can easily manipulate you.
Posted 2008-05-05 9:28 AM (#83165 - in reply to #82931) Subject: RE: Weanling Purchase
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 350 Location: Newton, NJ
Wow... What a great discussion!... Raising children is like raising colts - both need discipline, patience, time and money... If you are going to raise either one, you are going to set yourself up for a lot of criticism and opinion from the "outside". No one can evaluate your child's ability to raise and train a colt just from some chat room dialogue. No one can evaluate or predict the behaviour, disposition, and trainability of the colt from a few lines in an email.
You know your kid and if you are truly horse savvy, you should know the colt's potential. If you have the money to play this game, you should be able to enlist the help of an experienced professional to teach both your child and your colt. If you are willing to risk injury to both (child and colt), then you may not need a professional.
You're the grownup. You should make the decision without taking offense at opinions that you solicited on this thread.
Posted 2008-05-07 6:58 PM (#83452 - in reply to #82931) Subject: RE: Weanling Purchase
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 362 Location: Allegan, Michigan
Having had my jaw broken by a PONY weanling, I have to side with all who are against this. The very fact your daughter is only 9 is a HUGE red flag. I have been around horses 40+ yrs, have shown, been working trackside as a pony rider, and groom. I can tell you from experience a weanling is not a good "project". They are very time consuming, need lots of repetition and consistant training from experienced horse people. A 9 yr old even supervised, is not going to be consistant enough, strong enough, and as others stated, will allow bad habits to form.
It does appear you have already made up your mind, the best thing for you is to get a good life insurance policy and make sure your medical is up to date.
Weanlings is strong, and VERY unpredictible. The pony weanling who broke my jaw was only 4 mos old and was a shetland. Yet she was quick and strong enough to whirl around and nail me in the jaw. It can happen that fast.
I wish you luck, because I also believe it is a train wreck waiting to happen.
Posted 2008-05-08 7:48 AM (#83482 - in reply to #82931) Subject: RE: Weanling Purchase
Member
Posts: 45 Location: Goreville, Illinois
Ok, I have to add my 2 cents too. I would like to start off by saying that my daughter is one of a kind and that I know her very well. She is not like most kids. I would never not supervise or not care what she is doing at the barn, but this kid knows her stuff. She is 10 years old and she is more of a horse person than most people 3x her age. She has broke 3 horses in her time and worked on the 4th last fall; one being a minature that was 18 months old, 2 haflingers that she was riding by the time they were yearlings, with the latest being my 2-year-old that we have now (although he is my project now). She was/is always supervised and always given pointers. Basically, she just has their total trust and they dont care what she does to them. My mom or I were always with her when the horses were very young and helped her with them until they could be trusted to do their own thing. She has, thank God, never been hurt by any one our horses.
I think that it would be a good thing for you to do with your daughter if you have the time to spend with her and your prospective new purchase. Dont think that all kids are the same or all horses are the same. Just because one persons situation is one way doesnt mean that yours will work that well. I think you are pretty aware of this. I hate it when everyone bashes or gangs up on people and well, they might get all over my case now, but that is just my opinion. I think there are far worse things that you could involve your kid in besides getting them a baby horse to play with. Please keep an open mind when getting tips or pointers and always keep an eye on your "babies" when they are playing. Have fun!!!
Posted 2008-05-10 10:03 AM (#83647 - in reply to #83482) Subject: RE: Weanling Purchase
Member
Posts: 12
ihorsecick33, thank you. I, too, have a daughter that has " a way with animals." As I have said in my earlier posts, she love the interaction. Yesterday at lessons, her trainer started working with her on "training" her horse, which is a little younger than 4, to respect "people" space. Within 5 minutes, they had him backing up 3 or 4 steps with just the shake of a finger. Her hbr instructor, who is also a 6th grade school teacher, recognizes my daughters intelligence, her strong, yet gentle, will. She does recognize that buying a "baby" is something she would not recommend for just anyone. Yet she has not discouraged us at all. It is probably because we have people near to us, and though we don't have financially "deep" pockets, we can afford to and do have a "backup" plan in place. Thanks for your encouragement.
Weanling Purchase
