[Blistering Winds]

The worse ride I ever had was on a 13.2 hand horse/pony. The trot almost KILLED ME! Give me a full size horse any day!!!

Again, With the right training, any Kid, 4 yrs old and up, can handle a horse. I've seen more kids HURT on ponies than on horses. Teeth and hooves alike.

I've seen an 8 yr old boy take a 16hh nut case barrel horse and put him back into his place. Something NEITHER Parent could do. That kid, to this day, amazes me.

Again, with the right TRAINING, any size, shape, age person can handle any size horse.

[Lou3]

also at least a 12.2hh pony will notice the child is there, the 16hh horses in my field barely notice I'M there sometimes - and i'm not exactly tiny.

[Blistering Winds]

I have to differ Lou...on a GOOD TRAINED Horse, it doesn't MATTER where the leg falls. They feel the pressure, they DO IT. Blister listens just fine to my 4 yr old. She is learning to nudge with a certain leg to turn the directions, instead of relying on the bit. He barely listens to me, but man, he'll listen to her. And her legs are WAY higher than mine.

So I'll have to disagree on the leg being in a specific place on a horse. If trained, they can listen to the leg in ANY position on the barrel.

[Dawn]

That's an issue of training lou. At 100+ lbs, a horse will notice that you're on his back. Whether he chooses to respect that you're on his back or not is a different matter.

[MissBandit]

Originally Posted by Lou3

No it doesnt - you still need well-broke and quiet, however - if you give a child of eight a well-broke and quiet 12.2hh and a well-broke and quiet 15.2hh, they will get much better results and improve their riding a lot more on the 12.2hh.

I strongly disagree there. Personal opinion.

[Shotgun93]

I disagree Lou - my horse was close to 16 hh and I did just fine on him, even though I was pretty small. In fact, I beat a lot of kids twice my age when I showed. I am still pretty small and I can go from riding my 15 hand gelding to the big boys - 17 and 17.1 hands and I do just fine on all of them - All though, I do look a little funny on the big guys!
Anyway - Just my opinion.

[KZWestern]

I agree with everyone else. If you want to keep that horse, let someone exsperienced work with her.

Often times parents (like you!) think that the horse and child will grow together... I've read many cases where it is exactly the opposite and the child just gets scared. This is perfectly reasonable... horses are big animals, kids are not. Horses are much more mature and can outthink a kid in a heart beat.

I'd really strongly suggest getting a horse that is anywhere from 13 to 20 years old. If you take good care of him, he'll last a long time.

[budgirl]

I am now 16 and am on my 3 year old ive been riding for over 10 years and have been told im pretty good im not sure tho and some days i have a hard time with dakota

[S&S Farms]

When we sell a horse to a parent for a child this is our thoughts.
Your childs age plus the horses age should equal out to 20.... We know that 20 is an old horse. So far that thought and figuring has worked out great for us here and the parents that we have sold horses to. Most of the time the kids will learn and out grow the old horse and the parents come back to us and trade the old horse for a younger horse in a few years. Just our thought......

[farmchick,isr]

As a mom and rider.....no horse is bomb proof as my 25 yr old cart mare is showing me now. I don't care if something pinched, or she's a bit sore whatever the reason...any horse can lose it and a tiny child falling from great distance is tooooo DANGEROUS!!! I don't care how experienced the rider or horse are. If the animal decides not to listen, it has no problem dismounting a strong rider let alone a child. Inexperience rider with inexperienced horse are never acceptable....even if the father buyer insisted the trainer should have refused to take responsibility training a child on such a youngster. As a parent definetly invest in a small pony, even welshes are kind of tall for little children, maybe a mix welsh with shetland, and make sure it is elderly, working with young children, make sure the family will allow their children to ride and with or without supervision and make sure their kids enjoy riding the pony. If the owner's kids won't ride it that definetly says alot. So the gait isn't comfortable, and ponies are a bit stubborn so what?!! An injured child or god forbid worse is just not worth the sport. Never but never let a child ride without supervision, that means walking right alongside and even if necessary keep a short lead on and build up from there slowly and carefully. GL, we all make mistakes better to fix it now before it gets worse.