Yearling pony for a one year old?

Wow, it's been awhile since I've visited the forum.. my last post was in 2008!!!

The reason for my long absence is that my horses are retired. Royale is 29 and just starting to show his age Cody is only 22, but he's always had a bad back and feet so I decided to let him enjoy early retirement. The only saddle I own is a tiny little pony saddle I couldn't bear to part with.

Lately I've been thinking it's time to fill that pony saddle.

I have owned horses for 20 years. I have quite a bit of experience, including training (not in any particular discipline, just the basics and trail riding, though I've done a few local county fair shows just for fun). My horses are kept at my parents house, where we have 140 acres and free hay (we lease our big field to a neighboring farmer and in exchange he bales our hay field for us).

I have a one year old son and obviously it's too early to tell if he's inherited the "horse crazy" gene from his mommy. Still, I've been dreaming of getting him a pony if he eventually shows interest, once he's older. Well, an opportunity has fallen into my lap that I don't know if I want to pass up.

I found a very nice looking yearling Shetland Pony on my local Craigslist. I really like the looks of this pony (obviously I'd need to actually go see him to fully evaluate him) and the price is right. Here's what's tugging at my heart strings: he looks very similar to my beloved first pony, Bandit.

I'm thinking at the time this pony might be ready for an inexperienced rider, my son might be ready to ride. If my son isn't into horses, the pony could either be sold to a good home or simply stay with my other horses.

So... am I crazy of thinking of buying a yearling pony for my one year old son? (And, let's be honest, the pony would be for me, too, though not for riding).

You sound as if you have a good head on your shoulders, so if the pony turns out to be what you're looking for, I say go for it. It's not like you're buying the pony expecting your son and it 'to grow up together'.

Nah I'm sure with your experience in training horses training a lead line pony won't be all that hard... It isn;t like he's going to be doing anything but that anytime soon X-D, plus since he's young you're likely to have a very fresh clean slate to work with so you could make sure he's going to be safe to your specifications... just my two cents lol

Oh, the phrase that sends shudders down every good horseperson's spine! I spent many hours trying to talk my various training clients out of doing just that. In the end I gave up training for other people. The horses were great.. it was the people who wouldn't listen.

Truer words were never spoken, erm, typed.

This is what I'm thinking, as well. I've spent most of my horse-related career fixing "problem" horses, so it would be nice to get something young to train up right from the start.

Yeah horses are easy to train, they're very hard to re-train properly... lol

I used to work with rescue and slaughter bound horses ... It was a mess 99.9% of the time, most of the horses weren't bad horses they were taught to respond inappropriately/not at all which made them really only worth their weight in meat which is sad... But once you pound into them the new stuff they catch on however you need to work with them constantly or they're likely to forget it and go back to old habits...

Two of the horses I worked with (and ended up keeping) were older Arabs that had been studs for their entire lives. One of them (Royale) was gelded at the age of 17. I trained him for riding at the age of 20. (He's now 29 and enjoying retirement). He was abused... one of his former owners used to tie him up and whip him on his back legs because, "you have to show a stud who's boss." It took me five years to get him over his fear of getting his rear feet handled. My other Arab, Mirage, was a severe neglect case. He was a stud his whole life. His legs were actually bent from spending too much time in a concrete floored stall. He had NO idea how to just be a horse and spent the last years of his life with my geldings learning how to do that and just enjoying life, until we lost to him to an aortic aneurysm. The rescue cases will really break your heart, sometimes!

Oh yeah they will... My first gelding was a quarter horse/ TWH golden body flaxen mane and tail. Huge boy. When I got him he had the worse case of strangles I had ever seen blown out the side of his neck and oozing puss to boot he was completely lame from his previous owner being so wealthy he actually just forgot about him... Another pony we fostered was this welsh/arab who was for sure about 20yo who apparently came from mexico (shady guy who runs a 'rescue' out here) anyways the pony came to us literally suffocating on air because his throte was so inflamed from untreated allergies and ended up dying in the stall not too soon after despite our vet's efforts... The lists go on and on I wish I knew then what I do now and maybe some of my schooling could be put to use but you live and learn I suppose... I guess though if it weren;t for them I wouldn't be trying to be a vet, ahh sorry for the rant just remembering the poor lost nd forgotten souls