Potential second horse. Tell me I'm being stupid ...

P

PePo

Well-Known Member
Jun 4, 2014
2,651
2,739
113
I've been offered a horse for sale. I've been on the fence about a second horse for a while and decided to adopt the approach of 'when it's meant to be it'll be' ...

He seems a nice enough horse and would seem to fit in well enough with my future plans.

But, he's full TB (which doesn't bother me at all) except that I already own a laminitic prone, good doer with a compromised metabolic system.

For those reasons, I'd kind of assumed my next would be along the lines of another native, Arab or cob type just so they could be turned out together etc.

How much of a PITA is actually owning two with totally different dietary needs when turned out in your own field sort of thing? Obviously the bucket side of feeding is much more easily manageable as buying two sets of feed/supplements if need be doesn't bother me.

I think I know the answer, I just maybe need to hear it from people that have actually done it :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jessey
I had a laminitis good doer with a skinny Arab ex racer. I now have a very fat native-type Highland X youngster with a skinny Arab ex-racer.

It's possible to chuck extra food into the poor doer and just keep on chucking it in, but I'm not sure I would recommend it as an easy life!
 
If you have the time to exercise two. How old is pete now.

I have the two but chunky is now semi retired. He wasnt when i got billy. But i have struggled to exercise two with everything else going kn in life. So i was lucky when the girls came along for a couple of years. It really fitted in well. With having an older calm horse hacking out along side a young newly broken lad. Since covid i havent had a rider for chunky and i have found it tricky exercising the two regularly.

Neither of mine have dietary issues. So very lucky in that respect. But the first 18 months when i had the both i had the two boys in the same field with a tape between them, and a section of no horse land so i was able to get in the field with bowls/hay and not getting mugged and therefore feeding was easy to do.
My two are in together and have different supplements in the grub now so i do have to make sure they get the right bowl. I just make sure that chunky gets given his bowl first everytime (he eats slower these days) and billy has to be respectful and wait. I walk away about 20ft and then put his down.
 
I got Hogan while I still had Ramsey, and it was do-able, but time consuming. Hogan needed nothing in the food department, and Ramsey couldn't eat hay, so 2 huge buckets of mush a day, that took ages to eat! That said, I only had to exercise Hogan, which I did while Ramsey ate, 2 birds with one stone. You don't sound wild about this new horse - is he really what you want? I don't envy you trying to make the decision!
 
To be fair to the horse @Huggy I don't really know the horse 🤣 He's in a friend of a friend's yard which I happened to be walking my dog past when the rider was leading him into the yard.

Rider said hello and commented on my dog (they've not seen him since we got him) , I commented on the horse and one thing led to another ...! I did have to decline trying him there and then when I was mildly hungover in wellingtons & jogging bottoms 🤣

I'm keen to try him but before I do, I want to be fairly certain the routine aspect would work and not create tonnes more work.

Pete's almost 16 and in light-medium work 5/6 times a week. In the summer he probably hacks 30 miles a week with Prelim level flatwork and low level jumping. Over winter he's in light work of about 15-20 miles a week plus Prelim flatwork & jumping. He's off 'proper' work at the moment bar some inhand stuff and walking out hacking but should be back in work in a month or two.

I think two on part livery would be easily do-able exercise & time wise. Ideally would look to have them nearer home long term and use a freelancer for jobs to free up time. In the longer term, I'm looking to cut down my hours working to have a better work-life balance (more pony time, basically)..

I'm more worried about it being difficult long term if they have opposing needs - if Pete has to be off the fields but is company for the TB, how will that work? Whereas if they are fat-prone they can be in the stable/fat paddock together and still have each other company :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: Huggy
Well at 30 miles a week that says 5 miles a day so 11/4 hrs of hacking at 15 min mile walk. Double that for two in full time work. Then theres the grooming, jobs and stable muck out. Its fine if you have the time.

Every horse is different but i found that having the two horses separate but in the same field worked well for me. For one they didnt have seperation anxiety. Once they went in together Billy got clingy. Now when i take Chunky out of the field Billy gets stressy. So from that point of view i would say i was happier when they were individual grazing. Of course it is quicker bringing two horses in together than going getting one and taking back to the field then getting the other in. It might sound like im being silly but that 5/10 minutes getting each one in and out all adds up.

I also know someone who had two ponies grazing together and they stressed if the other was taken out the field. They have sold those ponies but now have new ones and i notice that right from the word go they have been in separate paddocks. They dont seem to get stressed when one comes in and the other is out.
Its good you are trying to have a plan on managing them.
 
I wouldn't discount opposing needs but it can be more challenging, but so long as the TB isn't a really poor doer it can work out quite nicely as they can have a similar routine in terms of forage and just different buckets, and you have a willing and able lawn mower before the sensitive one goes into a new bit ;)

Jess as you know is sensitive to many things, Niko is young and IMO should be on grass for normal growth and development (mostly I don't want to deprive him of it then have him not able to tolerate it later in life because of that), so my plan is simply that the fatties will stay on track as normal and Niko will go on grass turnout during the day, in the middle. Before Niko I picked up an Ex-racer on trial, she was really lovely but one of the reasons she went back (when the option of Indie came along) was her eating habits, on a grass paddock 1 haynet lasted her 48 hours and she only picked at the grass and hung around waiting for her bucket of nuts, which apparently she got 4x a day at the race yard and was all she was really interested in, even in the 2 weeks I had her she dropped weight (and then put it back on when I gave in and piled the nuts into her), she was going to be very difficult to maintain alongside my others but equally the TB I had with mine a few years ago was easy, just needed a bit more in his bucket feed.

I think I'd definitely say go and try him, and ask all those questions but try to stay objective, in that if it is going to be too much work you are prepared to walk away. If you love everything else about him you might be willing to do the extra work, if not you'll know.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Huggy
PePo said:
To be fair to the horse @Huggy I don't really know the horse 🤣 He's in a friend of a friend's yard which I happened to be walking my dog past when the rider was leading him into the yard.

Rider said hello and commented on my dog (they've not seen him since we got him) , I commented on the horse and one thing led to another ...! I did have to decline trying him there and then when I was mildly hungover in wellingtons & jogging bottoms 🤣

I'm keen to try him but before I do, I want to be fairly certain the routine aspect would work and not create tonnes more work.

Pete's almost 16 and in light-medium work 5/6 times a week. In the summer he probably hacks 30 miles a week with Prelim level flatwork and low level jumping. Over winter he's in light work of about 15-20 miles a week plus Prelim flatwork & jumping. He's off 'proper' work at the moment bar some inhand stuff and walking out hacking but should be back in work in a month or two.

I think two on part livery would be easily do-able exercise & time wise. Ideally would look to have them nearer home long term and use a freelancer for jobs to free up time. In the longer term, I'm looking to cut down my hours working to have a better work-life balance (more pony time, basically)..

I'm more worried about it being difficult long term if they have opposing needs - if Pete has to be off the fields but is company for the TB, how will that work? Whereas if they are fat-prone they can be in the stable/fat paddock together and still have each other company :D
Click to expand...
It sounds like you have your sensible head on - if you think you can cope then you probably will - people do. If you're anything like me, if you fall for him, the heart will take over anyway! :p
 
Is the long term plan to just have a field for your 2 or still be on a yard? I think on a yard could be easier management wise as Pete could be in whilst the other was out or vice versa.
 
Long term plan is to buy our own place @Ale . Either a house with land attached or a house separate to the yard/land and then depending if I'm still working full or part time, employ help accordingly.

In the short-medium term I'd have two on part livery or both on a DIY or a sole yard and employ a freelance groom.

I've decided against it - I'm confident I could manage two time wise, but I'm less confident I could manage two with completely different needs without compromising one or both of them somewhere along the line.

I'll go back to the original plan of 'sort-of-half-looking-if-the-right-one-comes-along' :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: Huggy
it's hard to balance and keep together two which need a lot of different care. I have this situation here, a veteran who needs his grub and 4 fatties.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Huggy
newrider.com
Top Bottom
Back