The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Pets & Working Animals => Horses, ponies, donkeys & mules => Topic started by: DartmoorLiz on November 25, 2016, 03:24:40 pm
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Hi,
someone has asked if their 13.2 pony can over winter with my 2 ponies. There's enough space for 3. I have never done this before. What should I be concerned about? What do other people charge?
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My mum, South Wales charges £10 a for grass.
Be aware of everything and get a contract document signed.
Like the term of the agreement, the day the money is due. Notice should rent not be paid.
If her horse gets injured by your ponies or a faulty fence/gate. If her saddle gets nicked from the shed.
If her pony goes through a fence or hurts one of yours who's liable for repairs and vet fees?
Feed can become hassle if she wants to feed differently from you - will you just split hay cost three ways? Will she take her pony out of field to feed it a bucket (if you/she do/don't bucket feed).
Worming timing, ideally done as/before she moves in and thereafter all wormed together.
Just some tips: most you'll never need to think of, then you get someone who won't pay, won't move their horse out, is hitting the other ponies with a whip so she can bucket feed her horse, and claims that you owe her £100 because her rug was nicked from the roadside gate while she went out for a ride!
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£10 a ...?
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Sorry, week.
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I wouldn't have anyone else's animals grazing with mine over winter.
The grass has virtually stopped growing now, so although you may think you have ample grazing, you will find it soon goes and you won't get any more growing (worth speaking of) till about April. As soon as the grass is gone the land will get chewed up and muddy and you will have spoiled your pasture for next year. If you then ask your visitor to remove their pony you will then most likely get the hard luck tale that there is nowhere else for the animal to go. (Which is why your grazing is needed in the first place.) And you'll feel mean and rotten about what really isn't your responsibility.
SO - a bleak answer, I know - but that's reality. Winter grazing is priceless. What you have now has to last you till spring and once it's gone - it's gone!
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We took a pony in for a few weeks while its owner - who we knew and liked - went on a trip.
It was a very bossy pony, we ended up having to use a second field so the less pushy ponies weren't bossed all the time. And then the outsider and our bossier pony, who got on well with him, made a deep rut all along the boundary, pacing up and down glaring at the others in the next field. So although he didn't eat more than his share, we ended up using more than twice as much ground in order to accommodate the 5th pony.
And her trip went on... and on... and on...
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Thanks guys, caution wins over generosity.
I love this forum, I don't have to have experience, I can just learn from other people's. :thumbsup: