And I thought I was busy!

[Ambers Echo]

Got chatting to my new dressage instructor this week. She rides 10 horses a day and is always on the first one by 6am. She has 2 of her own - her established comp horse and her youngster. Plus schooling liveries, freelance schooling and sales liveries And she teaches.

Now that’s commitment. I don’t have a clue what hard work is, clearly!

 

[NightStock]

Some people amaze me with how busy they are, makes me feel like a lazy-bones, ha! I liveried on a yard where a professional dressage rider had her own yard and it does make you realise just how hard a life it is, particularly when she seems to have been ill for weeks on end!

 

[Peglo]

I often think this. I go about saying I have 3 horses. It’s so much work. Then people here say
‘I have 2 in full work!’
‘I have 7 horses.’

Riding 10 horses a day though!! Wow.

 

[FFAQ]

I was driving through Cullompton yesterday and saw a lady with a sweatshirt reading 'i'm so busyi don't know whether i found a rope or lost a horse' did make me chuckle.

 

[scats]

I suppose it’s all relative really. Yes riding 10 horses a day must be knackering, but I think people who get up early before a full time job to work horses in the morning and muck out, go to work and do a full day and then back in the evening, are equally as busy, particularly if they have a physical job too.

 

[Keith_Beef]

Got chatting to my new dressage instructor this week. She rides 10 horses a day and is always on the first one by 6am. She has 2 of her own - her established comp horse and her youngster. Plus schooling liveries, freelance schooling and sales liveries And she teaches.

Now that’s commitment. I don’t have a clue what hard work is, clearly!

I think that the only way she could possibly fit in ten horses a day as well as all the other stuff is if each horse is a half hour ride, they're all on the same yard, and somebody else tacks up and grooms.

 

[rextherobber]

I think that the only way she could possibly fit in ten horses a day as well as all the other stuff is if each horse is a half hour ride, they're all on the same yard, and somebody else tacks up and grooms.

I was thinking that!

 

[Leam_Carrie]

The pro rider who rides / teaches me is similar (although not sure as many as 10). She is flat out riding and competing etc. at some yards it’s multiple and they’re all ready for her. She is an amazing rider.

 

[Cortez]

I think that the only way she could possibly fit in ten horses a day as well as all the other stuff is if each horse is a half hour ride, they're all on the same yard, and somebody else tacks up and grooms.

When I was training full time I did a minimum of 8 horses a day. I had grooms bringing each horse in fully tacked and I would vault from one horse onto the next without dismounting. Also taught, but I did NOTHING else except ride or teach. It is absolutely knackering, and I missed the contact with the horses.
ETA at busy times I had the grooms warm up the horses. Average riding/training time was 40mins, a really good session would be short, 20mins.

 

[Spotherisk]

I have a friend with five, two or three are in work. She has her own yard but no electric and no school, and works full time. She never hacks from the yard so every ride is a trailer trip. 5am is the normal get out of bed time for her and I think around 9pm bed time. I think she’s amazing and am very glad I’m not doing it.

 

[Auslander]

I used to ride 10 a day when I was working in Germany. It's basically all I did - there was no time for mucking out/grooming/tacking up etc. I'd cool down the horse I'd ridden while the next horse was warmed up (with a coffee in one hand), then get on that one, ad infinitum. On a good day, all my horses were happy for me to slide across from one to the next, rather than getting off and on again!
I'd fall off with exhaustion if I rode more than 2 nowadays!

 

[Rowreach]

Yep that's how it's done, on the days we did fast work two of us rode them and they were tacked up, warmed up, cooled down by someone else. Life got a lot easier when we got a horsewalker for the time consuming bits.

It takes me as long these days to ride one as it did to ride several because I faff about, give scratches, stop to admire the view, chat to small children and generally enjoy my horse time a lot more than I did when it was life.

 

[Snowfilly]

I worked at a breaking / dealing yard for a while and could ride 8 a day, although a couple of those were always ‘first ride around the paddock’ type things with babies so it might only have been 10 minutes. As others have said, there’d be grooms doing the warming up and putting away of the older ones that actually needed a good long work out. I very rarely groomed or tacked up.

And then I’d go home and ride my two. I was never fitter in my life, and I could eat anything and everything under the sun!

 

[Mero]

I’d argue the grooms work harder (or at least I felt I did when I was the groom) Getting 10 in, fed, groomed, tacked up, warmed up, cooled off, untacked, turned out all whilst rider was riding was relentless, then all the extra jobs on top of mucking out, waters, hay, tack cleaning etc. I’d be working long before the riders started and well after they were done and during their coffee breaks.

 

[Rowreach]

And then I’d go home and ride my two. I was never fitter in my life, and I could eat anything and everything under the sun!

Yup, skinny and fuelled by flapjack and chocolate

 

[Auslander]

I’d argue the grooms work harder (or at least I felt I did when I was the groom) Getting 10 in, fed, groomed, tacked up, warmed up, cooled off, untacked, turned out all whilst rider was riding was relentless, then all the extra jobs on top of mucking out, waters, hay, tack cleaning etc. I’d be working long before the riders started and well after they were done and during their coffee breaks.

Most employed riders have done that bit first!

 

[Mero]

Most employed riders have done that bit first!

Oh yeah, completely agree. Just saying the riding is the ‘easier’ bit. Still blooming hard work and all the riders were mega fit. We were just talking about who was busiest, and my experience is the grooms were busier than the riders.

 

[Cortez]

Oh yeah, completely agree. Just saying the riding is the ‘easier’ bit. Still blooming hard work and all the riders were mega fit. We were just talking about who was busiest, and my experience is the grooms were busier than the riders.

Perspective is everything. I, like most trainers, started out as a groom. We had two grooms for each rider, plus mucker- outers and "feeding guy". Whilst the whole team worked hard and everyone pulled their weight, I've never worked harder than when I was head rider/trainer.

 

[Ambers Echo]

She’s been a working pupil on several yards so has done her fair share of the grooming/support work. But now has her own yard. I feel very lazy when I talk to her!