How do people find horse shares? (And is that what I need?)

Hello,

I'm in county Limerick, the Patrickswell area. I am originally from Russia, and while I'm in Ireland for over ten years, I definitely don't have enough of a real life social network sometimes

I got "into horses" as an adult and was getting lessons for a couple of years now, along with my son (currently 9). We're both confident in the trot, starting to canter, did a bit of jumping but don't really like that.

I'd like to progress beyond just lessons, to build a relationship with a particular horse, to do some care work (and get to know how to do it!), to learn to work with the horse "on the ground" too.

When I looked into getting a horse, things seemed rather bleak on the upkeep side. I don't own any land, and livery at a yard costs extortionate money (over 100 Euro a week). Some people mention renting an acre or two, but I'm not sure how to find any, or whether it's a good idea to build a run-in shelter on rented land; besides, I don't really have the experience necessary for full-time care of a horse on a grass patch, nor a clear way to gain it.

The care education courses I could find seem to be aimed at those seeking to enter the profession and the yards that I know just don't teach anything that is not riding, not to adults at least.

So I am thinking a horse share would be a good way to progress, except I have no idea where to find that either. And I'm kinda in horse country - there are horses seen around, and while some are obviously TBs related to the racecourse, others are not. Maybe I should be talking to the owners but I don't know how to start that talk.

Now, I'm 90 kg so would need a rather big horse if I could ride. However, I would even be open to a share of a smaller horse, so my son could ride it and I could get practice in horse care and in ground training. After all, I do still need the lessons, so I get some riding anyway - it's the other things that I miss entirely.

(Ideally I'd get into *driving* too, with a buggy - but this is unpopular outside a rather insular community, so finding a teacher might be hard, let alone a horse share with this option. There seems to be a trainer in Cahir, from what I heard).

So how do I go about this, or what else should I be doing?