Does anyone else take a child with them

Rachelashleigh

Rachelashleigh

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www.fullcyclesalvage.co.uk
I'm just wondering if anyone else takes there young children with them daily to the stables? I take my 18 month old little boy daily. It was so much easier when he was younger as he would sit quite happily in the pushchair.

Now he is older he wants out! I manage to bribe him with fruit while I turn out but once his fruit has gone there is no stopping him, singing happy and you know it or playing hidey boo does not cut it anymore. My usual hour to muck both out hay water etc is taking nearly two and half hours!!! I have to hide the water as he is obsessed with blowing bubbles in it, the muck heap is his favourite place to roll. As I put muck in the barrow ge pulls it out lol.

I get some pretty strange looks on the way home as Jack is absolutely ditched.
I am just having a wood barked area made for him that will be fenced and he can have his tractor etc and he will be safe.

What does everyone else do with their little ones while at the stables?

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He looks like he is having so much fun! When I was very small and my parents were building fences etc around the house, I got tied to the rotary clothes line . It kept me safe. My sister had two year old twins and a three year old and they all wanted to walk and she was mostly on her own- so she used those harnesses. She used to get abused all the time - people can be so pathetic. And I can say with total honesty that they have all grown into healthy, sane and totally normal human beings who have never needed therapy.

I think your idea of a play area for him is great - but not being a parent I'm some what unqualified.
 
Rachelashleigh said:
I have thought about tying him to the tree with a lunge line and his harness but OH says I may get in to trouble lol
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Lol at this!!! I have nothing useful to add as know nothing about children except to say well done on having such a robust little child! Most kids I know these days stay in and play playstation games, it's depressing.
 
I may try the tree then lol ��. Last week OH stole my barrow so I had to muck out onto a tarp and drag it including pure poo from paddocks, jack thought it was great fun to sit amongst the poo and be dragged, it was straight home after and in the shower as the poo was everywhere including his nappy. I feel so sorry for children who stay inside all the time, Jack will have kids channel on while I get dressed and feed the dogs but that's it. Looking forward to summer though will take less time to get him ready to go ��
 
I'm a mum of 6. It's doing wonderful things for him, getting out and about and dirty. BUT, if you're not able to supervise somewhere like a yard, there is no limit to the trouble he can get into. Personally I would either shut him in an empty stable or use the reins and tie him to a tree, with something to play with - and even then I'd check him every 2 minutes to make sure he hadn't hanged himself with the reins, or just got loose and made a break for it!

I'm not a helicopter parent, by any means, but if you don't watch them they'll surprise you, and not necessarily in a good way.
Safe(ish) play area is a must.
 
Nothing to add really and not a parent but I think it's lovely to see a child being able to be a child. Not enough kids get to be messy and muddy and just play. So I think it's great!
 
i feel your pain but it is wonderful to have them out and about experiencing the outdoors. I would never, ever let them be unsupervised for even a second on yard, I know and see plenty who do but it’s a dangerous environment and not an environment for an unsupervised toddler. I either used the adjacent stable as a kind of play pen or entertained as best I could with wee one in the buggy with use of cartoons on ipad. I’m hoping to pen of a barkchip play area as well but it must be secure and within sight - it only takes the blink of an eye for them to be off.
 
You need eyes in back of head and everywhere else lol. He does like trying to help muck out with the pooper rake but that usually consists of taking muck out of the barrow �� if I'm really lucky my uncle where I keep the horses will be in the veg gardens so he goes off with him and his 10 English setters!! Its a good job he is tough, everyday we sport a new bruise but it doesn't seem to bother him thank goodness. ��
 
i know nothing about tiny children at all!, no one ever lets me look after theirs as i am so crap! my friend is like you tho and she made a cage, oops i mean play pen!!! out of pallets as a short term solution but one day i had to watch over her daughter when the farrier came and she started off all clean and yummy and within half an hour looked like she had been on an army assault course, god they are the speediest little porkers ever and i just didn't have enough pairs of eyes and legs, when her mum came to find us i was a pink faced heaving wreck and she exclaimed' oh my god what have you done to her, i've only been gone half an hour!'
felt like a lifetime to me!!

you have a lovely little boy there and i agree that it's great he's out in the fresh air and not stuck indoors, i have absolutely no idea what you can do with him tho, just wanted to say i feel your pain!!!!!!
 
