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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 368
 
Location: Ellensburg, Washington | Thanks for all the advice. The closest place to ride is a couple hundred yards from where the house is so leaving him isn't an option. I will keep encouraging him to ride but not push it. Last year he did peewee barrels but never by himself. We have a club race tomorrow so I will probably take him and the pony and see how it goes. Have a friend that has a solid "big" horse that we might try. Hopefully he won't be so wiggly! Or I will see if he wants to be lead around on my gelding. Thanks again. |
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 Hot Dispatcher
Posts: 10185
Location: Utah | My husband and I both grew up riding. We decided not to push our kids. We bought our oldest a pony for his second birthday. He was a great pony but like every pony he pushed buttons to see what he could get away with. My oldest got bucked off and fell off then didn't want to ride any more. We didn't push him and we had UTAHCANCHASER offer us the perfect horse Woody her husbands old head horse. Our son fell in love with the horse and riding, he is now 11 and rides any horse offered to him he just started team roping and rode my rodeo horse great last year and has sole all of my barrel prospects for rope horses. Just have patience. |
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 I Prefer to Live in Fantasy Land
Posts: 64864
 
Location: In the Hills of Texas | I was showing in western pleasure and horsemanship classes at AQHA shows when I was 6 years old. My niece was exhibitioning at rodeos when she was 5. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 672
| My 4yo is off and on and I don't push him. If he asks to ride I always stop what I'm doing (if possible) and get his pony out and we might go for a 20 min jaunt or it might be 10 min lol. He might ride every day for a week or go a week without riding. Right now we are just keeping it fun. I have a safe area with lots of stuff for him to play with (aka big dirt pile lol) by my round pen and the patch I work my horses in to keep him busy because he likes hanging out with me. He offers advice too like kick kick kick and good one mom! I don't ride without someone else around as I've been in too many out of the blue wrecks and wouldn't want something to happen and have him be alone. Sometimes I get frustrated because I only have X amount of time in the day and trying to get horses worked, but then I remind myself it's only going to be this way for a little bit. As long as he is interested I will have ponies/good horses for him, but if he'd rather pursue soccer, baseball, whatever I will support that!
I agree that having friends to ride with helps! My son doesnt like riding in the arena unless there's steers, ropes, or other kids! |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 878
Location: "...way down south in the Everglades..." | My son is 11 and every now and then shows interest but barely ever wants to ride. I've thought about pushing him some, but I don't believe in forcing something he's just not into. I'm hoping one day he gets into it. But maybe he never will. It does bother me as I'd love to share this passion with him as he is and will be my only child. But in the end, I'd rather see him enjoy things he wants to do rather than me push my own "dreams" on him. As long as he's doing something he likes that gets him outside and exercise (which is baseball and basketball), then I consider it a win as a Mom. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1857
| My daughter did the same thing. I never made her ride and kind of didn't allow her to ride because I knew what was going to happen, get them saddled, etc. and then she wouldn't ride. It's been a couple years now and she's started really bugging me to ride. I've caught her sneaking out to any horse that I have saddled up waiting their turn and climbing on them. She's been asking a lot more to go ride with me.
I think time is your friend. You push him now and you'll have a kid that hates it. Let him mature a little and he might change his mind. |
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Regular
Posts: 65
| My kids both used to ride, now only my daughter rides and my son wants nothing to do with horses. I realized that we were making him ride because that's what "We" do. It was never fun for him and eventually it wasn't fun for us either. So now he doesn't ride, EVER. It's all good, it's just not his cup of tea and I realized I don't care what he does as long as he DOES something. So he plays Lacrosse, football and basketball and that's ok with me because he now smiles instead of being miserable and making us miserable as well. |
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