The pony plans are actually being put into action…:0

Wow. I actually can’t believe this is happening! In Feburary my best friends, Tess and Yana, set their own goal to get themselves a pony, and it inspired me to try and make it happen for myself. They wanted miniature ponies, but as much as I’d love any pony, I really want a riding one, mainly because a lot of my horsey dreams and goals revolve around that. I want a pony or small horse, gender and colour doesn’t bother me, nice temperment but a bit of personality (spicy on some days) and that sounds weird but I want to learn a lot from this pony. It has to have three nice paces, can jump over 60cm, and I’d love to learn a bit of basic Dressage, so if the pony has good paces I can teach it that too. I want to learn to ride bareback, so if I need to do a quick ride, I can just slip on a halter and go for a fun bareback ride without needing to tack up and I’d love to canter along a beach one day. I’d love to do Pony-Club in the future, but we’d need to get a horse float because our pony club is in a sort of inconvenient spot…mostly, I just want to bond with something so much bigger than me and spend every day mucking out, brushing, riding, hugging and learning. At first, my parents and I both thought having a riding pony would never happen, well not, at least, during my childhood, but I got an incredible offer from my Aunty and Uncle to help me make that dream possible. And I don’t think I’d be able to get my pony’s future veterinarian details without them ♥️I doubt I’ll get a pony till Christmas or after, but everything is slotting into place so much faster than I thought it would. My parents have been super-supportive and encouraged me to do the things I can do without their input. Sooo….here’s what’s been happening!

Above are the organised pages I’ve been working on. I’m doing another one, specifically for one-off costs and their exact prices which I’ll list below, but here is what those four are about. The first one is a list organising everything into categories. There’s the ongoing costs, the one-off costs, the people I need the contact numbers of, and questions I need to ask my pony’s seller. The second paper is a year-schedule put into the seasons, with things I need to arrange in those months (annual vet check, worming, hay order, farrier ect.) Then at the top of this post on the left bottom corner is my pony’s indentification form. I’ve got two; one for home and one for at the stable. It has the vet’s number, our home address, the pony’s looks and information and vaccines and health things. All of this is just what I’m working on, this weekend my Dad is going to show me how to use XL spreadsheets and we’re going to lay everything out for my Aunty and Uncle and ourselves so we can see the cost of everything, plus everything else that goes into having a riding pony off your property. A lot of the gear I have to get new, but I’ve narrowed it down to only the essentials. I’m hoping to find a nice saddle on Trademe, where they generally go for 300 to 500 dollars, or the owner of my future pony might include the already-fitted tack which would be sooo helpful because then I wouldn’t have to pay a saddle fitter to check the correct fit. My pony’s vet is Waikato Equine Vetrinary Center, highly rated and reccomended by horse owners, and the backup is Camebridge Equine Hospital. The farrier is Hoofcare.co.nz but I might try to find a local farrier if I can. The hay supplier is The Straw Warehouse, but again, there might be a local who can supply hay as well. If the pony is truly perfect but too far away to rent a float for the day, LTS Horse Transport is at the top of my list for that. The only big things left to arrange now are grazing (which my parents have to organise) and finding my dream pony! Little update, but things are happening!! – Stella