The book is very good, and not at all Disneyfied.
@HeelsDown123, as a retired librarian i recommend you read it first before approving/disapproving it for your young daughter.
I absolutely love the movie. 
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@HeelsDown123 I apologize if this has already been addressed, but you mentioned that taking this next step will be 5/6x more money than you are now committing to your daughterâs sport, and it will be a bit of a stretch for you. The other question to ask yourself then, is that stretch sustainable? For the next ten years? Because there is nothing worse than giving your child a taste of that world and then having to take it away.
And unfortunately, this next step will be followed by another ânext stepâ requiring more sacrifice and financial commitment. As the jumps get bigger, so will the monthly invoices.
Also, if this were my child, I would be looking to lease a made childrenâs pony that can maybe do the regular division when DD is ready to move up. Does your trainer have contacts to lease something that doesnât already live at the farm? I wouldnât be putting a 10-year-old on a horse to show unless the child is unusually tall.
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I took a lot of photos of the kids showing, thousands really. Son who who had little interested in showing took up photography, perused photography as a career, now owns several photography related companies and directs fashion videos/commercials. He was the one of the four kids we worried the most about since he has âlearningâ difficulties the others were always in the top of their very large school classes, he we just worried about getting him out of high school.
He is the most successful of our kids, travels the world with ease and learned from horses shows how to deal with people of all walks of life, he is like a golden retriever everybody is his friend
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Thought I might add this here for you and your daughter to watch to gain some perspective on what it may take to reach her goals. https://www.youtube.com/@eleese_s
This young YouTuber is 18 and going to an NCAA Div 1 school in the fall on the equestrian team. She posts lots of show vlogs but also some behind the scenes and Q&As discussing her life and how she got to where she is now. I donât think she discusses money much, but you can get a bit of a sense of how affluent her family is based on how often they are traveling to horse shows, and other aspects of her life. She said in one of her vids from last year that she attends hybrid school that gives her Fridays and Mondays off so she can attend weekend horse shows. She also leases two horses currently I believe, one to do the big eq and the other to do Junior Hunters. I think her stuff is really fun to watch as someone who would never be able to afford her lifestyle, but she seems like a kind and down to earth teen.
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Doesnât sound like that is the case here. I am âmost peopleâ ( finances wise). I didnât get the impression from the OP that money was the issue.
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Maybe not, but when Mom says their nut would go up â5-6 timesâ with a lease, thatâs gotta pinch somewhere.
And purchase would likely be filtered through the Pro whoâs pushing a lease now, so 
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This is such a great point. And OP if you do end up buying a horse at some point you have to factor in what to do if that horse is injured for an extended period of time or needs to be retired. Would you be able to support two horses so your daughter can continue riding, or does leasing make more sense even if it may cost more up front?
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Hey, OP, if you can, please let us know how this goes.
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Yes, we absolutely will!
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Weâre going to watch it this weekend
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Agreed, great point!
Thank you - weâve already watched a few of hers including some of the ones of the Maclay Finals!
We do well, but we are where we are because we have made smart financial decisions. At this point, Leasing is likely a better strategy for the next step (next year or so) due to multiple reasons including the potential for her to grow out of the next horse/pony, financial costs and risk, and others. Whatever decisoin we make, unless itâs sticking to what she is doing now which we all agree isnât going to work (2x 1-hr lessons with 30-mins before and 30-mins after barn time), itâs going to cost us
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I am sure you will find a workable solution for your family. Nothing( iâve found) when horses are involved is easy!
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Q: How do you become a millionaire owning horses?
A: You start out as a billionaire.
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OP - I have a friend who is in somewhat similar situation. Daughter, 10-11ish, has been taking lessons, done a couple very small shows and âhas the bugâ for her own horse.
I sat down and went over the monthly costs: board, farrier, vet expenses, shows (entries, shipping costs, schooling charges by trainer, hotels if away, etc,) horse stuff - tack, blankets, brushes, on and on, rider stuff. Throw in some extra for things no one thinks of that suddenly are critical. Then there is the purchase price. He has axed the pony idea, lol.
Leasing, as you say seems the better option, but they can be complex or relatively simple. If its a show barn, it will not be relatively simple, so you want to ask every possible question you can think of no matter how trivial it may seem. But as noted your purpose is to get more saddle time and experience, so if that is not at the top of the barnâs list, beware.
Is there a possibility that she could take 4 lessons/week, maybe on two different horses, (skipping the lease altogether) and see how that goes? If she is really hooked, 4x a week at the barn will be no problem. But sometimes kids can decide that 4x per week, every week gets old. Better to know this before a bigger investment is made.
As a child I begged and pleaded to no avail and after a few years of lessons, switched to swim team. After I got my first real job at 20-something my parents were the first to suggest maybe I find time to take some lessons, maybe I should buy that horse I always wanted 
Edited to add, she doesnât necessarily need to jump 4x per week, a good trainer will work on her position and strength on the flat.
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I think you may be missing the point here.
Although us feral pony kids of yore did silly fun things, mostly we rode. We rode all the frickin time. We rode bad spoiled horses we turned them into sensible horses, not because we had much in the way of guidance as much as we just rode them until they just got tired of being spoiled. Thatâs what I, anyway, was trying to say: what we had was time without pressure. That is the missing part of the modern childâs horse experience, and that, in my opinion, is what parents can try to supply. Surely if one is willing to pay umptyump thousands of dollars on the horse idea, one could manage to figure out a way to give that most invaluable gift, as much time with her own horse as she needs.
Or maybe Iâm being hopelessly unrealistic.
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Thatâs what worked for me, time. Time on the horses (we had a motley assortment of bargain horses and ponies at home, so the whole family could participate, not just me) and, more importantly, time off the horses, so you could really understand them.
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well there are some ways
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