Grandkids want a horse or pony

[HiddenOaksMoms]

I'M GOING TO PUT THIS IN CAPITALS BECAUSE IT IS VERY IMPORTANT. PLEASE REMEMBER i am not yelling at you. PLEASE START WITH LESSONS. As the quote from sawfish99 has said, it is imperative that the grandchildren take to riding and learning all their is to know BEFORE THEY GET ONE. Bring a single horse onto a dairy, sheep, goat farm can be disastrous for your herd. If the horse is on its own it may try to get into your herd causing untold grief to itself, your herd and you. Horses and ponies are by nature herd animals and two is always much better than one. The cost of information, training and gaining experience is much lower than any disaster could possibly be. I agree wholeheartedly with sawfish. The other much cheaper way you could certainly go with is lessons and leasing a horse for the kids. I prefer a small horse 14 hands to 15 hands to any pony since they are much kinder and much more level headed and predictable. Ponies are such conniving, rambunctious, and sometimes very bratty little beasties. Horses don't even compare.
The best of both worlds to all of you.
Michele/Hidden Oaks Farm

I have a slightly different opinion. I don't think you should get a horse or a pony. The grandkids want the horse. You just want to make them happy, but don't neccessarily want the horse. Learning the ropes with a horse in a backyard environment, when you have no horse experience, is dangerous. You don't have the horse background to understand the safety aspects of teaching grandkids to ride. You don't know what to look for in a horse that makes it good or bad.

I think the money you would spend on keeping a horse would MUCH better spent on formal riding lessons for the grandkids. That gives them an educated instructor, someone you can also learn from, and plenty of time to try it before you buy a horse. If after 2-3 years of regular riding you have become comfortable with handling horses and they are still interested, then consider getting a horse.

The idea of generalizing horses and ponies is ridiculous. Our smallest pony is the youngest, and safest horse we own. My wife uses it to give formal lessons to a 3.5 year old. I just think their is a LOT more to know about horse ownership, and specifically buying a horse/pony, than we can possibly summarize in a forum response.