Horse Sharing in Dublin- Ideas???

Clip-Clop

Folks,
Trying to find a horse to share in south Dublin/north Wicklow (at uni so cant afford my own, unfortunately). I am an intermediate level rider with my own transport- reasonably competent and flexible and i'm still getting nowhere. I have asked my (admittedly, limited) equestrian contacts, asked around in the stables I ride in and keep an eye on irishhorsetrader.com but have run up against a brick wall, so far. Does anyone have any ideas on where to look? people to call? Next items on the agenda is to take the long suffering Nissan around to some of the livery yards and have a chat to YO's and hope they will pass on my details. Anyone have any other bright ideas? Thanks

fits

Going around to livery yards is actually a pretty good idea. As is putting up notices in tack shops and feed merchants (Kilternan and Colmans for example). I'm sure there are lots of owners who would love a hand with the exercise and bills. ( I would have been one such owner a year ago).
Do you know anything about stable management? I know a lot of riders who come out of a riding school, whilst good on a horse, can be less certain what to do on the ground. Have you done BHS stage exams for example? If so, put that on the notice, and if not, I'd think about doing them if I were you.
Best of luck.

Clip-Clop

Thanks for the advice Fits- particularly about feed merchants, might be a good place to try and get in touch with people.

Your point about SM is, unfortunately the Catch 22 with us poor sods who cant afford our own horses- RS dont seem particularly keen on people just hanging around (and i am an arch-loiterer in stables) so its hard to pick stuff up. The result, as you say, is that when you move into a loan/share/livery situation is that we are pretty clueless asnd owners are rightly wary about entrusing their valuable horse to someone with a lmited grasp of stable basics:(. Am currently looking into doing BHS Stable management stuff but struggling to find any centre that offers it in Dublin- best i've found is a night course in Mayo

fits

Well you could just do the stable management of BHS Stage one, which is available in Brennanstown riding school. Why dont you ring up BHS Ireland for some advice?

I do agree, it is a catch 22 for people like you. But some stable management experience would probably be the first thing I'd look for in a sharer.

eth0_

clip-clop maybe you could volunteer at your riding school?

Maybe things have changed since I was a teenager but I used to feed, groom, clean tack, muck out, turn out horses to the field, tack and untack them for lessons etc in exchange for being able to ride out or a free lesson.

Saphie

Did you find a horse yet? please let me know

Clip-Clop wrote: »

Folks,
Trying to find a horse to share in south Dublin/north Wicklow (at uni so cant afford my own, unfortunately). I am an intermediate level rider with my own transport- reasonably competent and flexible and i'm still getting nowhere. I have asked my (admittedly, limited) equestrian contacts, asked around in the stables I ride in and keep an eye on irishhorsetrader.com but have run up against a brick wall, so far. Does anyone have any ideas on where to look? people to call? Next items on the agenda is to take the long suffering Nissan around to some of the livery yards and have a chat to YO's and hope they will pass on my details. Anyone have any other bright ideas? Thanks