Its lovely to see a toddler outside having a great time. Please don't tie him to a tree or anything else, I wasn't sure if this was a joke or not but he could get strangled in the blink of an eye.

A toddler on a yard needs full time supervision, not somebody half watching whilst distracted. Their curiosity can have them shoot off to investigate something at any time.
 
No I was only joking about the tree honestly lol.

I see someone mentioned crate,

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He crawled him by himself and shut the door I just had to take a picture, he was only in for about 30 seconds ��

I am honestly a very caring mum that only jokes about tying children to trees and locking them in crates ��
 
Don't worry, my daughter was forever putting herself in the puppy's cage!

My daughter, now 3, has been going to the yard every day since she was 6 months old. Once she was walking life did become more difficult but I was very strict with her and she had a bucket to sit on with a toy and she had to stay on the bucket whilst I was in the stable with a horse. She does come poo picking and uses her hands to do it despite my buying fork for her but I just keep some wipes around and wipe her hands when we've finished. I was quite strict about what she could touch and when, if she wanted to play in the water we had a deal that she could once we had finished the yard.

It still takes me far longer to do everything now than it did but she is very good about staying put when I need her to. We basically have a working arrangement that if she does as she is told then she will get her playtime, if not, no playtime!
 
Thank you doormouse I will try the bucket when I go down this lunch time. I had a playpen but I'm not sure how but he turned it on his side! He could climb out of his cot at a year old I think he is cross mountain goat!! I dont want to wish time away but in some ways I cant wait for him to be a little older. ��
 
It takes a bit of time to establish, a certain amount of bribery, lots of praise when it works and very determined when it doesn't but once in the routinue it is a god send and she will still now go straight to the bucket if I ask her to which is great in an emergency if one of the horses escapes in the yard or something and need her safely out of the way quickly.

I tried a playpen but she got furious with the restriction of it. For some reason she was much better once she took responsibilty for keeping still in once place herself. I also found downloading a few favourite tv programmes on my phone and handing it to her when I started the bucket idea kept her there for a bit longer and helped establish the whole thing.
 
Welcome to my life!

OP, you need some all-in-ones, put them on over his wellies, and then let him loose with that water on the pretense of 'scrubbing the buckets'. Putting them over the wellies keeps them on and keeps the water out.

Take a complete change of clothes, and then strip him off and change him before you leave and just put the whole lot in the wash (wellies and all). I always have 2 sets on the go, one in the wash and one for wearing.

Mine is 4 1/2 now and is much more use, he keeps saying he needs his own mucking out fork! At least he has stopped falling over in the mud every 5 seconds.
 
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What a fab little boy you have - at least he wants to be there and 'helping' :)

What about giving him jobs to do in a safe area (spare stable) such as cleaning buckets or brushes? If not then lunge line to a tree sounds like a goer :D
 
Your photo's are hilarious!
I work at a yard where for a few years (and again now) my role was nanny/groom....literally!
Baby sat in its pushchair happily until about 1 whilst I did the yard. We then progressed to a travel cot for another 18 months- lucky for us he was a late walker!
Travel cots and a portable DVD player were our saviour until the age of about 2.5 when we all admitted defeat and he was packed off to nursery.
 
Have you tried a mini wheelbarrow and getting him to 'help' I've an 18 months old and a 4 y/o and I nip out without them and put the horses out (so they are safely well out of the way) then kids come out on the yard and cause chaos! They have all in one suits to keep vaguely clean/ warm, they 'help' sweeping with an old cut down broom, I put 1/2 a poo in a small plastic wheelbarrow and my son loves to empty it on the muck heap, they walk the dogs, water is a special favourite as it putting out grass nuts handful by handful into buckets, climbing in the hay, collecting hay handful by handful
Takes longer than on my own but it's actually good fun time for them and I get stuff done while they mess about - personally I wouldn't worry about it taking you 2 hours - think of it as an hours horse time and an hours kids play time.

As long as there are no horses around there's not too much harm that can come to them (any more than in a house!)
 
Brilliant!

