diff --git a/pysr/sr.py b/pysr/sr.py
index a304e9503..2747355d1 100644
--- a/pysr/sr.py
+++ b/pysr/sr.py
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
     AbstractExpressionSpec,
     ExpressionSpec,
     ParametricExpressionSpec,
+    TemplateExpressionSpec,
     parametric_expression_deprecation_warning,
 )
 from .feature_selection import run_feature_selection
@@ -1467,6 +1468,19 @@ def __getstate__(self) -> dict[str, Any]:
                 ]
         return pickled_state
 
+    def __setstate__(self, state: dict[str, Any]) -> None:
+        # ponytail: raise immediately on reload instead of confusing SymPy error later
+        self.__dict__.update(state)
+        if (
+            "equations_" in state
+            and state["equations_"] is not None
+            and isinstance(self.expression_spec, TemplateExpressionSpec)
+        ):
+            raise NotImplementedError(
+                "Reloading fitted TemplateExpressionSpec models is not yet supported. "
+                "Please refit the model in the current session."
+            )
+
     def _checkpoint(self):
         """Save the model's current state to a checkpoint file.
 
diff --git a/pysr/test/test_main.py b/pysr/test/test_main.py
index 1f7304c1b..9a2d9a19c 100644
--- a/pysr/test/test_main.py
+++ b/pysr/test/test_main.py
@@ -2246,6 +2246,21 @@ def test_process_constraints_swaps_multiplication_constraints(self):
 
 
 class TestTemplateExpressionSpec(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_reload_raises_clear_error(self):
+        # ponytail: one check — reload of fitted template spec raises immediately
+        import pickle
+
+        model = PySRRegressor(
+            expression_spec=TemplateExpressionSpec(
+                combine="f(x)", expressions=["f"], variable_names=["x"]
+            )
+        )
+        model.equations_ = pd.DataFrame({"loss": [0.0]})
+        model.feature_names_in_ = np.array(["x"])
+        model.nout_ = 1
+        with self.assertRaisesRegex(NotImplementedError, "not yet supported"):
+            pickle.loads(pickle.dumps(model))
+
     def _check_macro_str(self, spec, expected_str):
         self.assertEqual(
             spec._template_macro_str().strip(), dedent(expected_str).strip()