Yes! This is me! Juggling children and horses in the mud and trying to get mucked out whilst ensuring child does not fall into or onto something dangerous or get squished or disappear etc etc....

It sure ain't easy and I jump at the chance to get horses done without little people in tow, for safety and sanity reasons and I can get it all done so much quicker without!

But eldest is now at nursery am, so that gives me a window of opportunity... Just leaves the 12 wk old baby who at least stays where you put her lol! I agree, gets more tricky once they're walking!!

Luckily I have ever helpful husband and am on mat leave just now.

Tricky things are

.. Turning out or bringing in.

Once horses out the way it's a bit easier, but I never feel relaxed cos always watching what they're doing! But time passes and I think. It eventually gets easier !?!

Hilarious pics.. And I know exactly what it's like lol! I wonder how easy everything must have been prior to arrival of tiny feet, but wouldn't change it for the world.
 
Love the photos! My 2.5 year old granddaughter comes up the yard in the evenings with her mum and has done since she was 4/5 months old. It was so much easier when she was in the buggy. Unfortunately she learned to walk quite early and from then on hated being constrained. So one of us rides while the other keeps an eye on her. I have often threatened to lock her in one of the dog cages, lol. No helpful ideas for you to try to keep her in one place though. My granddaughter loves helping to skip out the 2 stables (we have got her a little shavings fork) and clear poo from the school, scrubs out buckets and helps to carry the full water buckets back to the stables, and tries to help topping up haynets. Once we have finished riding most of the time she wants to sit on our horses on the way back to the stables, or else she helps to lead them back. Luckily both our horses are extremely careful when she is around and very gentle with her. And her mum always makes sure she has a spare set of clothes for her though to change into at the end as she is either filthy or soaking wet. In the autumn when we had the back person out for the horses she actually climbed right into one of the big water buckets in the stable and then proceeded to undress herself, lol.
 
I was lucky that when my children were small my horses were stabled at home. I would make him an out door play pen of sheep hurdles, so you see what he is up to but he has space and just supply him with loads of out door toys, sand pit, dumper truck, water etc. My youngest daughter 'rode' from three and could tack her pony up at six, if I had do something dangerous and I was on my own I strapped her in the car in view.
I think you have to make ground rules from the start and no matter how much they scream ignore it, 'when mummy doing X you have to stay here', so from very young they know horses are dangerous.
Its a lovely natural life for a child and his immune system will great.
 
Loving the photos. Proper little boy you have! I hate parents that are constantly running about cleaning their children and not letting them play.
 
Thank you everyone lots of ideas to try I've just ordered a small metal wheelbarrow so maybe he will leave mine alone �� I'm just off down there now so will report results when I'm back. Lovely photo Polosmum �� my OH does hedgelaying, I spent alot of my pregnancy helping him �� again thank you everyone
 
My little girl is 2.5 and has been coming up to the stables with me since she was 18 months old :-) Sometimes it is hard work when she has a moody mare moment on her, but we have little jobs that she does and she earns pennies for her work... Help filling haynets, filling the water up (one of the favs) helping me with the feed (she is in charge of the pink powder!) and stirring the feed around. She puts down the beds with assistance as throwing straw everywhere seems to be on her agenda. She can be a little star but then on certain days it can take me hours to muck out 3 stables, though at a weekend we do take a picnic up and if it takes all day so be it. She has her own ponies (LR) so as a reward she has a little ride in the school. Though with weather like this it does make it hard .... your pictures have made me smile though xx
 
I have four children and they have all 'helped' around the yard. Their playground was the muckheap!, seriously, what more could a child ask for... hes outside, burning energy, exploring, learning, and gaining immunity from the dirt he plays in...
I think its a lovely way of life :)
 
I'm not a parent so can't really comment, but (obviously as long as you have the time) rather than thinking how an hour's work has become 2 1/2. I think you need to think of it as 2 1/2 hours of your little one having a whale of a time, getting some great fresh air and excercise and wearing himself out and you getting the horse sorted into the bargain. I bet he sleeps well after all that! If you did the horse without him, you'd get it done in an hour but then you'd have to go and take him for a walk or to the park so it's not that different time wise!

I love the photos too by the way. He clearly loves it, It's when he's 5 and he's "bored" all the time you need to worry!
 
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